CEDU Closing: A Parent's View

Whatever you think of CEDU and "emotional growth" placements for teens, the abrupt closing of CEDU created turmoil. 

This parent's letter says a lot.
 

CEDU School Bankruptcy and Closing

March 28, 2005

To the Editor:

As I write this, I reflect on the labors of a multitude of incredibly intelligent, sensitive and insightful people, whose help in the education and socialization of my son have led to me being on the northern Idaho panhandle, at a family ranch, at 3:00 AM, scribing a letter-to-the-editor.

CEDU, the vaunted, specialized educator of 'troubled teens' has abruptly closed its campuses nationwide. Citing the inability of the collective schools to maintain commercial viability, the board, whose fiduciary responsibility lies with stockholders, not students, chose closure as the solution to the ineptitude of their financial oversight.

I write now, with sorrow, anger, pity and disdain as my driving force, rather than the joy, hope, admiration and gratitude that was my expectation.

The folly of small-minded, greedy people to treat fine-tuned, specialized education as a simple cash-flow resource is in actuality the trigger for the atrocity perpetrated on the lives of the hundreds of staff, students and parents whose plans and goals were to turn the pained and misdirected acts of these 'troubled teens' into meaningful achievement.

CEDU was a stockholder-owned organization. As I write my letter, there is no doubt in my mind that lack of understanding of teaching, learning and learning systems, by those who analyzed the nature and quality of this investment led to decisions that created unreasonable cash-flow demands and subsequently resulted in this travesty. The true cause of this business failure is failure to know this business.

In support of my observation that especially in the Idaho panhandle the CEDU schools were vibrant and viable, I offer the current condition of the marketplace of student education, supplemental educational resources and the growing number of private study and learning enrichment and remediation centers nationally.

The current demand for individual and small-group tutoring, selected subject, and course review, and carefully focused teaching methodology among students in all grades (regardless of whether 'troubled' or not) has led to the proliferation of these financially successful education outlets. In one region of the country, a teacher-owned education-enrichment group will soon be expanded into all locations of a well-known supermarket chain. This 'cross marketing' is, of course, not like a CEDU school, but rather, shows the strength of the concept of specialized learning, beyond the model used by the famous SAT test preparation groups. Right now, there are a lot of people paying out a lot of money for specialized education.

In the case of the unexpected closing by CEDU of the campuses at Boulder Creek Academy and its neighbor Northwest Academy, both in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, the ownership displayed heartless, self-serving, selfish and callous behavior when it phoned notification of the 'right-now' status of the closure to executive staff members who were conducting a specialized workshop series designed to promote better parenting and more dedicated-to-achievement students just prior to their scheduled student visits. The ax fell as staffers struggled to sob out the words of the story while several hundred parents and students neared the final moments of an already emotionally charged week of training.

The ensuing anguish, hysteria and panic among parents too-stunned-to-believe that the wrenching decision to place a child into an emotional growth school a thousand miles from home had been suddenly rescinded and similarly among young men and women only recently coming to accept personal responsibility for scholarship and citizenship is unforgivable.

The CEDU corporate concept of continuity and caring most closely resembles a military hostility against an unarmed civilian population, and embodied all the compassion of an assault with fragmentation bombs. The carnage was horrifying. I was there, I saw it.

So as I write, I reflect on the decades of compassion administered by the generously nurturing staff members at the schools that have helped return hundreds upon hundreds of very loved children to the mainstream after the misfires of well intended parenting and the impacts of unthinking peer pressure conspired against still-developing personalities to misdirect the energies of youth.

And I compare the inestimable value of compassion against the incalculable destruction done when absentee ownership spreads the pollution generated by uncontrolled money-lust into the frail ecosystem of childrearing and education.

However harsh a punishment it may seem, to say that the names of those responsible for shutting the schools in the manner they did should be remembered forever as having undone four generations of progress in emotional growth education is to let a gutless evil slink away enjoying undeserved mercy and forgiveness with the Bankruptcy Acts as its protector.

And my reflection now includes my growing concern… my trepidation, facing a future of possibilities and uncertainties I thought were settled when I opened a pathway that included Boulder Creek…Yet, as I sit here in a snug cabin in a mountain forest, amidst the cold rain of early spring, in a darkness not quite broken by the pale suggestion of the light of dawn, I think, "Do as they would have done. Remember the lessons and use the tools… honor their love and dedication…" And I am filled with gratitude for those men and women who poured their lives into these schools so that children such as mine could blossom and grow and fulfill the 'great perhaps' of youth.

