Customer Reviews

Character First: The Hyde School Way and Why It Works

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I am a current student at the Hyde School. I saw this book on amazon.com and immediately thought that I should post a comment on what I felt and truths behind the philosophy and how it is taught.

I recall hearing a statement that someone believes Hyde is viewed by many as something along the lines of a cult. It is true; many students have used that metaphor many times, including me. They believe that they are always right, and there is no way around it. Their philosophy is great; the views and things they try to teach the students are dead-on and I barely have any complaints about them. HOWEVER, they go about teaching them the wrong way. Example: There is a prinipal at Hyde that they call "Brother's Keeper," which is defined as holding eachother to their best. This idea is a great idea and should be practiced, however students should not be penalized and given severe consequences for such petty incidents such as being with someone who is wearing a hat inside a building. They go about dealing with students using profanity by making them do pushups rather than actually seeing the reason behind the profanity and seeing if there was, infact, true justification for it's use.

Example of a severe consequence? "2-4." I believe it stands for 24 hours in a day, in which a student is put on "2-4" for an indefinite period of time. While on "2-4," a student is not permitted to talk to anyone else in the school except for faculty, not allowed to eat hot food on the lunch line (bagels, salads, etc. are allowed), rake leaves/shovel snow/clean all the buildings (depending on the season), and must attend "5:30's" every day. What is a "5:30," you ask? It is when a student is required to be inside the gymnasium at 5:30 in the morning in order to conduct a workout. These include suicides (the type of running, not the taking of one's own life), laps, pushups, situps, wall-sits, and basically every form of physical work you can think of. I have been on "2-4" for weeks at a time because Hyde dean's THOUGHT that I had broken rules and still had them on my consciense, which I clearly did not. I am scared to use my real name on Amazon, my grade, what year I am in at Hyde, or even which campus I am at, because I would most likely be put on "2-4" for attitude and have to deal with multiple confrontations about something along the lines of a "rebel attitude."

I apologize because it seems that this is turning into a whole complaint and argument against Hyde, which is not my intention. This is not the place for that. However, I am just trying to portray some things regarding Hyde that you may not know of by just reading Joe Gauld's (whom I have had the pleasure of meeting, as well as his son, Malcom Gauld) book. I have lived this book for long enough to know what I am talking about.

Basically, my advice is to not look at this review and say "Hyde must be full of bs" because Hyde is far from it. Their views are great and their philosophy is great, but the way they teach it to their students is way too off. I suggest reading this book if you have children and carefully looking at all of the ideas and philosophies in the book. However, I suggest NOT teaching your children those ideas in the ways that may be described in the text, but rather using your own ways and seeing what works on your child, because no technique will work for everyone. Hyde's techniques have worked on a select few individuals in my school (I'd say around 7 out of over 200), and I have seen more negative results than positive results.

While this book does provide sound principles for developing a youngster's character, in practice, the Hyde experience does not play out as described. The principles in the book when put into practice at the school create a punitive environment for not just the students but the parents. Never have I felt my privacy or that of my family so invaded. I pulled my child out of Hyde after only one semester, as the cult atmosphere and the requirement that everyone fall in line without question reminded me of a similar experience I had years back with the "Landmark Forum" or EST, where you are made to feel that everything you've done up until now is just plain wrong. My child did much better away from Hyde and has gone on to be a successful adult. When we withdrew, we were told our child could never come back to visit Hyde friends. The realities of Hyde School seriously undermine some of the good information in the book. Read the book if you must, but run from the school.

