as a surviver of the hyde instsitutition, i feel like i need to say something about my experience here. i graduated hyde last year, in 06, and i was never as troubled or "off track" when i was not at school. parents, teachers, doctors, all cannot figure out what is wrong. being told what to look like, who to associate with, what i can and cant put into my body, these things were never questioned. But when i was free of the institution, everything started to feel better.
Joseph W. Gauld, one of three founders of the hyde school, is an interesting person. the only time i ever talked to him face to face, it was in a conferance with my parents. my parents weekend was not going well because i insisted that i change schools, which is not accepted. he yelled at me and told my father to "kick him out, and spray him with a hose when he's comes back to your porch." he was the angriest person in the room, besides me. i read some of his essays from the 1970s, in a collection called "the courage to grow." he examines such relevant topics as weather it is ok to beat your kids, or if blacks and whites are intellectually equal. he states that black men are superior in areas such as music and expression but do not have the intellegence to succeed academically. people that i have brought this up with respond with the fact that he wrote it 35 years ago. fuck that. how this racist, hateful, child-smacking asshole is allowed to educate children is way beyond me.
i saw a lot of changes in the four years i was forced to spend at hyde. one thing that did not change was that every year a large majority of students were "ethically dishonest." it is easy to see through people when they only do the bare minimum to keep up apperiances. the morals and ideals of the five words and principals are great. i can't argue that "courage" is a bad thing, but the inability to act and think for myself is not the way i am going to use it. it is very striking to me the contrast between the wholesome and ethical image projected by the leadership of hyde and the utter unprofessionalism of the faculty. during my time at hyde bath, not only was i battered by the ex-dean without provocation, but a student at the school was molested by a teacher. the hyde school did not follow up on the case legally. recently i learned that a teacher at the bath campus had sex with a newly graduated student, and returned to work the following year only to leave after it came out. i have heard similar allegations of abuse and misconduct at the Woodstock campus, but have no direct evidence to confirm them. the fact is, hyde is cashing in on your insecurities. the sooner these people are exposed the better.
