Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools
The 10 Priorities (from Biggest Job)
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: ""Ursus"" ---
--- Quote ---Priority #8
Create A Character Culture
There are many other cultures "out there" today that vie for the attention of our kids. One of these is the Achievement Culture that overvalues the outcome and encourages avoidance of risk, challenge and shortcuts. Others are the influence of their peers and the media. We need to teach our kids who they are, where they are going with their lives, and what it will take to get there. We do this by creating a culture of character in our homes and classrooms... laying a foundation that starts with us, as parents and teachers.
--- End quote ---
What exactly is their problem with achievement? What is wrong with being ambitious and trying to excel at something? Moreover, just how much moolah does Hyde think it'll rake in during its fund raising drives, if everyone were as non-materialistic as Hyde allegedly is, when giving 'till it hurts would squeeze but a few more nickels and dimes than a more flaccid campaign might ordinarily yield?
Does an "achievement culture" necessarily overvalue outcome? Encourage avoidance of risk and challenge? Encourage the taking of shortcuts?
--- End quote ---
There is achievement culture, in which young people are encouraged to reach the outcome by taking shortcuts while avoiding risks and challenges. Then there is character culture, in which young people are encouraged to reach the outcome by taking risks and challenges while avoiding shortcuts. Simply put, those without natural advantages are trained to unseat those with natural advantages. All are fighting for a piece of the pie. There is nothing wrong with Priority 8 in and of itself.
Ursus:
I think there is something definitely awry with Hyde's practice of portraying one method as morally superior to the other, and to do so, moreover, without any explanation or attempt at proof or validation. This clearly is communicated in just such a fashion in Priority #8. It is not at all as "neutral" as you would have it appear.
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: ""Ursus"" ---I think there is something definitely awry with Hyde's practice of portraying one method as morally superior to the other, and to do so, moreover, without any explanation or attempt at proof or validation. This clearly is communicated in just such a fashion in Priority #8. It is not at all as "neutral" as you would have it appear.
--- End quote ---
You are right, and in fact this point was troubling me. There is moral coloring already in the names: achievement vs. character culture. The truth is that both cultures are achievement cultures, one with negative, the other with positive moral connotations.
Achievement culture is a stigma reserved for the better students. The assumption is totally wrong because the best students, whether or not they are possessed of natural aptitude, are typically the most motivated, hardest working ones.
Character culture is really about letting nonacademic criteria affect academic evaluations. Top academic performers will have to get used to assessments like this: "Yes, Johnny is a good student who gets 100 on all his tests, but he is lazy and not living up to his potential."
Translation:
"Johnny is an excellent student. He takes pride in his work, participates in class discussions, and loves to be challenged. He demonstrates a wonderful attitude and all the qualities of character that Hyde cherishes. He wishes he had a little free time to read and study, which he feels he is doing way too little of. He wishes the quality of instruction was not so far below what he had enjoyed in public school so that he could once again begin to live up to his potential. However, Johnny hates Hyde. Therefore, I am going to write on all his report cards and college recommendations that Johnny is lazy and not living up to his potential.
Sincerely yours,
Johnny's teacher"
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---There is achievement culture, in which young people are encouraged to reach the outcome by taking shortcuts while avoiding risks and challenges.
--- End quote ---
That is a bunch of crap. There was a young man that graduated from our local publicly funded "achievement culture" high school. While he was clearly the brightest kid in his class he was not the valedictorian. His senior year consisted almost totally of AP course work in which he he did well, but not well enough to fluff his GPA. HE was dating my daughter and I had several opportunities to talk with him. He is a gifted young man who was aware of his intellectual power and enjoyed using it. He did not avoid challenge. He did not take short cuts and has far as character, I have no qualms about him being with my daughter. This is a statement that could not in good faith make about the majority of the nut job students at Hyde or Hyde's faculty ... especially the faculty.
This #8 is just a false dichotomy cobbled up by Hyde to rationalize the fact that it accepts nut case kids and under performers at 40k per pop.
Ursus:
--- Quote ---"Johnny is an excellent student. He takes pride in his work, participates in class discussions, and loves to be challenged. He demonstrates a wonderful attitude and all the qualities of character that Hyde cherishes. He wishes he had a little free time to read and study, which he feels he is doing way too little of. He wishes the quality of instruction was not so far below what he had enjoyed in public school so that he could once again begin to live up to his potential. However, Johnny hates Hyde. Therefore, I am going to write on all his report cards and college recommendations that Johnny is lazy and not living up to his potential.
Sincerely yours,
Johnny's teacher"
--- End quote ---
What kind of "take-home" message does Johnny learn from all this?Pride in one's work is unrewarded.
Intellectual class participation is, in and of itself, unrewarded.
Love of intellectual challenge is unrewarded, it may even be punished.And yet:Sucking up to teacher gets rewarded.
Attacking fellow students for independent and challenging viewpoints gets rewarded.
Disinterest in any line of thought that differs from the Hyde position gets rewarded.In short:Spouting the party line will buy you a good grade.
If Johnny has any kind of integrity and character at all, he will -- at the very least -- greatly dislike Hyde.
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