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Messages - Lars

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151
Hyde Schools / Would you recommend Hyde ?
« on: October 29, 2005, 11:54:00 PM »
No way.  I think sending your kid there is tantamount to child abuse, both physical and mental.  Not mention masochistic, if you're going to subject yourself to their "family learning centers."

What you've got there is a boot camp combined with a bunch of absolute amateurs  attempting serious psychotherapy.  And the academics suck.

152
Hyde Schools / "Shoreland" shines a light on Gulag schools like Hyde
« on: October 29, 2005, 12:03:00 AM »
As horrible as my experience was there, I don't let it affect my life anymore, despite my lingering anger at my folks who just can't bring themselves to admit that they f&^%$d up by buying into the Hyde mentality.  

Warm weather, palm trees, beautiful girls and a real educational experience (college) helped wash it all away.

153
Hyde Schools / Warning about Hyde School from an educational consultant
« on: October 28, 2005, 11:56:00 PM »
They made repeat my junior year, not because I had failed academically, but because I wasn't "ready" to be a senior there.  In other words, I got held back because I hadn't bought into the cult.  What a waste.

And when I attended their summer program, I ran away (I literally could not stand it) & hitchhiked back to my parents house.  The school told my parents not to let me back in the house, and sure enough, they bought that crap.  It was either live on the streets as a 16 year old, or go back to Hyde.  I went back.  My parents promised me during my second junior year that if I did better I could return to my old public high school.  On the "advice" of the Hyde administration, they reneged on their promise.  To this day I occasionally have nightmares about being told that I have to spend yet another year at Hyde.

154
Hyde Schools / "Sports" at Hyde Schools
« on: October 25, 2005, 11:35:00 AM »
Remember the old saying, "When I was your age, I walked five miles to school in the snow?"  Well, we actually had to run ten miles in the snow at 5:30 in the morning for the wrestling team...and that was separate from the afternoon practice where we were "sharked."  Wrestling was like some sort of religion there.  Personally, I hated it.  Wearing tights and rolling around on the floor with another guy, to paraphrase Judd Nelson, was not my idea of a fun thing to do.  But unless you were really talented at basketball, you had no choice.[ This Message was edited by: Lars on 2005-10-25 08:36 ][ This Message was edited by: Lars on 2005-10-25 20:19 ]

155
Hyde Schools / Warning about Hyde School from an educational consultant
« on: October 25, 2005, 11:20:00 AM »
Proper therapy and medication, not their "seminars," turned my life around.  And I came out of my shell in college, where I realized how crappy Hyde's academics were.  Hyde actually ruined my chances to get into some colleges because of their grading system.  You would get two grades, achievement and effort, and the two were averaged together.  I'd get high achievement grades, but low effort grades because they said I wasn't a "leader" in class.  I think they set the system up this way to help some kids who didn't have the intellect, but it really hurt a student like me who didn't fit their mold.  Fortunately, I obtained a very high score on the SAT (and the dumb schmucks on the Hyde faculty couldn't figure out how).  Even so, my high test score combined with my mediocre grades convinced some colleges that I was an underachiever.

In college, I could learn my own way, just sitting back, enjoying the lectures & getting A after A.  Ironically, after a few years I began to participate quite a bit in classroom discussions.

In the real world, colleges, grad schools & employers don't give a f&^% about your effort unless it leads to high achievement.  I wasn't suprised to see that many of my classmates who played the academic game well at Hyde struggled in college and the alumni class notes section of the Hyde newsletter was filled with entries describing how so and so was trying to find him or herself (and glossing over the fact that they had dropped out of college).

I noticed too, that they tried to steer kids to small liberal arts colleges in the northeast.  Screw that, I went west to a big school (Arizona State) and gave them the proverbial middle finger by partying my ass off AND doing well enough to get into law school.

I like this site.  It's cathartic to be able to get some of this of my chest.

 [ This Message was edited by: Lars on 2005-10-25 08:22 ]

156
Hyde Schools / Warning about Hyde School from an educational consultant
« on: October 22, 2005, 11:48:00 PM »
I graduated from Hyde in 1990 and I still carry an intense anger towards my parents for making me spend three of the most miserable years of my life there.  I'm a successful attorney and it's no thanks to that cult.  Emotionally humiliating, intellectually stifling...I refuse to have anything to do with the place and I routinely tear up any fund raising mailers.

Going to college was like being let out of prison.  I never enjoyed school until I left that hell hole.  The comments on this board regarding the school's treatment of mental health problems as character issues bring back a lot of rancid memories (I suffered from severe depression and they told me I was lazy, the ignorant bastards).

I'm busy getting ready for a major trial, but I'll return to this board later and share some more details. The advice to prospective parents urging caution is well taken.

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