Steve Rookey's New Program

[sek]

For those of you who don't know, Steve Rookey recently left Monarch School to start his own program "Ventures in Peace" (ages 18-24). I had the unfortunate experience of seeing him far too much during my time at Monarch. Seemed like 2/3 of the groups I was in were with him. Steve Rookey... cough... extreme egomania... cough...

link: http://http://www.venturesinpeace.com/index.html

"Steven Rookey, Co-Director, brings a broad range of professional and life experiences to each student he works with. He has spent the last twenty-four years involved in alternative education initiatives. Steven has an extraordinary range of experience working with teens and young adults at various levels of risk. This includes literally thousands of hours leading workshops and group facilitations; many multi-day group retreats into the wilderness; over fifteen years as a Wilderness First Responder; a stint as a drama instructor putting on full productions; full training as a Waldorf teacher; teaching fifth grade at the Sandpoint, ID Waldorf School; primary counselor and base-camp co-coordinator for a wilderness intervention program; program director for an emotional growth boarding school; program and operations director for a residential treatment center for American boys in Sonora, Mexico; and previous to founding Ventures in Peace, a Peer Group Leader and Senior Life Skills Manager at the Monarch School. Before being called to work with teens, Steven successfully managed fine dining restaurants in Spokane, Washington, where he was born and raised."

The fishy ambiguity makes me chuckle. "Program director for an emotional growth boarding school". Oh Steve, you don't mean... RMA! Do you? That one didn't end too well. Wait, you're a recovering hard drug addict who has a penchant for the young girls? HIRED! The perfect role model and care provider for developing children!

Then there's the whole Avatar Course deal. Both he and his wife are "licensed Avatar Masters."  Mmm... Scientology...

Montana Uber Alles?

[Ursus]

Steve Rookey...full training as a Waldorf teacher; teaching fifth grade at the Sandpoint, ID Waldorf School...
http://www.venturesinpeace.com/index.html

Hell's Bells!! Another Waldorf perp!

I've added him to "the list" of sorts. See the following thread (linked post plus the one following it re. his wife, Elissa):

Waldorf Schools - haven for perps from the TTI?
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=26034&p=317863#p317863

[dishdutyfugitive]

This is just too easy...

"Steven Rookey, Co-Director, brings a broad range of professional and life experiences to each student he works with.
Professional experiences = yelling.
Life experiences = spokanus 2 1/4 star restaurant debauchery.

He has spent the last twenty-four years involved in alternative education initiatives. Steven has an extraordinary range of experience working with teens and young adults at various levels of risk.
Could you equate kids with financial instruments just a little bit more please. My feelings can best be expressed through hedge fund derivatives and my dreams are based on oil futures. What's your Beta, you ROI, and your sharpe ratio?

This includes literally thousands of hours leading workshops and group facilitations;
yell, yell, yell and yell some more. Then stare in silence, then make bizarre eyebrow gestures and finish up by cranking up the yelling until 5pm.

many multi-day group retreats into the wilderness; over fifteen years as a Wilderness First Responder; a stint as a drama instructor putting on full productions;
Good god he was surreal during that dicken's play and Don Quixote.

full training as a Waldorf teacher; teaching fifth grade at the Sandpoint, ID Waldorf School; primary counselor and base-camp co-coordinator for a wilderness intervention program; program director for an emotional growth boarding school; program and operations director for a residential treatment center for American boys in Sonora, Mexico; and previous to founding Ventures in Peace, a Peer Group Leader and
I'm guessing working at a waldorf was the 'saftety net job' after RMA imploded?
Steve - you're talking to the general public not summit students - tone your program speak terminology down please.

Senior Life Skills Manager at the Monarch School.
I said, 'tone down your bogus program terminology' puh-lhees.

Before being called to work with teens
Oh look - denomination free divinity. How special. Surely, he crochets sweaters with bucolic scenes of kids sawing logs and staff running their anger in black chairs.

Steven successfully managed fine dining restaurants in Spokane, Washington, where he was born and raised."
Fine dining restaurant in Spokane? Oh yeah, I know where it is, it's across the street from the tooth fairy's corporate office. No wait, my bad - it's adjacent to NAMBLA'S youth shelter.

restaurant managers and those long work shifts.....up until the wee hours of the night.


Anyone know which shitpit he worked at in Mexico?

