I went to JDA and it was the worst experience in my entire life. I ran away half a year ago. I was virtually homeless for four months because my parents were advised by the JDA staff not to let me come home.
The therapy session quoted in this article was mild compared to JDA standards. Therapy was usually much, much worse. It wasn't uncommon to be called "a fucking worthless piece of shit" "a manipulative, dishonest bastard" etc. It was verbal abuse.
After I left I received a letter from Bratter telling me, among other things, that I was friendless, that I'd never had any real friends in my entire life and I never would learn how to make friends. He wrote that the only way I would survive outside of John Dewey was if I resorted to prostitution and the only way I could become a "worthwhile" person was if I came back and completed the program. He wrote that he feared all I would ever become, at best, was "the assistant to the assistant to the assistant manager at a fast food restaurant."
When I first came to the program I was a senior. I'd already applied to several highly selective colleges. Tom Bratter asked me where I wanted to go and I told him my first choice and he told me if I stayed, he would get me in because another student who was graduating that year had applied early and been deferred, but with his insider info and leverage he was confident he could threaten the school into accepting the student. While I was at JDA this particular student was accepted into the school and is now attending it thanks to Bratter.
In his letter he also mentioned acceptance to the school, that if I came back I still had a chance of going there but if I left I'd never get in. I refused to go back, determined to never, ever return to a place where I'd felt so horribly worthless, which was quite a feat for someone who has been severely depressed for almost half her life.
I wasn't like most of the kids sent to JDA. I had never done any drugs, even pot, in my life, I never drank, I'd never engaged in promiscuous behavior, I'd been a straight-A student. I'd never cheated, stolen, or hurt other people. I was just severely depressed, and had attempted suicide several times even after years of therapy. My parents were fed up and didn't want to deal with me anymore, and John Dewey provided a great solution.
It was the worst thing they could have done.
The first time I tried to leave, I announced that I was because of their "open-door" policy. Bratter told me I was welcome to leave, but a student told me he'd call the cops the minute I set foot outside the door.
One day a while after that incident, I just walked out the door and across the street to the general store that sold bus tickets while most students were in classes. I hid in the bushes of the station until the bus arrive and boarded. I had all of $8.34 when I arrived in New York City, where I'd lived, and no phone numbers or means of contacting anyone because when I'd arrived at John Dewey they had taken all of that personal information away.
At John Dewey I suffered verbal abuse and isolation. I had to scrub the toilets my second week there because I'd asked a "Younger Member" a question without a Middle or Older Member listening. I worked through Closed House, which was a school-wide "consequence" where, among other things, we weren't allowed to eat cooked food, or sit down at all during the day, except for designated therapy time. The only place we were allowed to sit during the day was the floor, and only if it was hardwood or marble, no carpet. If we leaned back on our hands we were punished. We were never allowed more than six hours of sleep. All our "privileges" were taken away. We weren't allowed to go outside at all. We couldn't groom ourselves. During the day we had to "Super-GI" the entire castle, which included scrubbing the group in between the tiles on our hands and knees with q-tips. We could have no cooked food, prepared meals, or sweet foods. We could only drink water.
Closed House lasted almost an entire month.
I still have nightmares of John Dewey and it's affected me more than my parents care to understand. They still think they were right in sending me there, but I can't disagree more.
These places are not the answer.
Well, first off I can confirm that all of that is true, nothing exaggerated. I was a Dewey "graduate" as they call them and got into a top 15 liberal arts college and all that jazz.
I'd like to provide a little bit of a different take on JDA, though I assure you it will be ABSOLUTELY OBJECTIVE.
I also didn't quite fit the mold at JDA. I seldom did drugs, never got arrested, and my biggest problems were social issues. I also endured the closed house experience and also had to sit on a floor for 3 weeks and write and only get six hours of sleep a night...but I actually think it was one of the best things that happened to me, but i'll explain why later, because I don't want to come off as a total Dewey advocate.
The flaws of the place I list as follows: 1: Tom Bratter runs the school. Tom Bratter is a now fully senile egomaniac who thinks he is the best therapist since Freud but in reality is completely incompetent, at least at his current age. He makes blanket generalizations about all students, most of whom he hardly knows, and yells at them and screams profanities at them until they agree with him. Often times he never knows what students psychological problems are and won't let you explain them so he can go on a tirade about self-respect, hard work, the importance of going to a good college, and values. As many of you know Dewey focuses heavilly on group therapy, but group therapy is almost useless because of his constant domination of the groups without understanding what's going on.
