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Anonymous:
How is Aspen Education Group Different from WWASPS besides them paying educational consultants and are much larger?

Article: How to Save Your Teen
Seclusion at therapeutic boarding schools unlocks hope for troubled kids
08:30 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 11, 2005
By DAVID TARRANT / The Dallas Morning News

Michelle had become angry and moody.

The 17-year-old, the middle of three children, had been a happy child in grade school, making good grades and having lots of friends.

But in junior high school, her troubles began. She attracted boys; her popularity with girls plummeted and so did her grades.

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Then the lies began. She'd lie about her whereabouts, lie about who she was with, says her mother, a Dallas resident, who requested anonymity to protect her daughter's identity. (Michelle is not her daughter's first name.)

Michelle's parents tried to do the right thing. They grounded their daughter. "Everything she did had consequences," her mother says.

"She'd say, 'You don't trust me,' " her mother says. "And we'd say, 'I'm sorry. We love you, but we can't trust you.' "

Michelle skipped school with her best friend and two boys. Although she came back that evening, she immediately ran away that night.

That's when Michelle's parents decided she needed a more structured environment.

Parents, such as Michelle's, are increasingly turning to a growing number of last-resort schools, called therapeutic boarding schools.

Such places offer more than just a private school education. As their name implies, therapeutic boarding schools also are intensive treatment centers, which focus on teenagers with emotional and learning problems.

"The whole field is growing in leaps and bounds," says Rhea Wolfram, a certified educational consultant in Dallas. "You're making an investment in the emotional life of a child."

It's an expensive investment. Therapeutic boarding schools range from $4,500 to $9,000 ? a month.

That price typically includes a customized plan with intensive individual and group therapy. The academic program usually includes workshops on personal responsibility, anger management and other life skills. Most therapeutic boarding schools offer 9- to 18-month programs and year-round admissions.

The results can pay long-term dividends, Ms. Wolfram says. "You're letting a child find out who he is. Kids learn to become invested in themselves and their self-worth."

Therapeutic boarding schools had been a rare option since the late '60s. In 1999, the shootings at Columbine High School, the deadliest school crime in U.S. history, put a spotlight on the pitfalls of adolescence.

Ten years ago, there were only about 40 private schools nationwide aimed at troubled teens. The year after Columbine, the number soared to 250. Today it's closer to 500.

"We've seen an incredibly explosive growth," says Mark Sklarow, executive director of the national Independent Education Consultants Association, in suburban Washington, D.C. Educational consultants are independent advisers, who are hired by parents to help them find the right match of schools or programs for their children's needs and talents.

An elusive solution
Still, the schools are not top of mind with many public-school guidance counselors or therapists in private practice. Parents often don't learn about them until their child needs immediate help.

Michelle's mother says her daughter's safety was the deciding factor. "You're definitely deciding you want to save your kid," says the mother, who also requested that she not be identified.

A second factor was concern about her other children. "Our household was a screaming, yelling nightmare. The other kids were being affected."

A friend of her husband, who had a daughter in a therapeutic boarding school, recommended an educational consultant, who helped the parents choose a school in the Southeast.

"At least we knew she was in a safe place, and the school ? I think it was wonderful," she says.

Already shaken by their child's poor choices, parents face the reality that they might make a poor choice as they try to navigate the options for these types of schools.

"Unfortunately, parents that start looking into this are often desperate," says Mr. Sklarow, the spokesman for the educational consultants' association. "They feel, 'If I don't get this done in a week, I may lose my kid from drugs or violence or whatever,' " he said.

"There are so many different models for doing this that getting the child into the one that's right for them is the most important part of this."

One reason there are so many types of schools is because there are so many types of troubled teenagers: from a boy who turns to beer and pot to block his discovery of Dad having an affair, to a girl who engages in food-binging and truancy to deal with a sexual assault by a classmate.

Many of these teens have histories of learning disorders, low self-esteem and academic underachievement that contribute to their self-destructive behavior.

They usually have run the gamut of school counselors, and perhaps individual or family therapy. They may have been in court-ordered drug and alcohol-recovery programs.

"These kids are not oddballs and freaks," says David L. Marcus, author of a new book: What It Takes to Pull Me Through: Why Teenagers Get in Trouble and How Four of Them Got Out (Houghton Mifflin, $25).

"Every kid sits in classes with someone who is struggling with depression or an eating disorder. Every high school, whether in a city or a town, has kids who are struggling emotionally."

How the schools work
Therapeutic schools allow these students to move out of their normal environment, which has become problematic, and into one that offers, first and foremost, the three S's: safety, stability and structure.

There is often a wilderness component, where students learn what's expected of them, and how their actions affect the group and not just themselves.

Although the days are highly structured, there are usually opportunities to explore spiritual development, as well as sports, fine arts and other social activities.

Each school has a different specialty or emphasis, different levels of freedom, of counseling options.

Some are wilderness programs; others are based on reward-and-punishment models or on the 12-step program.

The goal is to replace the negative influences of a teenager's old peer group with what therapists describe as a "positive peer culture."