[iamartsy]

This guy is scary. His site reads like you are sending your kid off to a commune to get their life in order, but... from Ursus' citations I know better. Instead he is a sick ____. I have lived in communes and I have been in therapeutic communities. They bare no resemblance to one another. The commune was fun up to a point. The TC was hell on earth.

Let's see you have an 18 yr. old who can't decide about college so you send him off to this place to be fixed. What if the so called 18 yr. old is just plain depressed? Seems more logical to treat the depression and move one; not to ship him off to Ventures in Peace or whatever the bullshit name is. I wonder if we should notify the residents of Lolo, Montana. I know of one. The Avatar Program sounds just like Scientology and EST. I would not let these people near my kids (if I had any).

[Ursus]

Anyone know which shitpit he worked at in Mexico?

My guess is that that would be Positive Impact. From Struggling Teens' Archives:

ROOKEY JOINS POSITIVE IMPACT
(January 16, 2002) John Andersen, owner and Executive Director of Positive Impact, Mexico, 877-236-1114, announced Steve Rookey will be joining the school as Assistant Program Director in mid-January. Rookey has more than 15 years experience working with struggling teens, most of those with the CEDU Family of Services as Primary Counselor, Base Camp Coordinator with the Ascent Wilderness Intervention Program and Program Manager for Northwest Academy.

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

By the way, Waldorf Schools are not as benign as they might seem. Did you know that Rudolph Steiner believed that a child's innate left-handedness should be "corrected?" He believed that this feature was a karmic burden, similar to the karmic burden brought about by a person's skin color (which probably has something to do with a few accounts I have read of kids not being allowed to use brown or black crayons for coloring). Check out the PLANS website.

—•?|•?•0•?•|?•—

Steven and Elissa are parents to two daughters, Kendall (age 17) and Grace (age 2). They are both licensed Masters who deliver the Avatar Course, a powerful personal development program that is offered in 71 countries around the world. They have extensive mountain hiking, skiing, sailing, gardening, dancing, and cooking experience. They love interacting and sharing their experiences with children and adults of all ages.
http://www.venturesinpeace.com/about.html

And that Avatar Course that Rookey and his wife also teach? That is a newagey Scientology squirrel. Harry Palmer ran the Elmira Mission of the Church of Scientology (Elmira, NY) for about ten years starting in the mid 1970s, handing over 10% of the proceeds to the Church of Scientology. In 1982, the tithe went up to 15%, which he put up with for a few years, but then the two parties had a falling out (along with lawsuits, effectively documenting the connection). Palmer subsequently came out with the Avatar Course and related materials.

The original Avatar materials made extensive use of Scientology terminology. Harry Palmer sold them to other Scientologists, claiming that they achieved "end of case" and "cover[ed] the entire Scientology Bridge, the Buddhic path and beyond." Many of the terms continue in use in Avatar today, such as "Rundown", "Identities", "handling"; and Avatar offers similar courses of the same names ("Integrity Course" and "Professional Course").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Palmer_(author)[/list]

Ya gotta wonder just how much of that stuff enters the "regularly scheduled experiential workshops based on [the Rookey's] extensive personal training and experience" that the unfortunates attending Ventures in Peace are subjected to...

[dishdutyfugitive]

Holy shit.

The Scientology farm leagues.

[Anonymous]

SERIOUSLY U ALL NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
THIS IS MY DAD U GUYS ARE TALKING ABOUT.... GET A LIFE.
He has more practical experience than any of you guys ever will. He is one of the most intelligent and understanding people i have ever met.
Yes, he is crazy, but he is so good at what he does, how could any of you say these things about him. You may want to watch what you say because you never
know who will read your blogs.
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!

[Ursus]

SERIOUSLY U ALL NEED TO SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!
THIS IS MY DAD U GUYS ARE TALKING ABOUT.... GET A LIFE.
He has more practical experience than any of you guys ever will. He is one of the most intelligent and understanding people i have ever met.
Yes, he is crazy, but he is so good at what he does, how could any of you say these things about him. You may want to watch what you say because you never
know who will read your blogs.
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!

Which one of the aforementioned do you claim genetic allegiance to? Steve Rookey or Harry Palmer?

[Ursus]

Ah... Never mind. Found the answer on another thread, a post made 7 minutes prior to the above quoted...

