Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools

follow-up questions on Hyde School

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Anonymous:
-- Hyde accepts almost everyone who applies. Is that because they think they can handle any student or because they need the income? Is there a real high attrition rate (people who leave after a year or so)? Why is that?

-- Hyde staff can be very demeaning, insulting, and controlling. Students who don't buy into the school's philosophy have lots of trouble.

-- Many Hyde teachers are very young, inexperienced and have little training in working with challenging adolescents.

-- Students and parents are required to share very personal information about their lives in groups of strangers. We've heard that these groups and seminars are a lot like therapy groups and are run by teachers and parents who don't know much about how to handle these issues. We've heard that some students and parents feel just awful about their experiences in these groups, but feel like they have to go.

-- A number of people have described Hyde as a sort of cult with lots of staff who are relatives of each other. We've heard that that the man who started the school (Gauld or Gould?) can be like a control freak who insists that everyone think like he thinks.
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Yes, all true.  It is a Cult, they do accept almost all who apply, the public intrusion into parents person lives is unhealthy, (almost sick) for students to hear, the teachers have no training in the field of psychology yet are put in charge of kids with drug addictions, eating disorders, suicidal tendencies, etc.

What more do you want to know????  It is a dangerous place and yes, Joe Gauld does think his teachings are the answer to all of societies problems.

On the other hand many people in this world reach out to these types of Cults whether it be a religious one or otherwise.  These are people in society who can't survive without a crutch.  Many of the faculty at Hyde are there for these same reasons. Some see the frightening Cult atmosphere and leave after the first year. The ones who do stay don't "grow", they stay stagnant in life.  Although some kids might make progress while in the school, many slide back the day they leave.  Much of the progress in some students would happen with or without Hyde.  It is part of the process of growing up and maturing, which can be done more successfully by giving your child lots of love, encouragement, and family counseling with a licensed Psychologist if necessary!!  Save yourself a lot of money and invest your time in your child, not in making these people rich!

Anonymous:

--- Quote ---On 2005-09-25 09:13:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Yes, I too have experienced Joe Gauld (and have heard many tales about him).  He seems to enjoy giving pedantic and patronizing lectures about how people should manage their lives, having people sit at his feet to hear his pearls of wisdom, and confronting people who view the world differently.  That kind of behavior seems remarkably like that of a cult leader and just the opposite of what Hyde claims to promote: humility.  It's that sort of hypocrisy that drives many people away from Hyde.  Some people -- perhaps those who are desperate to hear someone in authority tell them how to "fix" their kids and run their lives -- seem attracted to this and stay at Hyde; many others leave the school, which helps to explain the high attrition rate.  "

--- End quote ---


You forgot to mention what a great golf swing Joe has!! This is what he does best while strong arming the parents for money.  You don't give......you aren't committed!  One poster defended the tactic of fundraising by saying this is instead of raising the tuition!  NOT TRUE!  Tuition is raised plenty through the years while still demanding donations!

tommyfromhyde1:
On further reflection, I think that the donation
stuff was why I always seemed to be on the shit
list at Hyde. You see, my parents just didn't
have it to give. So, I belive that Hyde considered
them deadbeats and wanted me to run.
We must create an atmosphere where the crooked cop fears the honest cop, and not the other way around.
Frank Serpico
--- End quote ---

Anonymous:
Hyde doesn't accept everybody, I'd say 1 outta three gets into the school.  The school is honest about expectations and will not take on a family if they do not want to be there.  There is also $1 million dollars in financial aid each year between the two boarding campus'.  The attrition rate is high because when a parent who hasn't really bought in the program sees a behavior change in their kid...two things go thru their mind:  My kid's fixed so no more family work and no more $40k per year.  

The Hyde staff are not ball-busters...they demand excellence from your kid, just like you will eventually do.  They see your child's best and expect that from them at all times.

It's true that Hyde has a young group of faculty members, just like any boarding school..they also have an expereinced group that have been there for years..most with advanced degrees that guide and train the new staff members.  If you look at a list of faculty members from 3 years ago..you'll see the same names of senior faculty members and a good amount of younger faculty, but just like anywhere else, they like to go on to get their advanced degrees or try a new teaching experience and many come back to teach a few years down the road.

