I'd rather do a month of work details then 2 days in a row of staring at the wall being monitored.
I'd go apeshit. That's real fucking scary. Tim brace is overseeing that. It's a fucking POW camp. Hell i'd rather be in a 72 hour caroline rap than be told I was on an indefinite stare at the wall program.
Please elaborate on how you got put on one of those. Was it before or after work details?.
TWO DAYS??? Try two weeks, minimum. One guy was in there for nine months IN A ROW.
And a repeat from the other thread:about the workshops:Is there any role-playing? I mean, something where the staff assigns a character for you to act out?Tons. I can't think of it all but there's a bit in every workshop and some in regular groups if you're in a Sally group or an Andy group. In Amicitia, you push people out of the circle of friendship. In Animus, you go to your own funeral/read your obituaries/die/get buried/rise from the dead/etc. You also have to act out your negative sculpture (you know, shooting yourself in the head, having your legs open like a whore, snorting coke, whatever your issue is). You also fight for a spot on the "lifeboats." In Teneo, you go from being born to turning into a rose or something weird like that the last day. Also in Teneo, you have to act out 3 of your "roles" and use people in your peer group as other characters. I can't remember the other bits.
In the Amicitia, how physical is the circle of exclusion?I don't know about other people's experience but in mine it wasn't like kids were getting punched or anything. You know, you'd shove them out and stuff but everyone was pretty half-hearted about it. I don't know, those acting-it-out scenarios never "worked" for me.
Are there horeshoe-style groups where you only get "feedback"? How harsh does it get?Yeah, in the first two workshops. Integritas is the harshest probably. You get "monster," "victim," "pathetic," "worthless," "unlovable," "disgusting," etc written on a card and taped on your shirt. I've heard some really fucked-up feedback in those circles...I'm trying to think of the worst..."cum-dumpster," "n****r-lover," etc...or people just bringing up other people's disclosures and using them against them.
Are there exercise where you call yourself names? In which you call your parents names?I think you kind of call yourself names the whole time with your negative statements, lies, etc. You yell at your parents (aka the floor) in Integritas. You hit/yell at/rage against your parents (aka pillows) in Veneratio.
In the Animus, what's the "pillow fighting" about? What other bioenergetic exercises are there? Are you ever restrained under a sheet by the group? Do they do the one where you have to bite towel and pull on it?Raise arms over head, brings hands down on pillow and sort of make it an entire-body type of exercise. Yell. Fight Night in Teneo is the one where you pull on the towel and scream and push against your peers. No biting though. Can't remember the other bioenergetics.
They make you watch Requiem for a Dream, right? Other stuff? Under-age kids watching this?You watch like the last 10 minutes of RFAD in Veneratio. Most kids are 18 by the time they graduate but some aren't. I heard they recently got rid of that part though because word got out and they didn't want to get in trouble. It was a pretty horrifying 10 minutes...double-headed dildoes assfucking Jennifer Connelly, shock treatment on the old woman...revolting. It was effective, though.
about request group:
Do people get called names? Yelled at?Not random named. Like you can't call someone an asshole - it has to be "you're ACTING LIKE an asshole." People do get railed a lot though by staff and peers. Sometimes it's in a constructive way, like you can tell they're yelling because they care but sometimes it's just spiteful, angry bullshit.
How harsh does the "feedback" get?Very. There's really no other way to say that. Very, very, very harsh.
Are people ever supposed to yell out the floor?All the time. It's called "running anger."
about punishments in general
How often are you supposed to do honor lists? Just in workshops?In workshops, before workshops, in suspension, on action plans, if your adviser suspects you've done something bad.
Do you ever have to do manual labor? If so what kind of work? For how long at a time? Only if you break a major rule, or...?Out-of-school suspensioners work with the maintenance crew - gardening, mowing, digging up tree stumps, raking, etc. And of course everyone cleans. Everyone is always effing cleaning. Wake up, clean your dorm, clean your mod. Before you go to sleep, clean your dorm. After dinner, crews either run jugs (deliver water jugs to various locations around campus while carrying them on their backs and running), cleaning the dining hall/kitchen, or running/cleaning the Commons. You get a crew or multiple crews for minor infractions (didn't wear a belt, bra strap showing, messy dorm, disrespect, cutting across the grass, swearing, spitting without asking, leaving a personal item unattended, late homework, talking back to a staff, etc.). Suspension is for more serious things (lying, cheating, etc.) or if you need "time alone to work on your emotions" or whatever.
And no, we were never restrained by the group with a sheet. The workshops sucked but I don't think they crossed a line. I mean...ugh, it's complicated. I think so much of what went on in there was unnecessary and sometimes damaging but I don't think they did anything ABUSIVE, you know? Like, nothing that was illegal or crazy like those psycho therapists that stage fake birth canals and accidentally smother the kids (does anyone remember that case from a few years ago?).
I think the problem with workshops is that they're scripted. They're not individualized for the specific kids in the specific workshop. It's like manufacturing 20 extra-large t-shirts for 20 kids. You need to make them extra-large because the kids are all different sizes and this way, every kid will at least have clothing on his back even if he or she is swimming in fabric. It's better than to have a kid not be able to fit in the t-shirt, right? So everyone's wearing these extra-large t-shirts. For some kids, the t-shirts fit fine. For others, it's a little uncomfortable, you know, baggy and annoying but okay. For some, it goes down to their knees and when they go outside, it doesn't protect them from the sun and they have this awful weird-shaped sunburn because of the way the shirt fits and...okay. Never mind. This metaphor sucks. Sorry about this, guys.
But basically, they're doing a one-size-fits-all workshop when they need to think about what is going to work FOR and WITH the kids in the workshop. They need to spend more time making 20 different t-shirts in the right size for the right kid. The problem with the workshops is that they do EVERYTHING. They know that some kids are visual learners/experiential learners/etc. So they need to reach each kid. So they throw in some acting-it-out exercises, some bioenergetic exercises, some visualizations, some feedback circles, some written-out tools, some lectures, some writing assignments...basically throwing in everything and the kitchen sink because they know that everything won't affect everyone but SOMETHING will affect EVERYONE, you know? So they need to cover all of their bases.
The problem is that the kids don't know this. They think they're supposed to "get" EVERYTHING. So when they can't connect with something, they think something's wrong with them and fake it and feel like shit. Or, worse, they try to FORCE themselves to do it, to feel it, and end up breaking themselves a little bit. Or the staff try to force it and break something. It's just bad.
Sorry, I sound like an idiot. But hopefully you get what I'm saying.
