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Mount Bachelor Academy Shut Down

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Ursus:

--- Quote from: "joethebadass" ---Actually that's not exactly true. Not all aspen programs use marathon workshops like lifesteps. In fact, I'm wondering at this point which programs still use the model? I was under the impression that Mount Bachelor was one of the last programs to be using it, but I could be far off on this one. Does anyone have an answer to that question?
--- End quote ---
Here are the programs which offered it in 1998, and two more which were considering it at the time. Some of these programs don't exist anymore, and I'm not sure which of the surviving ones still offer this workshop.

Cascade School, Whitmore, CA
Mount Bachelor Academy, Prineville, OR
Academy at Swift River, Cummington, MA
Hidden Lake Academy, Dahlonega, GA
Crater Lake School, Sprague River, OR
CEDU Schools, CA and ID
Spring Ridge Academy, Spring Valley, AZ
Cross Creek Manor, LaVerkin, UT
Paradise Cove, Apia, W. Samoa
Tranquility Bay, Mandeville, Jamaica
Spring Creek Lodge, Thompson Falls, MT
Copper Canyon Academy, Camp Verde, AZ[/list]
For over 18:
Northstar, Bend, OR
Benchmark, Redding, CA[/list]
Considering it:
Aspen Ranch, Loa, Utah
Montana Academy, Marion, Montana[/list]

Ursus:
Woodbury Reports - Opinion & Essays  - Feb, 1998 Issue #50
THE MARATHON WORKSHOP
(and its value as a counseling tool in emotional growth schools)
by: Linda Shaffer, Ed. Consultant
Sandpoint, Idaho
208-263-8394

All emotional growth schools are not alike! In their counseling tools, nineteen among the more well-known schools use a tool the others do not, the Interactive or Marathon-Like Workshop.

In most emotional growth schools it is standard practice to utilize the group session process 2 to 3 times a week with feedback among peers as a major counseling tool — all guided by the staff facilitators. Individual counseling also is implemented on a regular basis with an assigned therapist. The more informal version of this style of counseling is the ride in the pick-up truck or the walk down to the pond or the farm.

Not every school, however, utilizes the Interactive or Marathon-Like Workshop. I find in assisting families that some are open to this counseling style for their children and for themselves (in the parent workshops). And, some prefer to participate only in the more private one on one family counseling sessions a school may offer.

Those schools who Do Use these workshops are: Cascade School, Whitmore, CA; Mount Bachelor Academy, Prineville, OR; Swift River Academy, Cummington, MA; Hidden Lake Academy, Dahlonega, GA; Crater Lake School, Sprague River, OR; CEDU Schools, CA and ID; Spring Ridge Academy, Spring Valley, AZ Cross Creek Manor, LaVerkin, UT; Paradise Cove, Apia, W. Samoa; Tranquility Bay, Mandeville, Jamaica; Spring Creek Lodge, Thompson Falls, MT; Copper Canyon Academy, Camp Verde, AZ And for the over 18 year old students — Northstar, Bend, OR and Benchmark, Redding, CA

Two other schools considering implementing the Interactive Workshop are Aspen Ranch in Loa, Utah and Montana Academy in Marion, Montana.

Why do these schools choose to use the workshop tool? In my visits to schools, talking with students and speaking with parents, I hear very frequently “and those workshops were pretty Incredible. I really learned a lot about myself. They were so very creative....not always easy, but I hadn’t felt some of those feelings for SO long!”

In my experience with the schools that offer this additional counseling component, I see this process as a most creative way to reach adolescents who are frightened, well guarded, and especially clever with their deflecting and avoidance skills. This type of workshop with its various exercises seems to step into the emotional life of a young person at a level that, for some, is difficult to reach in any other way. The key, I believe, is delivering the workshop with Care and Skill.

Various Components of these interactive workshops include psychodrama, role playing, dads, bioenergetics, creative visualization exercises, supportive music, and various types of “stretch” exercises to take one outside one’s comfort zone.

Students in the interactive workshop often are excited about them because they indicate Points Of Passage within their school and their goal of getting “to the top of the mountain” and completing all the workshops. The workshops generally follow child growth and development all over again as espoused by Erik Erikson. Students recall their perceptions of events from childhood that may affect their present day thinking and feelings. They get to see some of their “truths” instead of the masks and confusion they wear. They get an opportunity to look at “who are their real friends”. They review goals, images, Talents and passions, and in finding dreams again learn how to construct a healthy base under those dreams.

