Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry
AA Abundant Life Academy
Anonymous:
Deborah - you are so quick to throw stones....wasn't your son in a program? Are you saying you were an ineffective parent, or are you "blaming" your husband (ex)? Either way, I disagree that the parents are 100% to blame for the choices their kids make. Some parents are asked what they would do differently, and some say they did everything in their power and knowledge to keep their child out of harms way and it failed until they chose a Program to not only help their child, but to help them too. It's the hard way doing it all yourself. I have no experience of ALA, and don't agree with the GOD heals model. Every person can heal with the right kind of help. It's all in how you interpret where that help comes from...God, higher power, will power, or from the outside in. Lots of other ways.
Deborah:
***Deborah - you are so quick to throw stones***
No, I actually agree with Roger's take on what the primary issue is for many kids these days, "Entitlement".
Another way to say that is that parents gave and taught nothing. Didn't teach their children anything about reality, how to function in a family/group setting, how to negotiate/cooperate. Never expected them to participate in the care/maintainence of the home they share. I've known many. Children aren't born with a sense of entitlement. It is learned, they are conditioned... and by someone... usually parents. It sometimes works well provided the parent has the financial means to continue paying the bribe money to keep their kid 'on track'.
I depart with the methods of 'fixin the problem'. I think the parents need help as much or more than the teens. They haven't a clue what the 'real' needs of a human being are, apparently. I believe the teen is being scapegoated for the parents ignorance, neglect, whatever the case may be.
It's as absurd to me, as stripping the parent of their rights, incarcerating them until they 'get it'- how to be better parents. Wouldn't that be hoot? Especially for the run of the mill parent (like the run of the mill kids at ALA) who isn't beating or molesting their kids. I'm talking about the one's who 'spoil' their kids and then punish them for acting 'spoiled'. Do you see any connection there?
Labeling teens as "troubled" and warehousing them is equally absurd to me.
The teen gets shipped out because it's mom and dad who pay the program fees. They carry on with their merry life, usually more merry after the teen is gone, while the kid is incarcerated and treated like a prisoner.
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2004-03-23 21:25:00, Deborah wrote:
"***Deborah - you are so quick to throw stones***
No, I actually agree with Roger's take on what the primary issue is for many kids these days, "Entitlement".
Another way to say that is that parents gave and taught nothing. Didn't teach their children anything about reality, how to function in a family/group setting, how to negotiate/cooperate. Never expected them to participate in the care/maintainence of the home they share. I've known many. Children aren't born with a sense of entitlement. It is learned, they are conditioned... and by someone... usually parents. It sometimes works well provided the parent has the financial means to continue paying the bribe money to keep their kid 'on track'.
I depart with the methods of 'fixin the problem'. I think the parents need help as much or more than the teens. They haven't a clue what the 'real' needs of a human being are, apparently. I believe the teen is being scapegoated for the parents ignorance, neglect, whatever the case may be.
It's as absurd to me, as stripping the parent of their rights, incarcerating them until they 'get it'- how to be better parents. Wouldn't that be hoot? Especially for the run of the mill parent (like the run of the mill kids at ALA) who isn't beating or molesting their kids. I'm talking about the one's who 'spoil' their kids and then punish them for acting 'spoiled'. Do you see any connection there?
Labeling teens as "troubled" and warehousing them is equally absurd to me.
The teen gets shipped out because it's mom and dad who pay the program fees. They carry on with their merry life, usually more merry after the teen is gone, while the kid is incarcerated and treated like a prisoner.
"
--- End quote ---
:nworthy:
Parents who ship their kids off to these teen warehouses have a million excuses but the bottom line is they lost control of their kids and are desperate to get it back. At any price. Spend the kid's college fund, take a 2nd mortgage out on the family home, recruit other teens to pay the tuition, the list goes on. It isn't about saving kids, it's about control.
Anonymous:
[The teen gets shipped out because it's mom and dad who pay the program fees. They carry on with their merry life, usually more merry after the teen is gone, while the kid is incarcerated and treated like a prisoner.]
Unless they are part of the WWASPS program...the parents are doing a lot of inner work through seminars and support group meetings, not to mention all the time in between. There's a lot of practices between seminars, parent/teen workshops, therapy visits and phone calls. It's not a time for 100% play, though play is important too. It takes the whole family to create a healthy family.
Deborah:
Craig,
You said:
His business has never employed professional staff, never had a student, NOR ANY FORMAL AGREEMENT OR CONTRACT with Abundant Life Academy of Utah.
And:
May it be known that Abundant Life Academy of Utah paid ?ACADEMIA VIDA ABUNDANTE DEL LAGO CHAPALA? $52,000.00 US Dollars over from May through September 2003. The payments were made in good faith with the expectation that ?ACADEMIA VIDA ABUNDANTE DEL LAGO CHAPALA? would deliever on their promises to provide room and board, along with food services to the students of Abundant Life Academy. ?ACADEMIA VIDA ABUNDANTE DEL LAGO CHAPALA? failed miserably to perform their verbal agreement to deliver stated promises.
***
To clarify- You entrusted other people's children to a person in another country who you had no real knowledge of or formal business agreement or contract with, much less background checks on. You only had a VERBAL agreement for the 24/7 care of teens in your charge?
Your discourse leaves many questions. One being how your defense will hold up in court without a legal business agreement/contract and proof that Aparicio didn't uphold his end of the bargain.
If Aparicio was shuffling the funds intended for the teen's care to Bettencort, what exactly were the conditions under which the teens were living? Did they have inadequate food, housing? Were they hungry and sleeping on the street or in lean-tos?
Based on what you've shared, I get the impression that you made some serious mistakes, demonstrated poor judgement, and possibly put some teens at risk of abuse or neglect.
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