Letter To The Editor

As the parent of a Family Foundation School graduate, I have read the articles and watched the U-Tube testimony of critics and a less than satisfied former student. Each person, whether student or parent, has their own truth, reality and experience.

My experience begins in my home, pre-Family School, where my son’s bad behavior controlled our family life and ran our household. My decisions and behavior were in reaction to him and his drug use, depression, lying, stealing and all his chaos-creating behavior. I altered, negotiated and bent the rules. I rarely imposed appropriate consequences to his terrible behavior, and our home was full of fear, worry and sadness. I was rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, and The Family School became the life boat.

I turned my beloved son over to the staff at the school, and I learned to let go. My ways in my home did not work. I learned to trust the process, the rules and the decisions of the staff at The Family School. I resisted all the moments of reaching for the phone to call my contact person to tell him how to handle my son. Although I did not understand all the rules and consequences at the school, I knew my way did not work for this child.

I let go and let the staff be in charge of my son without direction from me. I learned that the staff sets the bar high for academics, personal responsibility and moral fiber. My son stretched himself to go beyond what his low self-esteem could envision. He reached that bar, and went beyond to become a responsible, happy, mature young man.

Academic blackout, the corner, please and thank you, work sanctions, the slide by five club, are merely evidence of a process the staff uses to teach our children to become men and women. By letting go and trusting the staff, and my son’s higher power, I learned that he could grow up without me orchestrating the details. I let the staff steer the course of our life boat, and I gratefully took my seat as a passenger.

My heartfelt thank you to the staff at The Family School.

Marcia S.