The workshops are diverse. They are filled with playfulness. There is laughter, sadness, anger, remembering, Not Wanting To Remember, learning to Trust through initiatives, and fearing to trust in the workshops (and in life). The workshops can build a closeness among participants. Individuals can choose to be vulnerable, outrageous, tender, and connect with one’s loving self. There are moments of wanting the workshop to be over, and moments of not wanting the feelings of the workshop to ever end.

Students Want to be in these workshops and at the same time, They Don’t. The energy, excitement, anxiety, And Completion of the workshop become markers along the way toward graduation from “the program,” as well as in growing up. Students see their peers ahead of them finish a workshop and tell the rest of the school in a rewelcoming back to the school gathering that they learned “I am a good friend,” “I have a lot to offer the world,” “I am a caring person,” “I Love My Family Deeply,” and so on. All this from children who may have acted in direct opposition to this in the past. Moments of insight are gained through play, introspection, and trust on a safe “Island” called a workshop or seminar, where one can feel and practice a few miles away from real life.

Parents who attend the workshops designed specifically for parents often make statements such as “there is no place in my daily life where I am so honest about how I feel as I am when I’m here.” I’ve heard others say during a break time, “you know parts of this are Not Easy, But it feels so good to feel and to let myself go into areas I usually shut away. I’m feeling more alive.” And sometimes with a smile, and maybe a little run mascara from a previous exercise, some will say “what are you going to do to us after lunch?”

Some parents acknowledge something they say they Never Thought they would — “I am glad my child’s behavior came to a head finally because it was enough for us to make this kind of a decision; our whole family has grown from the experience. If my child’s acting out behavior had been somewhat less we probably would not have enrolled him/her and would have gone on bumping along dragging around Baggage for who knows how long.” When I see the Sparkle in the Eyes of students who have experienced these workshops, I know they have learned something about their true selves in a way that was very challenging — and they feel proud to have taken on the challenge and “done it!” One program I visited had two workshop staff moving on to other schools and the students were So Worried they might not get to continue the process. Another young man, finishing two workshops of this sort at a school asked me where he could go later in an over 18 year old program and continue this process. He so wanted to continue the workshop insights, care, intimacy, and friendship that had lovingly pushed him through doorways he had, at first, been incredibly fearful of going through.

Where did these workshops come from? From creative minds. They came from often controversial influences and beginnings — Synanon, Lifespring, est, — out of the ‘60’s — and from many of the earliest creative innovators in the mental health field. Through years of evolution, and years of individual creativity in adapting these workshops to adolescents, came “workshops” and “seminars”. I see them, if designed with care and sensitivity to the individual, as benefiting anyone — but, especially the frightened and refusing child, the counseling savvy/issue dodging child who knows what to say, and the intellectual child who tries at all costs to not touch upon feelings.

Training for the originators of today’s workshops often involved participation themselves in some earlier workshops in Their Own Growth Process and, thus, redesigning these workshops for their own schools. Some have established companies that offer various versions of these workshops today for Corporate America and also design special programs for emotional growth schools.

I would suggest the spread of these workshops in the emotional growth school setting says something about the insights and results for participants. And after all, isn’t that what it’s all about - Results Education, both academic and emotional.


Copyright © 1998, Woodbury Reports, Inc.

psy:

--- Quote from: "Whooter" ---FreeofCC, Its not a fondness as much as it is an interest.  I traveled extensively throughout these Soviet States and always found it interesting that you could give money to down and out people in the streets as long as they were not Romanian.  They are all called Gypsies and all the locals seems to hate them...
--- End quote ---

There is actually good reason for this.  There are two ethnic groups in romania.  The romanians and the gypsies. I know the romanian terms but not english.  Nevermind.  Anyway, the gypsy ethic groups tends to stick together as a relatively tribal society (they even have their own separate language). The problem with giving any of them money is because the people begging almost never get to keep any of it.  They pass it up the chain, eventually reaching the Gypsy kings.  When I was in romania I would buy them food and other perishables if I gave them anything (and sometimes hung around to make sure their handlers didn't steal it from them.  Ice cream was always a good choice as it melts quickly and is something the poor kids almost never got to eat.


