Posted on 04/18/2002 11:05:56 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
townhall.com
Michelle Malkin (back to story)
April 19, 2002
See Dick and Jane weep
Home schooling is looking more and more like the only sane educational option these days.
The latest news of the weird in our public schools comes from Seattle. Last week, The Seattle Times reports, nearly 300 students from two middle schools were subjected to three long days of gut-spilling seminars aimed at "creating a safe school environment free of teasing and harassment."
Principals and teachers traded in phonics for histrionics. Children learned the Oprahfied alphabet -- A for apologies, B for blame, and C for crying. Uncontrollable crying. Kleenex must have made a killing. Here's how the Times reporter described the workshops:
"Sitting in small circles, their knees touching, students shared their own hurt and the pain they had inflicted on others. The tears flowed. In some groups, half the Washington Middle School students were crying at once. Applause followed, as the seventh- and eighth-graders stepped up to roving microphones and declared what they would do to mend broken relationships with their schoolmates. Two boys shook hands after one apologized for making fun of the other, and said he hoped to be more supportive.
"A girl owned up to snubbing an old friend. 'I'm sorry that I've been very distant and that I've chosen other friends in school,' she said. 'I'm going to work on that, and I'm going to be a better friend.' The girls embraced."
All bounds of privacy and self-restraint were erased as seminar "facilitators" encouraged their young guinea pigs to confess whether they -- or friends or family members -- had ever faced addiction problems, sadness over the death of loved ones, guilt over teasing others because of their weight, or thoughts of suicide. The public sniveling and sniffling ended with a "final exercise -- hugging as many people as possible in two minutes, to the theme from 'Rocky.'" One child, showing uncommon wisdom, dubbed the dolorous debacle a "psycho cry-fest."
It's only the beginning: This bizarre emotional circus may be coming to an unacceptably dry-eyed classroom near you. Sponsored by a for-profit company called Resource Realizations in Scottsdale, Ariz., and run jointly by a nonprofit organization called Challenge Day, the chief operator of these weeping workshops says he smells a "a huge potential growth area" in the public schools. Seattle students received information packets from Resource Realizations founder David Gilcrease. "While Challenge Day is a critical first step, a one-day learning experience only goes so far," Gilcrease wrote in literature distributed to the children. "To create truly lasting transformation in their lives, most teens need more."
For starters, there's the company's three-day, $295 Teen Discovery seminar. This leads to pricey summer camps, parent-child workshops and retreats full of self-esteem-boosting babblers who teach participants such vital skills as learning "to interrupt unconscious mental and emotional cycles which tend to sabotage results." According to the Resource Realizations Web site, public seminars are also being run in San Diego, San Francisco, Dallas, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and Chicago.
Unbeknownst to Seattle school officials and parents who raved about the workshops, Resource Realizations has a dubious history. It is connected to a shady racket of companies peddling kiddie rehab programs with names such as "Tranquility Bay" and "Paradise Cove" that have been accused of brainwashing youngsters. Yet, the Seattle schools' superintendent, Joseph Olchefske, seemed only mildly perturbed that the company coaching Seattle schoolchildren to get all choked up -- and then foisting their promotional flyers on the overwrought kids -- is also a defendant in several lawsuits involving claims of emotional abuse at its behavior-therapy facilities.
Where are all those anti-corporate lefties who protest the commercialization of the schools -- you know, the ones always complaining about cafeteria junk food being stuffed down the throats of helpless students? These mindless p.c. workshops are junk food, too -- completely devoid of academic calories.
Now, there may be legitimate private businesses out there that provide real help to families with emotional problems. But even so, they have no place in taxpayer-funded schools whose primary function is supposed to be filling students' heads -- not emptying their lachrymal ducts.
Contact Michelle Malkin | Read her biography
©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
townhall.com
In one, my roommate was "helped" by the others (i.e. picked on and ridiculed).,
In my group, we were supposed to tell private matters to "share" them. A lot of them I figured were none of the other student's business, so I lied and made up stuff. And when I was on call, I arranged the nurses to page me after twenty minutes so I could go to an "emergency". The "emergency" was usually sitting around with the nurses and others drinking coffee and shooting the breeze. Sometimes we actually shared private matters in these informal coffee klatches, but the difference was that I could chose to share or not to share: I was not interrogated about my deepest feelings in front of a lot of other students who didn't really care about me but would have probably confronted me with my politically incorrect opinions.
This is, of course, brainwashing....
Btw, this is the same as This story previously posted.
For millions of young people every day, violence and alienation has become deeply ingrained in his or her school experience. Challenge Day, a non-profit organization, and its team are committed to stopping teen violence and alienation. Our award-winning programs are designed to tear down the walls of separation, inspiring participants to live, study and work in an environment of compassion, acceptance and respect. Now you can take a stand to stop the violence, abuse, alienation and isolation that so profoundly affects the youth of our world. Join us in our efforts and experience the power of Challenge Day. ....
Challenge Day, the organization, was formed in January of 2001 and operates as a 501(c)(3) non profit tax exempt organization to assist schools financially to host Challenge Days and to provide a structure for the Challenge Days Mentorship Programs to reach a national and international audience.
Motivated by memories of their own teen experiences and fueled by the desire to instill positive change in the world, Yvonne and Rich St. John- Dutra created the transformational and award-winning Challenge Day Program 14 years ago. Through Challenge Day, hundreds of thousands of young people have seen the power of love and compassion transforms their schools and their communities.
Story from Seattle Times.
Financial reports not posted on guidestar.org.
I'll bet!
It's easier hiring vacuous emotion-driven cirriculum contractors than teaching math and science, for sure.
On the other hand, if it keeps them from teaching the public school versions of American History and government, I'm all for it!
Yet another parasitic industry arriving on the scene to drain school budgets.....and how long before this becomes a required class, conveniently stuck under the "health and safety" banner?
Thank God for homeschooling.
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