In Denmark too much evidence has been presented and it now a new course has been set. There is no such thing as underachievement. Denmark is properly the first country in the world which will lower the percentage of youth graduating high school. There is no reason to keep teenagers in high school if they don’t use their high school exam for anything. Then it makes more sense to refer teenagers after only 9 years of schooling into apprenticeship at carpenter, painters and other handymen at an early age so they can enter the work force earlier and become low income tax-payers right away instead of delaying it three years.
But in order to make these improvements the parents misguided ambitions must be defeated. Of parents are in self-denial. If they have no heavy academic background their children will often fail. If they battle alcohol or drug addiction as well, they should make their children aim at lower goals in life. And it is self-denial which too often results in sending teenagers to wilderness programs. To add to the damage they often don’t inform their children about the decision in advance. So once the children are in the field without knowing what the purpose with the stay is or for how long the stay is, the risk of confrontation is high. How are these confrontations handled? Is it abuse? Opinions are divided among experts but among the children the answer is clear. Abuse took place in the past. Statements have been found on several message board. One is queted below.
Ok, just skimmed throuhg the posts and had to post again, as I forgot to get to this in my rant.
As for the abuse at redcliff, it WAS there. while there was no real physical abuse that I saw (of course, when you are there, you are in a group of about 7-15 with 3 counslers, so who knows about the other groups) there was still abuse. If someone didn't do exaclty as they were told, they could be punished with lack of food, loss of "needed" gear, like tarps to cover with in rain, jackets or the "privilage" of getting warmer clothes from your "stash". I say privilage, because you had a certain ammount of clothes, you didn't want to carry them all, so you could swap out from your bag every 2 weeks. You had to guess what was coming, cuase you could be in shorts hikeing in the snow or in a sweater in the valley, very hot. There'd be times when you just weren't allowed to get warmer clothes. Other punishments where the "cart", though I only heard about that, the "red suite" (an bright red, and very thick and hot jump suite you'd be forced to wear...no matter what temp. it was. Emotional and psychilogical abuse from yelling and degrading, to not allowing letters and just being down right cruel, even eploiting a childs past to degrade them, to physically restraining in a painfull, though "not harfull" manner.
And yes, if you "got with the program" it did not happen to you. So if you just went along with everything, you probobly didn't see the abuse. The reason, and I'm guessing here, is to give good testimonials. Bad child goes to camp, comes back with a positive experince and outlook. Or, bad child goes to camp, can't "hack it", is abused and mistreated, comes out, no one belives because this child was just "beyond help".
Sad isn't it. I could just imagine what CPS hell I'd be in if I took a child out into the desert, fed him rice twice a day, didn't allow him access to a bathroom, or even allow him to bathe, pushed him to the point of physical exhasution every day, then topped it all off by telling him how terrible he is, and how with the power of attorny I now have, I can do what every I want and he couldn't even tell anyone of the abuse. No wonder places like this get shut down, investigated and sued often
Sources:
- Has anyone been through Redcliff Ascent? (Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora)
- Factsheet about the program (Fornits Wiki)