You ARE expected "to get deep" in seminars and regional meetings.  There's a reason you are looking at a school like Hyde...something's not only wrong with your kid..something's very wrong with the family or environment they are growing up in, until that is changed, there's very little the school can do.  The people who are posting on this site about the cult environment or the fact that Hyde sucks...they failed to mention that their kid and their family are still screwed up, because nobody wants to face the music and make a change.

As far as Joe Gauld goes...his involvement in the school is quite minimal.  He does a meeting every weekend on both campuses for the parents who are up for an FLC, but other than that he's out working on the very successful charter school program.  Washington, DC has a school of 770 K-12 kids and a new school opened this fall in Oakland, CA.  NYC will open next fall.  His son is the President and his daughters both work at the schools, one is the Head of School in Bath and the other (who went to school with Tommy) is the head of family ed in Woodstock.

Speaking of Tommy...dude, you need to be a big boy and go visit Bath or Woodstock and see what's going on there...it's VERY different from when we were there.  

Folks, You're hearing from the Hyde failures on this site..not the successes that out number these boobs 20-1.  If you're thinking about attending either of the Hyde Schools, go there for an interview....it's free and they won't drug and kidnap you..you'll see first hand what's going on and get an honest outlook from the student tour guides...you'll be wonderfully refreshed at how candid they are.

Anonymous:
Until now I've been a very casual and occasional observer of this site.  Having read your comments, however, I feel compelled to respond.  I'm basing my response on my experience as a Hyde parent during the past two and a fraction years.  It's taken our family some time to realize and truly appreciate Hyde's shortcomings and destructive practices.  We've recently discovered how many disgruntled families are out there -- word is spreading, we're learning.

First, all the available evidence suggests that the admission rate is MUCH higher than your 1-out-of-3 figure.  Published information on Hyde's admission rate suggests that it's upward of 80-some percent.  I'd encourage you to double-check your claim.

Further, your understanding of reasons for the high attrition rate seems incomplete.  You may be right that some families leave because of the kid's improvement and their wish to save money.  But, during our affiliation with Hyde during the past 2+ years I've spoken with many, many families who leave the school with feelings of deep resentment and disgust. At first I was concerned because I was worried about the school's future; now I understand much better why people leave (we're heading in that direction). You may believe  families leave because the parents haven't bought into the Hyde model or been willing to examine their own issues.  That may be true of some.  But many more, I'm convinced, are turned off by Hyde's  tendency toward patronizing, arrogrant, and controlling treatment of kids and families.

Yes, Hyde's use of many young faculty may not be unusual.  However, what's unusual -- and unconscionable, I've come to realize -- is that these remarkably young faculty (some of whom disclose lots of information about their own personal struggles) are expected to oversee family seminars during which students and parents disclose the most incredibly personal information.  I've now sat through many seminars and can't believe that no one has put a stop to this dangerous practice.  I've seen kids yell at parents, parents scream at and threaten kids, and participants talk about their wish to end their lives, incest, affairs, addictions, etc. -- and all of this is being run by someone who teaches history (or whatever)!  It's incredible.  You may not want to believe it, but quite a few families leave the school because of their sense of horror.  The ones I've met are not at all inclined to run away from their problems.  They simply want a setting that's run more skillfully and professionally by staff who have proper training and life experience, and are less doctrinaire and arrogant.

You say Joe Gauld's involvement is minimal.  That's true if one counts the minutes he's around.  But have you sat in those large group meetings where he pontificates and lectures in an incredibly doctrinaire way to parents about how they ought to run their lives?  Do you really think he's not influencing parents, staff, and Hyde's entire ethos?  His style seems to fly in the face of Hyde's claim about humility.  The hypocrisy is very troubling.

I agree that the student tour guides can be impressive.  They're also hand picked and, in my experience during the past couple of years, not at all representative of the broader student body.  I'd encourage prospective parents to approach a random cross-section of kids to get a more realistic picture of Hyde.  A major part of the problem, I think, is that Hyde's enthusiasts aren't willing to listen -- really listen -- to thoughtful critics.  They tend to surround themselves with like-minded Hyde boosters.  Criticism about Hyde tends to be viewed as sacrilege.

Did you read the Traub article about Hyde that someone posted on this site? In my opinion, that's a much more objective, candid, and honest description of this remarkably complex, controversial, and too often destructive school.

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