"You say no to send our children there. WHY?
I wasn't the one that said that... I think
that it is a great place.
"Can anyone tell me about this place. Do they use drugs? Do they medicate these kids"
No, not on a regular basis, which is what
I think that you mean. If they get sick,
I don't know what the policy is (antibiotics,
etc) - I imagine that they would call you
before any drugs are administered. There are
no narcotics or alchohol.
"Can they call home anytime they want?"
No - for the first month you have no phone
contact, because the kids have serious
homesickness. After that you get weekly
emails from kids (via the administrators),
and you can call your child for 10 minutes on
Sundays (if they are not travelling, which
they do about 30% of the time). The kids
also post a "weblog", where they evaluate
each other - and the kids don't pull any
punches ("so-and-so is not pulling his
weight, he is just lazy and needs to
get his attitude turned around", etc.).
The kids writing the weblogs are the ones
who have been there a while, and are the
group leaders.
"The web site has no info at all on it."
The web site is completely maintaned by
the kids. The kids all have laptop computers
and run the website, and they also make the
slideshows and movies. There are two
websites
http://www.whitmoreacademy.com and
http://www.whoamidiscovery.com. The first one
is the good one - read the weblogs.
"How come more boys than girls?"
I didn't do a headcount, but I would guess
that it is the other way around (more girls
than boys). Kids come and go every month -
so the balance changes all the time. The
boys have their own house, and it is smaller
than the girls house.
"Why is there only 30 plus kids"
The school is run like a large family - I think
that there are about 40 kids, and more would
be too many. If you go there you will understand,
it is a lovely madhouse. More than 40 kids
would be too much.
"What is the religous practice. Do they force the mormon beliefs on these children? PLEASE REPLY"
The kids go to Mormon church, or they can opt
out and write an essay instead on some aspect
of any religion. None of the kids opt for the
essay.
I am an athiest, and my wife is some kind of
new age faith healer, and neither of us are
uncomfortable with the level of religious
pressure. Mark and Cheryl
would be very happy if the kids became mormons,
I am sure, but there are kids of all faiths
there, and it is certainly not some brainwashing
center.
My questions: When I looked at the website (a long while ago) it seems to me that Whitmore was part of a small network of schools/programs. How does that work? Do the kids start out at one facility then move to another?
No - the only association that I know of was
with the local "Landmark school" for the
academics, but I think that Whitmore has
been acredited so they don't do that anymore.
Also, I remember reading something about "subliminals" as a daily requirement. What's that about?
Subliminals are recordings of positive
messages like "you are great, a powerful
person in the world, blah blah blah". They
kids put them on while they are getting
dressed, I think. They gave me a tape to
listen to, but I didn't get a chance while
I was there because the rental car didn't have
a tape player.
Other stuff to know about the school -
The make the kids remove all non-positive
songs from their computers, and computer
audits are done often (my daugter had to
remove "living dead girl", for example).
There is a subtle "pre-women's lib" vibe
going on at the school about the differences
between men and women (the boys are given
harder work to do, although the girls work
much harder than is usual - and the girls
diets are kept under firm control, in order
to keep them from getting fat). My daughter
has lost some weight there, and is happy about
it, but I didn't think she was overweight
before.
All of the kids seemed very healthy, as well
as physically sturdy and confident.
Horseback riding and travel are the two
primary focuses of activity.
They seem to eat quite a bit of junk food
on the road, but since they are physically
active for 16 hours a day, I am sure that
it does them no harm.
Once per year there is a parents weekend,
which was in Auguest.
You can visit whenever you like (probably not
in the first month or two, though).
Cheers,
Eric
