| Schools,
Programs, & Visit Reports - Nov, 1989 Issue
|
Spring Creek Community
School
Headmaster: Steve Cawdry
Lon Woodbury's Visit
"Nothing is worth giving
up all the work I've done to be where I'm at in the Round Table."
I was listening to a 16-year-old
student Tour-Guide with six months at Spring Creek Community School
(SCC) in Western Montana. With her talk of Squires, Knights, and Knights
Templars, I was beginning to wonder if I had stumbled onto Camelot in
the Montana wilderness. Actually, it is a student developed program
which uses the symbolism of King Arthur's Round Table to help the students
achieve the courage of honesty. A student has to apply for each level,
face the honest and full questioning of his or her peers, and be elected
by majority vote for each level. Three-fourths of the student body are
members, and as one girl stated, "We own and help run the school." I
found this was fully supported by the faculty and was an important part
of their program.
I was there to spend two days
with Admissions Director Doug Ferral to critique their admissions program.
I found in the last six months the Admissions Department has learned
one of its most important duties is to service referring professionals,
helping them to service their client parents having children at SCC.
Admissions is listened to and respected by program people. For example,
Daily Living staff are currently responding to a push by Admissions
to upgrade the standards of the dorms and the physical environment.
The SCC program is a marriage
of experiential education, traditional academics, AA/Addiction model,
family systems counseling, physical activity, healthy daily living,
student centered education, and the idealism of King Arthur's Round
Table. The curriculum is unified to encourage students making their
own decisions as soon as is feasible, allowing the staff to gradually
back off from making decisions for the child. They feel this is vital
to keep the students from developing a dependency on the school. The
students I talked to had made positive changes in their behavior and
attitudes. In the Personal Recovery Program developed for each child
when he or she first enrolls, SCC identifies the child's and family's
issues, and helps the child and parents work on them throughout their
stay. Among other issues, they have identified the special needs of
graduates of Chemical Dependency Units and are ready to help that child
continue working on those issues through continuing their 12-step work.
In essence, SCC seems to be strongest as a long term continuation from
a short term Drug Treatment Program. Another strength is the attitude
that once enrolled, a student and his or her family are always part
of SCC. The counseling staff are regularly traveling to all parts of
the country to work with parents of current students. Alumni and parents
of alumni are encouraged to attend these groups and many do keep working
on their issues through these groups. SCC is also looking to develop
a program for young adults over the age of 18 some time next year.
Everybody has some fun too.
If you visit and time it right, you maybe can even see Headmaster Steve
Cawdry play Merlin in a Round Table ceremony, complete with a wizard's
conical hat.
Copyright
© 1989, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced without
prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author
attribution accompanies the copy.) |
