I don't mean to invalidate your statements with my conjecture, but I wholly disagree. Yes, it is important for adolescents/children to receive appropriate intervention to essentially buffer against any future tragedies, but this system (I cannot speak on others) was no more than a fee-driven violation of morality and, well, human rights.
Yes, I'm sure that the statistics that CEDU was able to offer parents ready to dispose of their adolescent garbage were quite convincing - but the simple fact is, they're specious. The fact that this program is ostensibly meant to improve society is nauseating. These children that I witnessed while in SUWS, RMA, and Ascent over a decade ago were not being "saved" by any means - they were being frightened.
I'm not so sure that I would go as far to say that they were receiving a "cerebral cleansing", but given the impressionable years that adolescents are exposed to these upper SES atrocities - they were definitely being molded in an image of the "emotionally copasetic".
I couldn't believe what I was witnessing the moment I arrived to RMA. It seemed as if everyone wanted to hold hands with me and "sing kumbaya". Fine. But, was it really them that so "graciously" took me by the hand? Absolutely not. The expressions on their faces were so contrived and emotionless; and I can chalk it up as nothing less than derived by fear, impressionism, but mostly - a lack of love.
Let's be honest, the main distal reason why the majority of these children are entered into such a program is due to a family's own failure to maintain social cohesiveness. The proximal reason may be for many (potentially justifiable causes). Clearly, the correlation of higher SES and enrollment says something in and of itself. The higher the income, more disenchanted families become from one another, the more dysfunctional - so let's send him/her off...to save him/her. You must be joking.
Therefore, did it work? Possibly, but not for the appropriate reasons. And certainly not for the exorbitant extortion that they charge. What makes matters worse was the means in which their sloppy success was achieved. I will be the first to admit that these children were abused - physically, emotionally, mentally, and arguably sexually.
I even experienced a few marginal accounts of abuse - such as sitting on a tree stump for 5 days straight and subsequently obtaining severe burns on the back of my neck. Would I go as far to say that this is worse than some Liberian insurgents who force children to murder others for the price of a big mac? No. Yet the main distinction drawn here is simple - THIS IS AN EXCEEDINGLY EXPENSIVE PROGRAM MEANT TO CURB ABUSE NOT PROPAGATE IT.
Let's be honest, is there really any justifiable need to charge $3,500/month for a lack of education - outside of the simple fact rich parental failures will pay for it? I was in the 3 aforementioned programs above for over 5 months (until I escaped from the Betty Ford derivative of Alcatraz - never to be 're-captured) and didn't receive a speckle of classroom time. If the "cause" was truly felt, this sort of service could have and is a minute fraction of the price.
And these "intervention specialists" - could they possibly think of a more amusingly diplomatic title? These hired thugs might have the right intentions, but does it REALLY concern them what purpose they are serving outside of that $65/hour job (quite a handsome amount for most who arguably never went beyond the 8th grade).
The point is: the whole thing is/was nothing less than an intolerable scam, and they should be punished for it. I only pray that I could have spent more time on the relentless campaign of exposing these capitalist prisons for what they were. But alas, my world has taken on a new and much deeper meaning. And it seems as if there are those who have already beat me to the punch - kudos.....
