Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Who Am I Discovery/Whitmore
Whitmore Academy in Utah?
Anonymous:
You say no to send our children there. WHY?
Can anyone tell me about this place. Do they use drugs? Do they medicate these kids, Can they call home anytime they want? The web site has no info at all on it. How come more boys than girls? Why is there only 30 plus kids? What is the religous practice. Do they force the mormon beliefs on these children? PLEASE REPLY
Anonymous:
My daughter is there right now. Cheryl and
her family are wonderful people.
My daughter has turned around 100% - she is
cheerful, helpful, resourceful, and resiliant,
all of which she was not before she went.
All of the children there seemed to be
above average in terms of these qualities.
My wife and I spent the weekend there during
"Parents weekend", and if there was anything amis
I think that I would have been able to detect
it. One of the horses broke loose when I was
there earlier, because a train spooked it - one
of the kids confidantly walked up to the rearing
horse and calmed it down - I was really
impressed.
The school is a madhouse, though - there is so
much going on. I found it very hard
to get information out of them when we were
looking at schools - communicating with the
parents is the absolute last priority, and you
really have to work hard to get information.
They are an A+ in terms of their ability to
deal with the students in a way that helps
the students grow - but a D- in their ability
to communicate enough to the parents to make
the parents comfortable.
I think that the thing that makes the school work
is that they turned their disorganization into
a strength - they delegate a lot to the students
and the students benefit as a result.
I dont think that there is any physical dicipline.
Mainly the school is held together by the
formidible personality of Cheryl. The students
want to please her, so they work hard to get
positive feedback. The students work from
5 in the morning until 10 at night - they
clean the whole house every day, clean out
their horse stalls, build fences, ride horses,
cook meals, etc. I am really happy about the
work ethic and life skills that my daughter is
getting.
A particularly impressive part of the school
is the group therapy - whenever there is some
conflict among the students, they drop everything
and get to the bottom of it. When I was there
I saw a group session on "who took the computer
charger", and it turned out that one of the
students was spreading rumors that another one
took it, but you could not find that out until
you got everyone together. (the charger turned
out to just have been lost).
Maybe I will find out some "horrible truth"
when my daughter gets back, but I doubt it.
She is doing absolutely fantastically at
the school - I wish that I sent her a couple
of years ago, we could have avoided a really
hard time, and I would have had more "good
years" with her before she left for college.
It is hard to send your child away
for a year, but I think that any fears
that you have will be gone if you go to
visit the school. The magic of the school
is not really visible on the webpage, you
have to go there.
Cheers,
Eric
Antigen:
Hi Eric. Thanks for posting. Could you please answer these questions and one or two of mine?
"You say no to send our children there. WHY?
Can anyone tell me about this place. Do they use drugs? Do they medicate these kids, Can they call home anytime they want? The web site has no info at all on it. How come more boys than girls? Why is there only 30 plus kids? What is the religous practice. Do they force the mormon beliefs on these children? PLEASE REPLY"
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? Also, I remember reading something about "subliminals" as a daily requirement. What's that about?
If triangles had a God, He'd have three sides.
--Old Yiddish proverb
--- End quote ---
Anonymous:
"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
Anonymous:
PS
I read over the previous 5 pages of postings,
and one from fiero1718 must be talking about
a different school - I just can't imagine it
being true about Whitmore.
The fellow that still has his stuff in
Canada - I can see that happening. Attention
to details like picking up somebody's forgotten
stuff in Canada and sending it back could
easily be put on the back burner for a couple
of years. They have 1000 things to do, and
only 900 get done - if you really need something
you have to be persistent. This bothered me
more initially than it does now - if you send
them an email asking 10 questions, you will
get a very brief answer to one question.
The duplicate IP addresses are probably
the work of the students standing up for their
school.
The fellow who did the post about "N* slaves"
seems kind of disturbed - I think the post
reveals more about him than about Whitmore.
The grains of truth there are that the
children work *very* hard, and there is a
constant (but loving) pressure to behave well,
learn, and grow.
Social pressure is very strong at the
school, both from above and peer pressure.
I think that this is what makes the school
work with no physical dicipline.
Cheers,
Eric
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