Cypress--I like your style of laying down the rules of engagement.
They seem fair to me. I have never cared much if people use particular language, although I admit to finding it boring if it is just the same four letter words, over and over, with no creative content.
Similarly, I can't do much about the fact that I express myself formally--to be honest, maybe I could, but I'm not inclined to. So if I can put up with your language, maybe you can put up with mine.
I understand that you would like to hear from my son directly. In truth, I wish that I could bring him to this forum. I know I am his mother and biased, but he is one of the best people that I know in the world. Now that he is an adult, I try to not to interfere with his life, as I would be doing if I insisted that he come here. And he probably would, if I did insist, because our relationship now is that we try when we can to help each other. But it seems wrong to pressure him.
Just to explain how caring he is, let me tell you a short anecdote. He recently did a semester abroad in his college program. It was in a country where many drugs are legal and although he has had no problems with substance abuse since RMA, he sensed, I guess, that I was kind of nervous about how things would go for him there--I just didn't know, if he chose to dabble in these things that he would be OK.
So he set up a web page where he continually posted pictures of what he was doing, so I could go to it and check in on what he was up to--he posted pix there of various places he visited, his apartment, etc. And he did this without us ever talking explicitly about my concerns, he did it out of sensitivity and respect. He did it to give me security in the knowledge that he would manage well when he was on his own.
And he did fine there, of course, and is back at his home college in pre-med courses.
I don't know why the positive things that happened to our family through the CEDU experience did not always happen to other families--clearly they did not always.
And I am not saying that CEDU is perfect--if I were in charge, there are things that I would change, but I am saying that, in the whole emotional growth/ experiential concept, there were things that were very real and good for us, not like a cult, but like a growth experience.
I'd like to find out how to keep the things in this program that work and eliminate some other things that may be preventing certain people from connecting with what is good in the overall concept.
I'd appreciate your insights.