Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools
From a Hyde Students Prospective
Anonymous:
I've read some of your posts and see the same thing being said over and over again, yet some of the Hyde fans dispute it.
I was there and I lived Hyde for three years. I found the biggest challenge was to separate the message from the messenger.
Hyde has some great aspects to the school, but the biggest problem is the faculty who I found hypocritical, dishonest and mostly screwed up themselves. Please understand I am not saying that ALL of the faculty is this way, but when I was there, most of them were, and certainly the ones who have been there for years, still "haven't gotten it." The good faculty who I did cherish, don't really buy into the process but pretend to in order to make a living till they can get out.
I keep seeing many people on this website saying the same thing about the faculty being dishonest and hypocritical. Why would so many people say the same exact thing if it were not true?
Hyde has some great tools for life skills, but I had trouble comprehending the process when the faculty did not practice what they preached. It was hard to understand the concept when I saw daily examples not being set.
The physical accountabilities at Hyde should be changed. I never had the "5:30's" like my friends, but I would hear my friends complain about having difficulty getting out of bed due to soreness and pain, or bruses on their knees from having done lunges on hard surfaces. They also would throw up at times from not having anything in their stomach and then doing these hard workouts.
Also the "2-4" is plain wrong. It was a public display of making us feel shame and embarassment in front of the whole school. I still have nightmares about this.
To me Hyde is a fear based disciplinary school. Students are driven by fear. If some kids do well in this kind of environment then I am happy for them and their outcome, but I will tell you there are more kids who have been harmed emotionally by Hyde then have had positive experiences. Many of my friends from Hyde who I have stayed in touch with are still wandering around lost and without an education or jobs.
Some Hyde students will come back and say the opposite and say they had a good experience, but I am just telling you mine. I also think that some of the people on this board who are saying positive things are really the faculty who are not admitting who they are.
By the way I am doing well, but have had trouble moving along as fast as I would like because I am playing catch up from the poor education I received at Hyde. College is a struggle for me because we did not learn the basics at Hyde.
Overall I am not bitter towards Hyde, but I think it is a very bad place to send your child unless you have no other choice.
Anonymous:
I also did not go on 2-4 or do 5:30s like my friends. Maybe it was a fear-based incentive, but I shouldn't have been smoking or stealing anyway. Social intimidation prevented me from screwing up for a while. I also felt really humiliated at times, especially during the "senior prep" process when my peers actually had a say as to whether or not I could become a senior. Their criticism wasn't altogether harsh, but I got the feeling that they saw me as a mouse compared to the people in my class who were given continuous praise-- loud or boisterous personalities always had more character, even when they were proven liars. You can't count on the quiet ones. That hurt.
People who seem to like the place are the ones who love crisis, because that is essentially the state you live in all the time. It is draining, and nobody says it's fun. Hyde supporters call it uncomfortable and say that it's healthy for growth. In that kind of environment how can students learn to grow when there's not a crisis? "Drama" is what makes Hyde school a rough place. Better moments were the times when we really pulled together, like the championship basketball games. We cheered hard as fans. We routed for each other as students. Big brother was watching. Nobody liked seeing a peer get slammed, but we all jumped in when our a%#@es were on the line. Comfort came in private. What does that say about the school?
Lars:
Well said - coherent and not too vitriolic (like my early posts). :razz: One of my "issues" (as they put it at Hyde) is that I've always been too sensitive, I take things too personally. Of course, practicing law has thickened my skin quite a bit, but the hard feelings I'd had from back when I went to Hyde, well, they came out in a big way when I started posting here (of course, it was good to get them off my chest). It's good to see that you can evaluate things in a reasonable way.
Keep working hard in college. It sounds like you do have the tools to succeed and it's well worth it. Success there will open up doors for you that you might not have expected.
Lars:
--- Quote ---On 2005-12-10 08:53:00, Anonymous wrote:
"I also did not go on 2-4 or do 5:30s like my friends. Maybe it was a fear-based incentive, but I shouldn't have been smoking or stealing anyway. Social intimidation prevented me from screwing up for a while. I also felt really humiliated at times, especially during the "senior prep" process when my peers actually had a say as to whether or not I could become a senior. Their criticism wasn't altogether harsh, but I got the feeling that they saw me as a mouse compared to the people in my class who were given continuous praise-- loud or boisterous personalities always had more character, even when they were proven liars. You can't count on the quiet ones. That hurt.