George F. Gowen III
13 Chip Lou Lane Scotch
Plains, New Jersey 07076
(Former) CEDU Parent
908 668 6831
george@gowen.com

CEDU Posts:

 

• Former CEDU Schools Reborn January 5 2007
• Update on CEDU Schools October 28 2005
• CEDU Properties Sold August 18 2005
• The Business of Troubled Teens August 18 2005
•  CEDU Closing: Buildings and Contents to be Sold May 8 2005
• CEDU Closing: On Edison Schools April 30 2005
• CEDU Closing: Pete Talbott's Resume April 27 2005
• CEDU Closing: McCown DeLeeuw Sued ByEmployees April 14 2005
• CEDU Closing: George Locker's Criticism of the CEDU Enterprise April 14 2005
• CEDU Closing: 1990 Snapshot of McCown DeLeeuw April 12 2005
• CEDU Closing: A Timeline of the CEDU Enterprise April 2005
• CEDU Closing: Letter from a Former Faculty Member April 2005
• CEDU Closing: Parents of CEDU Students Helping Economically Distressed Faculty April 7 2001
• CEDU Closing: Economic Impact on CEDU Employees Devastating April 7 2005
• CEDU Closing: 310 Employees Stiffed on Wages April  6 2005
• CEDU Closing: Who is To Blame? April 6 2005
• CEDU Closing: Running Springs Area Also Suffers Financial Impact April 6 2005
• CEDU Closing: An Alumnus Pleads, "Save CEDU!" April 4 2005
• CEDU Closing:  A Parent's Response to CEDU's Closing April 3 2005
• CEDU Closing: Bankruptcy Trustee Slams Door Shut, Then Open April 3 2005
• CEDU Closing: Parents Out Prepaid Tuition, Employees Lose Retirement. McCown Deleeuw Still Solvent April 3 2005
• CEDU Closing: King George Stays Open as Head Thinks on Feet April 3 2005
• CEDU Closing Shocks Industry Reporter April 3 2005
• CEDU Closing: Parent Company, Brown, Negotiating in Bad Faith?  April 1 2005
• CEDU Closing: More Details March 29 2005
• CEDU Closing: Brown Schools, CEDU's Parent, Files for Bankruptcy March 29 2005
• CEDU Closing: Margurite Sallee, The Brown Schools, and McCown DeLeeuw March 27 2005
• CEDU Closing: All CEDU Schools Closing Immediately March 25 2005
• CEDU Closing: Rocky Mountain Academy Folds Abruptly February 12 2005

Related Posts:

• Debunking "Tough Love" Programs April 11 2006
• Advice for Parents Seeking a Therapeutic Program for Their Children January 21, 2006
• Why The "Troubled Teen" Industry is Booming January 2, 2006
• The Road To Whatever August 25 2005
• Nonpublic School Governance April 23 2005
• Why Parents Seek and Pay for Therapeutic Boarding Schools April 14 2005
• NYT Article on the Therapeutic School Industry April 13 2005
• Therapeutic Schools: What Happens to Poor Kids April 10 2005
• Thinking of Sending Your Kid to A "Tough Love" Program?  March 30 2005

Questions Parents Should Consider Before Placing A Child

• NonPublic Schools: Part I--Overview
• NonPublic Schools--Part II Evaluating Mission, Values, & Goodness of Fit for Your Child
• NonPublic Schools--Part III Faculty and Staff Qualifications
• NonPublic Schools--Part IV: Evaluating Academic Program
• NonPublic Schools:Part V--On Accreditation
• NonPublic Schools:Part VI--More Detail on Financial Issues: IRS Status

Comments

[Eddy]

To George Gowen, the author of the letter above. You are a fool, for trusting then and still beleiving now, that CEDU schools taught their students the meaning of value and that they treated us with compassion. To any parent so desperate that they discard there own ability to make choices for themselves by giving authority of their child to an entity like CEDU, this is for their children, f*#@ you. CEDU certainly did.

[matt]

I attended RMA ten years ago. It does sound like George is still a believer and a master of long sentences that compose entire paragraphs. Maybe we should use less words and get real. RMA was the dirtiest most disgusting place I've ever seen.

[Manic]

Indeed George, You are not an astronaut, thus you haven't a clue what it feels like to be in outer space. Therefore since you did not have to endure a "stint" at Cedu or one of the Brown Schools you have not a clue to the insanity that went on there. I was there for 2.5 years plus 10 weeks at RMA and a 6 week Ascent trip in between it all. 15 years later I still have nightmares on ocassion about the place. You are truly a blinded horse to think that you even have the slightest clue as to what Cedu or any related Brown school is or was all about. To Matt and Eddy above well said my brothers. Also George, probably not the best idea to post your address. Just some friendly advice pal. -Enough Said-