"It's more than just teaching woodmanship," says Mark Hobbins, senior vice president of Aspen Education Group, which operates 30 programs for troubled, underachieving youth in 11 states, including two in Texas.

"It gets them in touch with their self-worth and potential," Mr. Hobbins says. "Once you have that sense of value of yourself, you want it again."

As for Michelle, she spent 12 months at the boarding school and is now living back home. She was accepted at three colleges but hasn't decided where to go yet.

Her anger has greatly decreased, her mother says.

"She's not out of the woods yet, and she's going to have to continue working on her decision-making skills," she says.

The entire family, including the other two children, have been participating in counseling since Michelle came home. Part of that is learning to accept her for who she is.

"We're seeing some good things and some things we wish would change," Michelle's mother says. "But it's a whole lot better than it was."

Michelle is more appreciative of her parents' values, including education. "The importance of it went way up. Her family values increased 500 percent," her mother says. "Even though she said she hated her home, she really learned to appreciate her family."

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Anonymous:
Article:

If you need help for your child, here's what you need to know
03:58 PM CDT on Tuesday, May 10, 2005
From Staff Reports

Here is advice from educators, psychologists and parents.

Don't go it alone, especially if time is running out. The Internet brings up many programs, but the information can be hard to evaluate. There are more than a dozen types of emotional-growth services, ranging from boot camps to boarding schools.

There are programs out there that call themselves emotional-growth programs, and they're not, says Mike Conner, a psychologist and certified education planner, based in Oregon. "There's only one way to know: retain the services of a qualified educational consultant."

Work with a certified educational planner. These consultants, who straddle the psychological and educational professions, provide parents and students with counseling, evaluation and, if necessary, help in finding residential treatment centers, wilderness therapy programs or boarding schools. Check the Web sites listed.

Long-term treatment (9 to 18 months): Typically, teenagers get referred to a residential program after displaying self-destructive or violent behavior, a run-in with the law or contemplated or attempted suicide. Such programs usually are for ages 14 to 18.

Short-term options range from monthlong intensive, psychiatric in-patient programs to three-week wilderness camps.

The behavior problems may be caused by drugs, depression or some other mental disorder. Or counselors might uncover a learning disorder that is causing stress and behavior problems.

"You can use a short-term program as an assessment tool to find out what issues the child has," says Lon Woodbury, an educational consultant in Bonners Ferry, ID.

WHERE TO LOOK
?  http://www.strugglingteens.com. The Web site, which is sponsored by Mr. Woodbury's company, provides information, news and resources on therapeutic schools and programs.

?  http://www.natsap.org. The Web site of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs lists 115 therapeutic schools.

?  http://www.iecaonline.com. The Web site lists the Independent Educational Consultants Association directory.

IN TEXAS
The NATSAP directory lists a half-dozen programs in Texas. These include:

?  http://www.aspeneducations.org. Aspen Education  is the nation's largest company serving troubled teens. Headquartered in southern California, Aspen operates 30 programs in 11 states, including two near Houston: Lone Star Expeditions, a wilderness therapy program and Excel Academy, a boarding school for boys and girls 13 to 18.

?  http://www.meridell.com. The Meridell Achievement Center, is a short-term residential treatment center about 35 miles north of Austin. The center specializes in intensive psychological testing and psychiatric evaluations.

Note: States differ on the rules and regulations that govern therapeutic boarding schools, including the age at which children can discharge themselves without parental permission. These rules may also vary depending on the type of program, from residential treatment centers to outdoor education programs. Parents should ask school officials and their educational consultant for more information about the appropriate state regulations.

http://tinyurl.com/2gd5u6

Anonymous:
I don't get it.  An article that writes  about a WWASPS program gets jumped on, but an article about Aspen gets in the news and no one responds???  Leads me to think that Ed Cons get paid for referring to Aspen and are on this board.  Don't bite the hand that feeds.  There programs aren't even as good as WWASPS or offer as much from my personal experience, so what's up??  What about you others?   :???:

Antigen:
You really don't get it? Let me explain it to you. WWASP has been drawing a whole lot of attention for a very long time; more or less since inception in the late `90's.

So a lot of people are familiar with their history; brand recognition is a double edged sword.

Aspen comes up from time to time, but I don't know that they're into anything as outrageous as the stories of Pepper Spray Jay and such. But I just haven't heard that much about Aspen.

Here's one story:
http://www.heal-online.org/aspenachieve.htm

Makes me wonder which school this person landed up in and if it's a pattern. I certainly appreciate your posting the info and hope it'll draw interest from people w/ more info.

Religion is just mind control.
--George Carlin, comedian
--- End quote ---

Anonymous:
"The behavior problems may be caused by drugs, depression or some other mental disorder. Or counselors might uncover a learning disorder that is causing stress and behavior problems."

Should be added:

...OR BY SELFISH, DISFUNCTIONAL PARENTS, WHO FIND IT MORE CONVENIENT TO BLAME A CHILD FOR THE FAMILY CHAOS, THAN TO SEEK HELP FOR THEIR OWN PROBLEMS.

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