@ Dove: Well now, if every story was bad, then Hyde would not still be in business, eh? Nor would it be able to pull off the snow job that it succeeds in doing some of the time. (I beg to differ with you re. just "following the rules" being sufficient to escape being inexorably scarred by that place.). Nevertheless, I am glad you post. I enjoy hearing your stories. People don't need to see eye to eye on everything to enjoy each other's conversation.
Nah, my thoughts re. Lino's hands had more to do with any potential aspirations he might have had re. being a professional classical pianist or string player or some such along those lines. Perhaps even safe cracker, ha ha! Frostbite damage when you are in that field, or one that requires similar exquisite fine motor control of the digits, can have some serious long term consequences in dexterity.
Come to think of it, I don't recall
any students during my time who had such aspirations of classical musicianship, although I'm guessing that there must have been
some over the years... Perhaps it is ironic that Hyde sometimes tries to sell itself as a "performing arts school," depending on the customer at hand.
But you are right if you surmise that I find it appalling that an organization which touts itself as being some kind of an "expert" in the "wilderness therapy" arena would fail to take a kid's complaints of pain seriously, so much so that he experienced difficulty in even holding a pencil for a month or two afterwards due to frostbite damage. Just typical Hyde (in my book): irresponsible to the core, professional at nothing.
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But yeah, Ursus, you will be penalized for talking back. You have to, as Hyde says "take hold and let go", which is a pretty ridiculous phrase I still joke about with my parents. But you have to learn to stop fighting and accept the fact that you're in the Hyde program, and try to get what you can from it. That's the state of mind they want you to be in. Unfortunately, accepting being a part of the program and doing your best is only enough to get by there, not enough to bask in their grace. You have to kiss ass for that. In fact, I was kept only in "good" standing because of my integrity. I refused to give them my signature committing myself to graduate from Hyde, explaining to them that not only was it my desire to not return to Hyde, but that it was unlikely that I would return, as my parents had already selected an alternate school for me. I was told point-blank by the headmaster that the only thing keeping me from being a student of privilege, Head's List, was my refusal to commit. No other students refused like I did. Many kids gave their word and signature (underage, so not legally-binding), and then left at the end of the year. I do not lie. I left the school honestly.
So you have to give them your signature committing to graduating from Hyde in order to make "Head's List?" Sounds kind of culty, dontcha think? If it was strictly good character they wanted to instill in you, they should just judge you on
that, eh? And
not on who or where you pledge allegiance to... Your refusal to sign, citing personal integrity, and being told that
that nixes your chances... wow! They keep cooking up new ways to make people feel obligated to the cause.
"Life is a very wonderful thing." said Dr. Branom... "The processes of life, the make-up of the human organism, who can fully understand these miracles?... What is happening to you now is what should happen to any normal healthy human organism... You are being made sane, you are being made healthy." —Anthony Burgess,
A Clockwork Orange[/list]
"Head's List" sounds kinda like what most schools might call "Dean's List," although I imagine, in Hyde's case, the latter term might suggest the wrong thing (to Hyde students)!! Not only through possible associations with Dean's
Area, where you spend time when you are in hot water there, but perhaps also due to the fact that a number of the Deans have acted on their latent pedophilic tendencies, ha ha!
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So, do tell, if you feel up to it, what caused you to end up at Hyde, and why did you chose not to return?
