Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Ridge Creek School / Hidden Lake Academy
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Anonymous:
--- Quote from: "Guest" ---I dont think that abuse can make anyone stronger, is damaging and illegal. What I believe my point was is that the high structure of a program allows the kids to feel safe and gives them time to focus on themselves and find out who they are... what is important and what is unimportant in their life. They can reflect on the events that lead them there and give them time to deal with them. The program takes away their idle time and replaces it with more construct use of their time, gets them back to school and back to the books etc. All of these things leads to a stronger, more mature and more self confident individual post program.
--- End quote ---
you are quite wrong.
because of the structure, they never figure out who they are and what they want to do independently. they are always told what to do and what to think, forced into a mold and shat out. when the kids leave they either seek further structure through the armed forces, church activities, starting a family waaaaay too early, etc; or they turn into derelicts who dont know what to do with themselves so they drink and do drugs. Most of the derelicts only clean up and start a life once they abandon every shred of memory they have of the place.
the way you make more mature self confident individual is through supportive parenting and schooling that allows the individual to choose for themselves and make their own mistakes.
it's the same concept behind critical thinking v.s fact-based memory intensive education. critical thinkers always win over the memorizers in life.
TheWho:
--- Quote from: "thewisemanoncesaid" ---
--- Quote from: "Guest" ---I dont think that abuse can make anyone stronger, is damaging and illegal. What I believe my point was is that the high structure of a program allows the kids to feel safe and gives them time to focus on themselves and find out who they are... what is important and what is unimportant in their life. They can reflect on the events that lead them there and give them time to deal with them. The program takes away their idle time and replaces it with more construct use of their time, gets them back to school and back to the books etc. All of these things leads to a stronger, more mature and more self confident individual post program.
--- End quote ---
you are quite wrong.
because of the structure, they never figure out who they are and what they want to do independently. they are always told what to do and what to think, forced into a mold and shat out. when the kids leave they either seek further structure through the armed forces, church activities, starting a family waaaaay too early, etc; or they turn into derelicts who dont know what to do with themselves so they drink and do drugs. Most of the derelicts only clean up and start a life once they abandon every shred of memory they have of the place.
the way you make more mature self confident individual is through supportive parenting and schooling that allows the individual to choose for themselves and make their own mistakes.
it's the same concept behind critical thinking v.s fact-based memory intensive education. critical thinkers always win over the memorizers in life.
--- End quote ---
Well, I see your point and no one can argue that there isn’t a better substitute for a stable family life and supportive parents. But when this doesn’t work you need to reach outside the family and seek counselling to help repair any damage that was done or to help the child live within the Family unit. If this is done soon enough counselling is highly effective along with the right family life adjustments to help the child continue on. But in some cases this doesn’t work and the child still heads down a dangerous path and continues an at-risk life style. In this case a parent can intervene or let the child continue the downward spiral. The programs take the child and give him or her structure.. get them the education and tools the child needs and sets them back on a healthy path. Sometimes the child continues down the healthy path and other times the child will go right back to they way he was going. So programs are a last resort and are not 100% effective but for those who can afford it it is the next best thing after all local options have been exhausted.
On a previous thought I think left to their own path many of these kids are heading towards a military life or living in the streets anyway.
Anonymous:
in theory, all that you say sounds just fine and dandy.
in practice, it doesnt work.
why? because the level and type of structure at these schools is not SUPPORTIVE, it's OPPRESSIVE. HLA restricts independent thought, speech, and actions. it tries to obliterate any sense of individuality the kid might have, and attempts to mold them into a "Prep" kid. Structure is OK when the individual can do as they please within the framework of the structure. HLA doesnt just provide a framework, they provide an entire identity and force the kids into that.
also parents dont use these programs as a last resort. oftentimes kids get sent away because they just turned 14 and just began experimenting with sex and drugs, and just once was too much for their parents. i got sent away because my mom caught me wake&baking before school ONCE - a week later i was in georgia. i smoked more weed on a weekly basis after leaving the program than i did my entire life before the program. I simply didnt even have the cash on hand to get started on a drug addiction, not to mention an actual "downward spiral". as a matter of fact, most of the kids i knew at HLA were there way before they even started on their downward spiral. they only had the potential of slipping into one in the near future, and their parents were just too scared, ashamed, lazy or stupid to deal with it themselves. These schools are not a necessary evil to help parents with troubled kids as a last resort; programs are just an easy way out for busy, rich, lazy, scared, ashamed, stupid and gullible parents.
also, given the first step of AA is true - that admitting you have a problem is the first step...how could forcing someone into treatment work? especially if rationally the individual does not have a problem; yet is considered to have one just because they smoked a few joints in their life? every AA member knows it's a personal choice to get sober. you cant force someone into it. whether it takes a month or two decades for a teenager to clean up and emerge from a downward spiral doesnt matter, it's all their own choice. no program will change that. only two things can cut short an addiction: a personal choice to do so, or a complete removal of the drugs from the individual's reality (impossible). when it comes to problems like bullemia or self-harm, the issue usually lies with the parents not the kids; in those cases it's often the parents that need to get therapy, not the kids.
and it's perfectly ok if the kids were originally destined for the millitary or streets. at least then they did it to themselves, and it wasn't an institution that screwed them up. I know dozens of kids who were brilliant independent thinkers when they arrived, and turned into robotic marine candidates by the time they left.
TheWho:
Some thoughts .....First I think there should be a requirement that a child advocate needs to sign off on any placement. An advocate could be a school counsellor or childs therapist. Second there should be evidence that the family has exhausted all local options. Third the child should be evaluated by an independent party (hospital) prior to placement. Forth the parents need to choose a program which is suitable for their child. The forth one is tough because although there are plenty of good programs there are also bad ones and it is almost impossible for a parent who is new to this to tell the difference. Edcons basically work for the industry so they are a risk... so it is difficult to find the right placement unless the childs therapist or hospital gets involved in the recommendation process.
RobertBruce:
John it's been two days. When will you answer Lacey's question? We're all still waiting on you. Don't wander off in generalizations or programs at large, answer her question pertaining to HLA. How did her harrassment at HLA better prepare her for hypothetical future rapes?
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