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=24545&p=324726#p324724

u guys need to shut the fuck up about my family.
my dad is steve rookey and my mom is dana wasserman.
she is no longer married to him.
SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!

[Anonymous]

honestly.
this stuff offensive.
come on guys.

[psy]

honestly.
this stuff offensive.
come on guys.

That's subjective and entirely your opinion.

Interesting about the Avatar courses being used.  It's definitely a Scientology squirrel (and very thinly disguised at that).  Of course since a lot of the human potential movement has roots in Scientology, i'm not surprised that industry members are going "back to basics".

What pisses me off is that they sell shit shit as "personal development" and not as bat-shit crazy cult quackery.  If they were up front about it and it was with fully informed consent, i'd have no problem (of course, then nobody would sign up!).  It's the deception and lack of informed consent that annoys me.

[psy]

(which probably has something to do with a few accounts I have read of kids not being allowed to use brown or black crayons for coloring).

That is actually a good way to teach color mixing.  My painting professor would never let us use black out of the tube.  We always had to mix our own.  Regardless of the reasons, it'll do the kids good in the long run.

[try another castle]

(which probably has something to do with a few accounts I have read of kids not being allowed to use brown or black crayons for coloring).

That is actually a good way to teach color mixing.  My painting professor would never let us use black out of the tube.  We always had to mix our own.  Regardless of the reasons, it'll do the kids good in the long run.

I am a painter, and I can safely say NEVER USE BLACK!!! It flattens the FUCK out of everything. Boooo, black!

Paynes gray, all the way. Most of my work had a very graphic, poster-like feel to it, and they look like I used black, but there is not a drop in any of them. Paynes gray is a godsend, because it makes everything nice and juicy, and it mixes well with other colors.

As far as brown... I don't even think there IS a brown out of the tube. (Not with any legitimate paint company there isn't.) There won't even be any pigment with the word "brown" in it. Normally you choose from things such as burnt or raw umber, or burnt or raw sienna. Red oxide is nice, too.

I am Golden Acrylics' bitch.

Also, what the fuck are 18-24 year olds doing using fucking crayons in art class? You mean conte crayons, right? Or pastels? Surely you don't mean crayola.


And, even though this Steve Jr. poster is obviously having us on, did Rookey really have a kid?

[Ursus]

(which probably has something to do with a few accounts I have read of kids not being allowed to use brown or black crayons for coloring).

That is actually a good way to teach color mixing.  My painting professor would never let us use black out of the tube.  We always had to mix our own.  Regardless of the reasons, it'll do the kids good in the long run.

I am a painter, and I can safely say NEVER USE BLACK!!! It flattens the FUCK out of everything. Boooo, black!

Paynes gray, all the way. Most of my work had a very graphic, poster-like feel to it, and they look like I used black, but there is not a drop in any of them. Paynes gray is a godsend, because it makes everything nice and juicy, and it mixes well with other colors.

As far as brown... I don't even think there IS a brown out of the tube. (Not with any legitimate paint company there isn't.) There won't even be any pigment with the word "brown" in it. Normally you choose from things such as burnt or raw umber, or burnt or raw sienna. Red oxide is nice, too.

I am Golden Acrylics' bitch.

Also, what the fuck are 18-24 year olds doing using fucking crayons in art class? You mean conte crayons, right? Or pastels? Surely you don't mean crayola.


And, even though this Steve Jr. poster is obviously having us on, did Rookey really have a kid?

The "ban on black" has nothing to do with learning color-mixing techniques. Apparently the Rudolph Steiner folks think black and brown are "negative" colors. And yes, I am talking about Crayola crayons, since Waldorf Schools are elementary schools.

You'll like their take on karma and bullying. They don't believe in stepping in to put a stop to it. They believe that the victim must have done something to the bully in a past life, hence the bully needs to work whatever it is out of his/her system. If things get so out of hand that something needs to be done, the victim's family is pressured into inviting the bully over to their home and being extra nice, in the hopes that this will appease him/her.

Sound familiar? It's really all the victim's fault, not the bully's. Y'all are responsible for everything that ever happened to you, even as children.

see also: http://www.waldorfcritics.org/index.html

[try another castle]

wait, just because I dislike using black when painting, what makes you think I'll like their take on karma and bullying?