We were introduced to this book last spring when our daughter was enrolled at the Hyde School (Woodstock campus). We do not question the author's sincerity or enthusiasm. In principle, many of the values and concepts broached in this book are laudable. However, the Hyde School that our family experienced and the one portrayed in this book are radically different. In our family's experience, much too often the school does not live up to the ideals of truth, honesty, integrity, courage, and accountability espoused by the author in this book. We witnessed many instances of what we consider to be egregious emotional abuse, manipulation, and mishandling of students' mental health issues -- practices that contradict the author's confident assertions about the Hyde model. As the renowned author, James Traub, says in his recent assessment of the Hyde model, "The school sometimes feels to the kids like prison on the honor code . . . . About 40 percent of each class drops out. One senior told me that she was one of 9 kids remaining from her freshman class of 25 or 30. . . . Hyde feels almost like a cult, or at least a caste." (James Traub, "The Moral Imperative," Education Next, 2005). Traub's insightful, astute observations seem much closer to the truth, as we know it, than Gauld's chracterization in this book.

I grew up across the street from Hyde School in Bath. When I was little I found used syringes on the campus. There were also several reported suicide attempts and students often ran away. I knew several local students who went there and were miserable. Hyde School and their methods should not be glorified.

This book consists largely of anecdotes told by Joe Gauld, founder of the Hyde Schools. A proponent of character-first education and a bit of an egotist, Gauld set out, as he says, "to remake the American educational system." Whether he did that or not remains to be seen--the Hyde schools have their pluses and their minuses. The Gaulds have developed a cult-like following among some parents, but the Hyde schools have just as many failures as successes. Character education should be an important part of any child's upbringing, but this book of warmed-over anecdotes doesn't really help. A much better guide to Gauld's philopsphy is Laura Gauld's "The Biggest Job We'll Ever Have..."

Joe Gauld's goal was to reform American education when he founded Hyde School in Bath, ME about 35 years ago. His idea was that only about 12% of students had the aptitude to really succeed in the current system, which emphasized top grades leading to a great college and eventually making a lot of money. The other 88% of students were relegated to second-class status or worse. Furthermore, he believed that success in life was not created by high aptitude and a prestigious job, but rather by character traits that would lead to fulfillment of each person's unique potential. To date, the Hyde schools have expanded to two boarding schools (Bath, ME and Woodstock, CT) and two inner-city public charter schools (New Haven and Washington, DC). It has also spun off teacher training programs and a nationwide parent training program. The parent program is described in a new book by Joe's son and daughter in law (Biggest Job We'll Ever Have : The Hyde School Program for Character-Based Education and Parenting -- Laura Gauld (Editor), Malcolm Gauld; Hardcover, to be published by Scribner's in Feb. 2002.

As a parent of two children at Hyde, I can say from experience that what this book says is what the school actually does. For me, the Hyde experience has revolutionized the way I think about education, parenting, and other related efforts, such as psychotherapy and family counseling. The present, majority system is doing it wrong. Joe Gauld had the vision to see the truth, and he set up a system that does it right.

I am the parent of a Hyde School graduate and, having successfully completed the mandatory Family Education program, a proud graduate as well.

When I found out about the Hyde program in an online chat room for parents of teens in trouble, I bought this book. It was like a lifeline to me. I was so fed up with the superficiality of contemporary American culture. Here was someone willing to say that high values and effort are important in life. In my heart, I knew that the easy A's my daughter got at public school were more indicative of a failure of the schools to hold her to a high standard of scholarship than a sign of her accomplishment.

She went off the rails in her early teens. She calls those her "terminal years" as she's realized she was taking huge risks. I didn't expect her to live to eighteen.

Hyde School was the first place where she was challenged academically. They give an effort grade as well as an achievement grade. The effort grade is expected to exceed the achievement grade. With much struggle, she gained insight, compassion, and confidence in her abilities. She was well-prepared for college as she had great tools and study habits.

Joe Gauld's practical experience and pragmatic system helps parents evaluate their own family's values. The book is a fast read. It engages humor with real life sad examples of families and teenagers who turned their lives around. The school expanded to two campuses, the second in Woodstock, CT.

This is a great book for everyone to read, however the Hyde philosophy won't be fully understood by just reading the book. The full experience comes from emersing ones self into the process. During my senior year there, Laura and Malcom Gauld came out with "The Biggest Job" and Joe was working on a text book. Both are good reading. It has a few anecdotes that many can realte to. I find that they have a new meaning each time I read them.