Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Aspen Education Group
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Timoclea:
I lied to my parents all the time about where I was going to be. So did just about every teenager I knew. I was just smart enough to never get caught in most of those lies. I only got caught a very, very, very few times.
I went to a nationally ranked college, graduated with a 2.9 GPA (the average for students graduating in my major was 2.7), supported myself, ended up with a good job until I was married and had a daughter and we decided we could afford for me to be a stay-home mom.
Program advocates on here don't like my religion or my social skills, but I'm not a drunk, I don't take illegal drugs, I'm obviously not dead, and I've never been in jail.
I have a single drink, something between half a dozen and a dozen times a year.
I'm 38 and a productive member of the community. What the program folks don't like is mostly that I actually have some individuality and don't follow their cookie-cutter script for what *they*, control freaks that they are, want their children to be.
I had sex, I drank underage, I was mentally ill and suicidal, and I got bad grades.
Grounding and whatever else my parents tried didn't stop me either. I was going to do what I was going to do. It just made me mistrustful of my parents and more careful than ever about not getting caught.
I'm fine.
My sister did the same, but she drank to the point of a problem, she smoked pot, once she got so trashed at a party that she stayed out overnight, she got medium-bad grades, screwed around with multiple guys (sequential, not cheating). She was a real party girl. And she lied to our parents about it all the time.
She took speed a few times in college.
She's 44, married with 2 kids, sober without support groups, doesn't drug, pays her taxes, has a decent job, graduated college with an associates degree (she's always had fantastic sales talents, so she didn't need a lot of higher education for a good career), attends her Christian fundamentalist church with the whole family every time the doors are open.
And other than coping successfully with an eating disorder, she's never had a problem with mental illness--lucky her.
Not dead. Never been to jail other than overnight for a single DUI, no crash, years ago--it's what motivated her to sober up. Not cold turkey, but with responsible moderation. Now she's a teetotaler, but we were raised that way.
She's fine.
We're *typical* of people who were like us as teens. We simply grew up.
We did some worse things that I'm just not comfortable listing. We grew up.
The lying, the drinking, the screwing around, the occasional casual drug use, the dropping grades, the fights with parents, the anger and occasional destructive rages, the mood swings---all of that is normal teenage misbehavior.
Those aren't troubled teens, those are teens who aren't as good as their peers at not getting caught.
Kids with mental illnesses or learning disabilities on top of all that normal teenage misbehavior aren't troubled teens, either. They're just teens with mental illnesses or learning disabilities that need to be treated or accommodated.
Troubled teens are teens that are habitual truants; physically addicted to hard drugs so that they regularly flunk drug tests showing same (not merely showing marijuana use); teens that commit vandalism serious enough that it's reasonable when they're prosecuted; teens that actually start fights with smaller or weaker kids and injure them--more than once; teens that steal from other-than-parents by shoplifting more than once, or by breaking and entering; teens that get busted for driving drunk when they really were or teens that the parents catch driving drunk more than twice or riding with a drunk driver more than three times; teens that rape or kill; teens that torture animals; teens that have or play with illicit guns or explosives other than fireworks or an over-enthusiastic interest in chemistry; kids that are dealing hard drugs or dealing soft drugs other than sharing with their immediate friends; sneaking out at night more than about half a dozen times; physically addicted to alcohol to the point of getting the DTs without it; in the hospital more than once to get his/her stomach pumped; or running away from home more than twice where the teen is not running to a friend, relative, or boyfriend's house, or some independent rental roof over their head, but is genuinely running to the street.
That's what a troubled teen is. That's the behavior that genuinely risks dead or in jail.
And even so most of the time the answer is one parent staying home to provide close supervision, or where the teen has a single parent, moving to the same town as a relative like a grandparent who can provide close supervision until the parent gets home from work.
All the other stuff is unacceptable, horrible behavior that the teen will outgrow and grow up from. And probably nothing the parent tries will work to "stop" it. The most you can reasonably do with a teen's unacceptable behavior is keep it down to a dull roar until they outgrow it.
I "get" that many parents would rather incarcerate their teen in a strict program than put up with the fact that nothing less is going to "stop" horrible but common teen misbehavior rather than keep it down to a dull roar.
But since most teens outgrow that stuff and outrageous rebellion and lots of totally unacceptable behavior and getting in lots of trouble over and over again is within the range of normal stuff that won't last beyond the teen years, I absolutely believe parents should not be *allowed* to incarcerate a teen for those things.
Timoclea
Every man has a property in his own person.
This nobody has any right to but himself.
The labor of his body and the work of his
hands are properly his.
--John Locke
--- End quote ---
Anonymous:
Timoclea,
I absolutely agree with what you said. My kids were "normally horrible" teens, who about drove me crazy. Somehow they all managed to survive just fine without any program but me. None ended up addicts, criminals, deadorinjail. Now that they are responsible adults, no one would believe what beasts they were as teens!
cherish wisdom:
I'd suggest writing letters to the editor of the paper that printed this hogwash. Both sides of this issue need to be out there because most people are not aware of the down side and the fact that most programs are just in it for the money.
For myself, I do not believe in any revelation. As for a future life, every man must judge for himself between conflicting vague probabilities.
--Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist
--- End quote ---
Dolphin:
Copper Canyon Academy is one of the Aspen Education Group -
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... &forum=9&8
However - I'm so happy to see that at least one newspaper is printing a positive story about troubled teen boarding schools. Aspen Education Group oversees schools, just like WWASPS oversees schools. Each school is more than likely independently owned.
The one thing that was a red flag for me in the newspaper article is that the family stays in contact with the therapists after they leave any of those 30 schools. Therapy for me says that something is still broken or still needs to be dealt with. By the time a graduate of, say cross creek, graduates, those issues have been dealt with, both the kids and the family.
WWASPS offers transition family coaching so when the family is back together they work on
communication and goals and values. I know there are some instances where therapy is still necessary, but does Aspen offer the coaching which is crucial, in my opinion? I can't imagine having gone through a program and not have this option for a few months.
Anonymous:
--- Quote ---On 2005-05-12 14:04:00, Dolphin wrote:
"Copper Canyon Academy is one of the Aspen Education Group -
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... &forum=9&8
However - I'm so happy to see that at least one newspaper is printing a positive story about troubled teen boarding schools. Aspen Education Group oversees schools, just like WWASPS oversees schools. Each school is more than likely independently owned.
The one thing that was a red flag for me in the newspaper article is that the family stays in contact with the therapists after they leave any of those 30 schools. Therapy for me says that something is still broken or still needs to be dealt with. By the time a graduate of, say cross creek, graduates, those issues have been dealt with, both the kids and the family.
WWASPS offers transition family coaching so when the family is back together they work on
communication and goals and values. I know there are some instances where therapy is still necessary, but does Aspen offer the coaching which is crucial, in my opinion? I can't imagine having gone through a program and not have this option for a few months. "
--- End quote ---
WWASP offers brainwashing, abuse, and destruction. You keep on trying to recruit new devotees here, don't you? "Coaching" is known by most legitimate therapsits to be pure crap, just like WWASP's techniques, which have nothing to do with helping people work out their issues, and everything to do with mind control.
Shame on you for promoting this cult.
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