Iowa's Midwest Academy looking for info or Comments (West Branch: school districts, live) - (IA) - City-Data Forum

cverity006 · 03-21-2009, 10:43 AM

Does anyone have any info on Midwest Academy?

pinetar10 · 03-23-2009, 05:39 AM

stay far, far away. their website is nothing like what it really is. words cannot describe what this place is like. if you are thinking of sending your son or daughter there, please do not.

cverity006 · 03-28-2009, 03:54 PM

I went there to visit, to consider. Got a really bad, somethings up feeling when i was told that my son would not have any phone calls in or out till level 4? that could take 3-4 momths? then those calls are monitored? I took a tour, received chilling looks from students. What is going on there? Were you a student or Parent of student there?

cverity006 · 03-28-2009, 06:03 PM

whats going on in these places.... i have a chill from my visit and i cant get the boys faces i saw out of my head...... i'm looking elsewhere for my son now. amazing what i have found on the net,
wwasps schools. How can it be? Who is going to help those kids?

iowegian · 03-28-2009, 07:47 PM

I don't know much about boarding schools, having gone to public schools my whole life, but if you are looking for another boarding school in Iowa, you might consider Scattergood Friends School in West Branch. It's a Quaker boarding school, other than that I don't know much about it. It seems nice from the website, looks like there are interesting class choices. Here's their website if you want to take a look: Welcome to Scattergood Friends School | Scattergood Friends School

QuadCityImages · 03-30-2009, 02:54 AM

Driving by the sign for Scattergood I always thought it sounded kind of creepy. However, looking at the website, it doesn't seem too bad at all. I'm still more of a public school kind of guy though.

pinetar10 · 03-30-2009, 07:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cverity006

whats going on in these places.... i have a chill from my visit and i cant get the boys faces i saw out of my head...... i'm looking elsewhere for my son now. amazing what i have found on the net,
wwasps schools. How can it be? Who is going to help those kids?

It is something else. Its stuff you do not ever hear about, but its terrible what goes on there. They need to do some kind of expose or something on dateline about these places.
Its very cult like and the kids are treated worse than prisoners. only thing is, nobody believes the kids after they get out, and when they are in, they cannot have unmonitored contact with parents, so they cannot let them know what is going in.

OuttaDBox · 02-15-2012, 09:20 PM

You have to keep in mind these schools deal with students who are very manipulative and defiant - they are there for a reason and they are in need of more structure and less freedoms bc the freedoms they did have they walked all over and took advantage of. They are masters at ring and manipulation! They basically have to re-learn that freedom is earned - you do schoolwork you get free time, pretty much like everyone is raised.

The problem is somewhere along the way these kids got (or took by bullying well-meaning parents) way too much freedom beyond what their character or maturity could handle and it emboldened them into power trips over their authority figures. Try to take freedom from a child out of control and you betcha you're gonna see a startle in their eyes - a good startle that says man, I screwed up, I don't like all these boundaries bc I'm addicted to calling my own shots, I'm gonna change my life so I can govern myself and be in charge of my own self-control instead of having a boarding school (or one-day a prison) do it for me.

It's not going to look like your local school and it shouldn't bc those schools can't meet these kids needs. Just bc it looks different or it's hard for some doesn't make it wrong.

The isolation from parents and monitored everything is to help them be alone with just themselves and who they are to see their self-destructive ways and to not have recurring exposure to their crutches, enablers, or those whom they let trigger their old bad behaviors until they have healing over those behaviors.

CSD610 · 02-15-2012, 09:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cverity006

Does anyone have any info on Midwest Academy?

Do a search and see if the Military Academy is still in Missouri around Mexico, Missouri. From what I understand it is a good place but I don't know for sure I've never had a child go there.

kkingnia · 03-26-2012, 03:36 PM

[URL="//www.city-data.com/forum/members/outtadbox-1329124.html"]OuttaDBox[/URL] has summarized Midwest Academy very well. Most of the students are high school age and out of the control of parents and /or local schools and law enforcement. It is, I understand, very expensive but providing 24/7 supervision and counseling as well as education is costly. I mostly visited with teachers and students but they seemed to do well with students who often did not want to be there at first. Most seem to see the light but you can't reach everyone. I would send my child there if he or she really needed it. I think public schools really ought to have a live-in option for the few students who are not benefiting educationally or behaviorally from what schools traditionally offer but again school districts cannot afford the cost.