2: Most individuals have little to no power of their lives unless they get in the staff and peers good graces. Though the school claims to be about accountability and decision making, the reality is one has very little self-governance until given a stamp of approval, usually manifested by status in a membership system. Until you get to a certain status (usually takin up to 8 monts), every single action you do is scrutinized; you have little to no credibility and you are attacked if you try to defend yourself in anyway. You MUST listen to them and at least try to hear them at (no matter how absurd) or you will be put in the shitter.
3: Stubborness: They have their beliefs and you can't criticize them. Over-relianc on attack therapy is one. My biggest qualm was time. The place just doesn't need to be 2-3 years. However, they blindly believe that students not doing well just need more time, so they have developed a trend of making students stay for inexorbitatnly long times. For most, the last 2 years of one's stay (should it be that long) are spent killing time, agonizing about leaving, and repeating a mindless lifestyle of cleaning, HW, responsibilites, and confronting newer people via attack style therapy. So Time is probably the next biggest problem. Another huge believe is that they are almost 100% that kids will not be OK unless they graduate John Dewey according to their timetable, which terrifies parents and kids and strains their relationship and objective treatment.
4: they manipulate parents into doing really stupid shit. They take away all credibility from the kid and other sources using scare tactics that lead parents to make REALLy stupid decisions like cutting off their kids or having them live on the streets.
So that's a breif list of my biggeest qualms, now it's strengths.
1: It changed my life. Before JDA, I had little to know drive or self-determination. I had no values, no work-ethic, and no material successes to show for my life. I had no friends and terrible grades. John Dewey's primary ideological focus of values, hard-work, and honesty made me feel good about myself and taught me to acheive. They did this to me by confronting my behavior (attacking if you will) that was driving me into the dust and forcing me to change it. And yes, it was the barbarity like the sitting on the floor and the threats of disownment and w.e. that did it. But it worked for me, and works for....rough modern estimate let's say 50% of the kids who go (it used to have a 25% graduation rate, but now they don't throw kids out as much).
2: The rest of the staff asides from Tom Bratter is amazing. The dean of students Ken Steinner I believe is the best therapist you may ever meet. He's an attack style therapist too, but he is infinietly more methodical and logical than Tom. His ability to assess the individual needs of a student while having high standards for them changes lives of dozens. BTW, he really does run the school, Bratter is more of a figurehead everyone wants out. Equate him with Bobby Bowden at FSU.
3: College: I would not have been able to go to college without JDA. the one thing Bratter does well is use his connections to give you a fresh academic start. He'll get the cute ditzy cheerleader into a top 10 liberal arts college just through a few phone calls and letters. (This is also accomplished because JDA has many teachers who frequently hand out As to students automatically, which I suspect are hired and maintained for that purpose).
My overall experience of JDA.
It had may flaws. I had basically gotten everything I needed to get out of their within my first year and a half and was forced to stay for another year and a half against my will. This was a consequence of their stubborness in their beliefs that I wasn't ready according to them and their manipulation of my parents. Tom Bratter is the most revolting person youll ever meet. In a lot of ways the place is corrupt and bullshit with teacher's who hand out As, clear social hierachies that are enforced by the staff, and scandal. Tom Bratter has had 3 or 4 rape accusations, I believe some of them are real. A student and a teacher had an affair, that's true. A teacher with a tract record of sexual misconducjust resigned after an allegation by a male student (I alwasy believed the guy was a pedophile, so i think its true. If I had said anything there, however, I would have gotten in much trouble, for criticisms of the staff of any kind is basically taboo. Criticizing the program in general is taboo and there are ramifications for doing so, though Bratter falsely claims to promote it. And because of an absolute honesty policy, if you tell one person they have to tell staff and the rest of the community, and these things are always reported).
But, honestly, despite its flaws, I'm glad I went there. I got what I needed to get out. It has a lot of flaws and it does bear a resemblance to Conrad's Heart of Darkness. However, if the kid is right, I think it's a great place. I think if Bratter croaks and the school survives under Steinner's leadership, it will be the greatest therapeutic institution of all time. Don't rule it out, there are programs that are far more severely flawed and won't even get kids into college. Look at the place and give it a chance, and if you're a parent, don't buy into their shit if it stinks. Maintain your own judgment and don't drink their poison punch. It's worth a look I swear.