--- Quote ---This one time I landed in Kazakhstan and there was a woman with 3 children, no shoes and it was snowing and my driver was visibly upset that I gave her money and as my translator finally explained to me that you never give money to gypsies, you should spit on them... they should all just get a job or die.
--- End quote ---

I've heard it all before, first hand.  The thing is that it's just not their culture to settle down like everybody else and get jobs.  They're nomadic.  To the extent they sell services they do so on a roaming basis (knife sharpening, etc).  For the most part they have no desire to assimilate or change their culture to conform (and that right should be respected, as far as i'm concerned).  Also, on the basis of race nobody wants to employ them anyway, even if they want to fit in.


--- Quote ---As I traveled more I found this to be a consensus throughout western and Southeast Asia (at least, as far as my experience goes).  I found the ex-soviet cities are heated throughout by huge underground steam pipes so the down and out Romanians (gypsies)
--- End quote ---

Not all romanians are Gypsies (Romani).  The Romanians get very upset when people make that assumption. Believe me, the Romanian hate the Gypsies as much as any other eastern European people.  I can't really tell, but apparently romanians are able to tell the two ethic groups apart (they do dress differently and their culture is very different, though).


--- Quote ---live underground during the winter months and I met a few as my translator was reluctant to translate and they are kind, gentle and beautiful people, mostly woman with kids and mouths to feed.  I could never figure out where the men were or what they did
--- End quote ---

They handle the money you give to them and beat the women.  Also keep in mind that half those kids are drugged to keep them quiet while the women beg.


--- Quote ---I never met a gypsy guy.  Maybe Psy knows.  But what I do know is I wouldn’t want to be a Romanian woman in Southeast Asia.

Edit, just wanted to add this:  There was a guy who was passed out on the side walk outside a restaurant we were entering for lunch and the smell was so bad that I thought this guy was dead.  We ate lunch and when we came out an hour later this guy never moved and there were about 30 flies on his face and my wife insisted someone call the police.  So our translator reluctantly called someone.  The police showed up and beat the guy with batons until he moved.  His stomach was covered with coins from passerby’s.  So people would supply this guy with money but not a woman with children to feed.
--- End quote ---

Could be he wansn't Gypsy (Romani).  The hatred towards Gypsies borders on the sort that could easily erupt in ethnic "cleansing" given the right conditions.  It was a bad idea to call the cops, though.  What you described is what happens far too often, though often they avoid doing such things in front of tourists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people#Persecutions

Even so-called civilized societies participate in it to this day:

--- Quote --- In 2008, the Italian government declared that Italy's Romani population represented a national security risk and that swift action was required to address the emergenza nomadi (gypsy emergency)[67]
--- End quote ---

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... roma-italy

--- Quote ---In February this year the Prefect of Rome, in his capacity as special commissioner for the Roma "emergency", issued new rules regulating life in the region's seven officially designated camps. The camps are to be gated, under police supervision. Though residence is to be temporary, as a prelude to further "integration", no indication is given of where those who have to leave, or are thrown out of the camps because they do not qualify, are expected to go. Milan's mayor has announced similar rules, including camp gates to be locked at 10pm. Protest has been muted.

Even Venice's progressive mayor Massimo Cacciari, a writer and professor of philosophy, who sparked a local uproar when he announced plans to build a Roma "village" for 30 families last year, explained in a recent television interview that the settlement, to be completed later this year, offers every guarantee of "separateness" from its non-gypsy neighbours.
--- End quote ---

Yes, this is 2008.  Keep in mind there is barely a peep about this because those who know don't care and those who would care (outside of Europe, for example) don't know.  Read the comments to take in how the average person feels.  It's not exactly encouraging.

Probably best to continue this in the open forum on another thread or in PM if you want to continue chatting bout this.  It's way off-topic.

dishdutyfugitive:
"the Academy is aggressively pursing legal options including the possibility of a restraining order against the state."

how pleasantly creative and cunning of them.

The State of Oregon officially on Bans ?

put the gubenor on wilderness solo (if they put arnold on one he wrestle a Moose and win)
put the comptroller on writing assignments (describe how mortensen math makes you want to put your head in a blender)
put the secretary of state on full time (under her desk)
make the supreme court run their shit (robes on in the jury box)

Kudos Oregon! Thank you for having the wisdom and the balls to tell these freakshows to act right or get the fuck out of dodge.

joethebadass:
It's official now! I have heard via the MBA parent listserv that Aspen has made the decision to close the program for good, regardless of what happens in this appeal. Apparently the PR was just too bad. Sharon Bitz will most likely never work for an Aspen program again. However I'm sure that many of the staff from MBA will either start a new school or go to work for one that still uses marathon workshops like lifesteps.

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