People who seem to like the place are the ones who love crisis, because that is essentially the state you live in all the time. It is draining, and nobody says it's fun. Hyde supporters call it uncomfortable and say that it's healthy for growth. In that kind of environment how can students learn to grow when there's not a crisis? "Drama" is what makes Hyde school a rough place. Better moments were the times when we really pulled together, like the championship basketball games. We cheered hard as fans. We routed for each other as students. Big brother was watching. Nobody liked seeing a peer get slammed, but we all jumped in when our a%#@es were on the line. Comfort came in private. What does that say about the school?"
--- End quote ---
Best post I've read on this board. You're right on the money - the constant fear, drama, & crisis sucked the fun out of almost every activity there. My best memory from there was from football when we upset another school that should have beaten us by three touchdowns. Football was hard, but unlike most other components of Hyde, I think it operated much like other football programs - real education in teamwork, not constant confrontation & humiliation. Maybe it's just the nature of the sport - I hated wrestling (the Hyde specialty), it seemed more grim and joyless, just like everything else there. And you've alluded to another important thing, sometimes it's the quiet folks who are the true leaders. Unfortunately, Hyde valued and praised the loudmouths (who often turned out to be hypocrites).
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2005-12-10 07:20:00, Anonymous wrote:
"I've read some of your posts and see the same thing being said over and over again, yet some of the Hyde fans dispute it.
I was there and I lived Hyde for three years. I found the biggest challenge was to separate the message from the messenger.
Hyde has some great aspects to the school, but the biggest problem is the faculty who I found hypocritical, dishonest and mostly screwed up themselves. Please understand I am not saying that ALL of the faculty is this way, but when I was there, most of them were, and certainly the ones who have been there for years, still "haven't gotten it." The good faculty who I did cherish, don't really buy into the process but pretend to in order to make a living till they can get out.
I keep seeing many people on this website saying the same thing about the faculty being dishonest and hypocritical. Why would so many people say the same exact thing if it were not true?
Hyde has some great tools for life skills, but I had trouble comprehending the process when the faculty did not practice what they preached. It was hard to understand the concept when I saw daily examples not being set.
The physical accountabilities at Hyde should be changed. I never had the "5:30's" like my friends, but I would hear my friends complain about having difficulty getting out of bed due to soreness and pain, or bruses on their knees from having done lunges on hard surfaces. They also would throw up at times from not having anything in their stomach and then doing these hard workouts.
Also the "2-4" is plain wrong. It was a public display of making us feel shame and embarassment in front of the whole school. I still have nightmares about this.
To me Hyde is a fear based disciplinary school. Students are driven by fear. If some kids do well in this kind of environment then I am happy for them and their outcome, but I will tell you there are more kids who have been harmed emotionally by Hyde then have had positive experiences. Many of my friends from Hyde who I have stayed in touch with are still wandering around lost and without an education or jobs.
Some Hyde students will come back and say the opposite and say they had a good experience, but I am just telling you mine. I also think that some of the people on this board who are saying positive things are really the faculty who are not admitting who they are.
By the way I am doing well, but have had trouble moving along as fast as I would like because I am playing catch up from the poor education I received at Hyde. College is a struggle for me because we did not learn the basics at Hyde.
Overall I am not bitter towards Hyde, but I think it is a very bad place to send your child unless you have no other choice.
"
--- End quote ---
This is a wonderfully insightful, honest, and accurate glimpse of what Hyde is really like. Your experience at Hyde mirrors my own. You're right that some of the Hyde concepts are sensible on paper. Unfortunately, a critical mass of Hyde faculty and staff have led very dysfunctional lives and are now the proverbial pots calling the kettle black. There are so many examples of Hyde's staff being inappropriate or cruel (and some are very nice and helpful); ironically, many of these staff have had notorious difficulty getting their own acts together. This is not the kind of place I'd choose to send my child.
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