On 2006-03-06 18:33:00, Anonymous wrote:
"When I went to RMA, my parents demanded that I be in classes full time. While other kids went off to chop wood, I went to classes.
Early on one of the math teachers took ill and I was asked, by my 5 fellow students, if I could teach them the material since I was widely regarded as being well ahead of my peers.
So I taught them Algebra 1 and Geometry for 8 weeks. I don't think the teacher ever returned.
Eventually I was asked to continue teaching, and I ended up teaching Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2 and Trig to the students there. They did not offer Physics, even though Will Vernard should have been qualified I think.
The point of this was that the school knew it had no teachers capable of teaching math, much less science, as most were not all that bright to begin with. Many people can complete courses without ever retaining the information for later use. As such, though someone attended college and may have received a degree, they might be unqualified or incapable of teaching others what they learned.
RMA and the other schools seemed to be this way. Many of the classes had names that reflected hobbies more than actual courses. I am one of the few people to this day that can say I took Basket Weaving in school.
Other courses were called Photography in Nature. Basically taking pictures of plants, leaves or whatever else we found. Very relaxing class, but hardly prep-work for attending a college. Animal Husbandry, which was nothing more than being able to identify what parts of the cow went with what cuts of meat at the grocery store. Hard to impress a college administrator with that kind of knowledge. They should have had video game playing and called it Computer Theory or Computer Strategy and Simulation.
Most states back then required 200-220 units to graduated and receive a diploma. Somehow, with Idaho having the same requirements, I graduated with more than 900 units, because these schools consider everything you do to be worth credits. So many of those credits came in the form of Home Economics. By the time you were halfway through the program, you often had worked in the kitchen, and that counts as credits for graduation. Pretty much everything we did counted. The diploma, for most of us, was not worth the paper it was written on.
I had it easy. Learning came naturally to me and I was far ahead in school before I arrived and could have taken the GED when I was 10 years old. But I watched so many students, who had at least been getting a normal education back home -equal to their learning levels- reduced to incompetent, uneducated teens as they "graduated" from the program, totally unequipped to handle college or anything requiring any semblance of an education.
But the staff would comment that we were not there to get educated, because that was not our problem. There were far more important things for us to be working on. I only attended classes often because my parents bugged the school often, asking endless questions about my academics. Because, ultimately, that was all they cared about. I could have been a mass murderer, but my parents would have just said, "uh huh, but how are your grades?" Because to them, good grades, meant good kid.
But what I was saying above, about how the staff made it "ok" for us not to get a good education, was the point of this post. They knew these schools did not have the staff or licensed teachers to provide a real education. It was not really a part of their Master Plan. The reason for this might be the same reason why dictatorships and Communist countries limit interaction with the outside world to their subjects. Education and free communication breed free thinkers. The last thing RMA and CEDU wanted for us, was to have us thinking for ourselves. Asking questions. Questioning what was going on.
And the reason they kept communication with the parents vague and uninformative, was for the very same reason. And they were well practiced at this tactic and very good at it. But based on what the two parents above demonstrated, not always perfect as some parents were able to figure it out for themselves.
It is a natural instinct for parents to protect their children. And like the two posters above, when a parents gets an inkling that something is amiss, that their child may be in danger, action is taken. Right or wrong. We should be using this site to inform parents, teach them, educate them, so this stuff doesn't continue. Because ultimately, as the customers, only they can boycott and shutdown these places by not sending their kids there. What we should not be doing, is just using this as a place to rant back and fourth amongst ourselves on trivial issues.
Whether Roy was great or not is not something I came to this site to argue about. I come here to interact with former students and validate for myself, verify for myself that what I experienced was experienced by others and that I am not insane for thinking there was something wrong with these schools. For thinking they did something to us, against our will and that we were harmed by it.
"
Sorry for quoting such a long post but I feel that this is an important one.
I could have written this post myself other than the fact that my parents just threw me into the program and I had the honor of chopping wood et al. that most students had.
I too taught my "algebra and geometry" class...it was the only math class that I have recollection taking...I mean teaching. If I remember correctly Will Vernard WAS our teacher (It might have been Bob though)...and he was also quite adept at math...however, most of the other students were struggling and Will...athough a very competent mathematician himself, was not as competent when it came to actually teaching the stuff. He had a tough time "simplifying" things so that the students could understand better. I saw where I could be of help the first day of class and offered to show the students some simple algebra. Will directed me to the chalkboard and handed me the chalk. I went on to explain things so that the students could get a basic grasp of what algebra actually was...they were having a tough time grasping the concept of a variable and for some reason, I was able to help them better than Will.
To make a long story short...I got frustrated also as in MY mind...I was there to learn...not to play "teacher" to students that were eons behind me academically (I was 17 and had 13 year olds in the class) so basically after the first two classes we all just sat around and listened to the RMA designated teacher tell his pre RMA "war stories".
please note that I'm not sure if it was Will or Bob that was teaching...but I'm pretty sure it was Will.
I still think I got an A in the class...pretty pathetic.
but it's really not the academics that I have a beef with...it is the basic premise of the so called "therapy" and the structure of the program itself.