Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Who Am I Discovery/Whitmore
Whitmore Academy in Utah?
Anonymous:
The problem is that in my sisters case they did NOT remove her from the program. They accepted her and acted as if they would be able to help her. I appreciate the desire to help, but if you don't have the training, please don't offer. I felt it was very unprofessional and unrealistic of them.
Anonymous:
Jourdan, I urge the same of you. We are not stupid, we are very concerned people who love our own.
caitlynloggins:
Here are some answers to your questions.
What's the story w/ the Canadian property and the animals?
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That was a complete injustice that occured many years ago. The Canadian government is completely screwed up. They might as well be communists. It was as Eric said; everyone who was supposed to be caring for them thought someone else was. This was a horrible case of miscommunication.
Who was it that talked about kids getting in trouble for showing kindness toward the animals? Any coroboration there?
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I don't know what you're talking about right there. Tell me what you mean, and I will answer your questions about it.
And what's with the daily reports written by students about other students?
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This teaches the kids responsibility because they have to follow through with their specific job each week. They write a report each Sunday on their responsibility and send it in to be posted on the website for parents to read. A good example is the reading intern. This person makes sure no one talks during our reading time each morning, and also reads over book reports at the end of the week to make sure they meet standard qualifications like five paragraphs, at least five sentences per paragraph, etc. This does a lot because they learn to make sure responsibilities are filled; both theirs and that of the group. Life skills are taught by this because some time in life, most people have at least one job where they are over other employees, and they must know how to be a leader. So this is for responsibility and leadership skills.
What's with the subliminals?
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Subliminals are positive affirmation tapes we listen to each morning by Karol Truman. These tapes include things like, "I choose to be happy. I feel happy. I am happy." It improves our attitude throughout the day, but doesn't 'make' us be that way. The choice at the beginning links together the thoughts and the feelings. It is not brainwashing, and we aren't forced to listen to them.
I asked a Whitmore proponant a couple of these questions before and I have never gotten any answers. Any of you care to respond to them now?
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If I had seen your questions prior to this posting, I would have answered them right then and there.
How does the program work?
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It is a family environment here. Everyone who comes to the Whitmore has family-related issues, so this helps to deal with things like that. We learn to work together as a family, and we respect Cheryl and Mark as our parents. This also develops unconditional love and acceptance for one another, which is desperately needed in a family environment. We love and respect each other here just like any other family.
By what process or method do Mark and Cheryl convert unrully, troubled, "bad" kids into entheusiastically cooperative, positive influence type kids?
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Well, we don't have any punishments for one thing. We only have rewards. Some of our rewards are going on trips, to the movies, or out to eat. We learn responsibility and leadership through jobs as intern, prefect, or monitor. If someone has a problem, we have a meeting on it and everyone offers their input. When kids come here, they want to listen and they want to try because of all the love. Like I said before, we love each other unconditionally. That can't be stopped. We help out each other with everything we can because we care.
I'm not asking if the program has this effect or not. You've already said that it does. I want to know how that happens and if you understand how it happens.
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I do understand. It happened to me.
If these answers are not what you were looking for, tell me and I will elaborate on the ones in question.
caitlynloggins:
Anonymous, here are the answers to your questions, as well.
Look, based on what I've heard and dealt with regarding my sisters experience there, there are a lot of mixed messages. On the one hand, I can see that Mark and Cheryl do seem to have a heart for these kids and obviously there is a real sense of family about the place.
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What is your sister's name? Chances are, I know her, and could reply to you more accurately if I know who the girl is you are talking about.
But self growth and self discovery also tend to include an aspect of critical thinking. Is that being taught? Those supporters of the program seem to accept it without question.
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Are you asking if critical thinking is being taught? I don't quite understand your question, but yes, we do both teach and practice critical thinking here.
Also, if there are kids there with REAL psychological conditions, there should be someone there with REAL mental heath certification, education AND experience helping them. If the place only wants to take on teens that need a straight path, got caught up in the wrong crowd/wrong thing, maybe they are fully capable of that, but are they capable of dealing with a real disorder? I'm starting to wonder.
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We do have therapists here. It is true that one does not work here anymore, but he was immediantly replaced and things remain this way. It is my belief (I am not representing the Whitmore Academy in this) that a lot of 'disorders' come from kids being kids, and psychologists/therapists/doctors wanting to make something out of it (like a bunch of money). Look at that woman in Texas who drowned her five kids in the bathtub a few years ago, for example. Her doctor prescribed her some crazy medication she didn't need, and look what ended up happening. Also, when someone is told they have a condition, they begin to act a lot more like this accusation is true. This is why we have disorders most of the time. However, I also believe there are some who do have disorders, and yes, I also believe that we are capable of dealing with them. We have before, several times.
I also wonder why all of the support here comes from the students. Why aren't staff members talking or even more parents?
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The staff are busy dealing with other things. They really don't have the time for something like this right now. A lot of parents don't know about this forum, and I'm not going to be the one to spread the word. We don't want to bother them with something like this, anyway.
I asked a mundane question recently to the "inquiry" link on the website only to get a very suspicious reply from a student. That again raises a flag for me regarding professionalism.
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Please further explain this to me. What question did you ask, and what did the reply say? How was it suspicious, and how do you know it was a student?
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2004-12-01 18:29:00, caitlynloggins wrote:
A lot of parents don't know about this forum, and I'm not going to be the one to spread the word. We don't want to bother them with something like this, anyway.
--- End quote ---
Nah, wouldn't want to bother them with anything like legitimate questions that people raise about the manner in which their children are being "treated". :roll: Better to treat them like the proverbial mushroom and keep them in the dark and feed them a bunch of shit.
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