First-hand accounts of the Scientology Experience
School Daze: Inside an Applied Scholastics school
From council@luna.cas.usf.edu Sun Jun 18 12:42:59 BST 1995
The following is a statement in a letter dated 6/95, from a person who
wishes to remain anonymous who now lives in Florida. Posted with
permission, in five parts.
SOME NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED BY THE POSTER.
BEGIN PART ONE-------------------------------------------------
My experience with scientology was mostly through one of their Applied
Scholastics schools. I was looking for something other than the public
school system and found an Applied Scholastics school that claimed to be
non-denominational, a sane environemnt, and an individual self-paced
academic program for the student. I was told that it was based on the
breakthrough study technology of the great "educator" L Ron Hubbard. I
didn't really know anything about LRH being the founder of sci at the
time, and once I found out, I didn't know anything about sci anyway
except for the fact that John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Tom Cruise and
other "successful" Hollywood actors were members.
The claim that the school was non-denominational was a bold-faced
lie. Everything was scientology. Knowledge reports were kept on students,
Q & A upon admissions which were kept in files and used to smear students
who "blew", stat charts, study courses and the comm course (which being
under the Tax Exempt umbrella makes them "religious" courses), ethics
policies, success stories, Friday graduation and wins sharing and
applause, etc., etc.
As for the sane environment, that was a joke. Everything always
depended on the mood of the ED, who, while a "clear" was extrememly
reactive and moody. It was common when students would come in to timidly
ask me "What mood is Joan in today?" If she lost control of the
courseroom she would literally start stamping her feet and banging her
fists on the tables and screaming till her face turned red. She would
stick her face two inches away from a student's face and freak out on
them. She really managegd to have the students intimidated. Of course
when she wasn't around they would imitate her and laugh about what a
basket case she was. If anyone dropped a piece of clay from the clay
table she would start screaming for knowledge reports and run around
waving her arms screaming "who did this, who did this." But when she
would talk with the parents, she would be Miss mellow smiles and calm,
tender voice, and say how much she cared about their children and she was
there to help them. Then whenever any of the students would try to tell
their parents what was going on, the parents wouldn't believe them. One
thing I decided while being there and seeing all of this, is I would
rather believe my child in a lie than to disbelieve him in the truth. Of
course neither of these options are desirable. But I have seen the trust
taken away between a parent and their child when the parent pooh poohs
the child coming to them with something upsetting them that is true. I
learned my lesson, and I learned that I will not sit by and let lies and
emotional abuse go on anymore without speaking up.
PART TWO OF FIVE----------------------------------------------------
Regarding Applied Sch. promises and the "credible evidence" it
produces. They say that with the Learning Book and/or the Basic Study
Manual (Learning How to Learn for younger children) that once the student
takes the course all the problems they had in school with learning are
"handled." They make a big deal about misunderstood words, which to a
point is true. I do believe the dictionary should be used in public
schools much more than it is now. But these kids had real learning
problems. After the "study courses" they still had them, but in an
environment where results can be manipulated, they seem to have been
eliminated. Then comes the time when the person gets back in the real
world without the "scientology" support and control system, and they are
no better off than before, and in some cases depending upon the
alienation from the real world, they are worse off. Of course they say
even learning disabilities are just MUs, and when the child looks up the
word and understands it everything is fine.
I don't know if any of you were in any part of an org where you had
to report to LA on the org's stats each Thursday, but if you were I'm
sure you saw how stats can be "inflated" and manipulated [poster's note:
MMMMmmm! Tastes just like Allstate!]. These are the same stats Ap Sch
uses to advertise how wonderful they are.
There are stats for student points that each student has to keep for
each day. Also there were different stats for courses completed by each
of the students that week as well. You understand the different
conditions Power, Affluence, Liability, etc., I hope. These are
determined by the weekly graphing of your stats. The school I worked at
manipulated these by inflating student points. They would take students
off of the courses they really needed to get a standard academic
education, such as math, history, etc. which take a lot of work and time
to get the course completions. Then they would be put on some really
educationally benign program of drawing a picture, calling each picture
an art course, counting it as a completion, plus taking the points for
it. If they were far behind the previous weeks completions and points,
all of the students would draw several pictures, taking an art
"completion" for each one and the points that go with it. Also, they
would be given silly drills to do that they could complete rapidly and do
them over and over and over and take 75 points each time the drill was
done and that brought up the student points rapidly. That way going by
how many points the studnets were completing each week made it seem like
they were doing a lot of work, but the thing is, it was *quantity* work and
NOT *quality* work. All of these many completions and student points
looked really great on paper. My, how much work it appeared the students
were doing. HA!! Of course the work was useless as far as what really
needed to be done for the studnets legitimate high school studies.
PART THREE OF FIVE------------------------------------------
So any proof of anything can be manipulated, and believe me it's not just
the C/S that does this with all their programs. Of course all of the
students from this school have high GPAs when they transfer out of her
shcool or "graduate." But what people don't realize is that the school
doesn't give *anybody* a grade lower than a B. A B is the lowest grade
you can get, unles you transfer out without taking an exam on the course
in question to test what you have really learned. In that case she will
give you a C. I worked with the "examiner" and when the student takes the
exam at the end of the course, the examiner goes over all the questions
they missed with the student and will try to lead them to the correct
answer. If they can get them to remember the proper ansewr the first time
around, even if they originally missed several questions, they get an A.
If they can't remember, they are given the questions they missed on the
test on a pink sheet and told what part of the book to look over to get
the answers, and then they retake the questions they missed. Then, if
they still miss the questions, the process is repeated for those
questions until the student finally memorizes the answers to all the
qeustions they missed. Even if they missed 70% of the test the first
time, then 40% of the questions the second time, then 20% the third, and
finally get those right on the fourth try, they would still be given a B
for that course. Now is that a dream come true for someone who wants a
high GPA...to go to a school that you know the lowest grade ypou can make
is a B! Now I know why colleges want the SAT tests to be taken before a
student can enter their college and not just go by graduating GPAs alone.
If they come from a private school such as the Applied Scholastics school I
worked at, the students look good, but they didn't really learn,a nd the
GPAs are not fair in comparison to people who went to schools where you
didn't get the opportunity time after time after time to do the same
questions over and over on the same test until you get it right and get a
B. In most schools if you get a C, D or F on your exams the first time
you get a C, D or F, period.
Now I can't say if all Applied Scholastics schools all over the
country work this same way. I do know that the ED (who was also the
director and teacher for the "high school" level) at this school trained
at Delphi in Oregon, and True School in Clearwater.
PART FOUR OF FIVE------------------------------------------------
Another thing about the high school I forgot to mention. The courses
they did were not high school courses for the most part. The English
courses they did were from workbooks for middle school, and even from a
workbook for grades 5 and 6. She had several students doing courses in
math from 7th and 8th grade workbooks. When they would transfer out, she
would put down on their transcripts for English courses either English I,
II or III on their transcript, give them credit for the course, and of
course the A or B grade. THESE KIDS NEVER HAD ANY HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH! I
even witnessed her give credit for courses that the students never even
took! When they transferred back to public schools they had trouble
keeping up, had to have extra tutoring, etc. Some of the kids couldn't
even get their credits accepted, and were told they would have to start
over again in the 9th grade. The few who did manage to have some of their
credits accepted really had to work hard to catch up.
The ED was a clear, and I must admit she was the most reactive
person I've ever met (I guess she may have had ner engrams removed but
just had a very bad case of "Body Thetans"). She was also an experienced
auditor. She would get the parents and/or student back alone in her
office and would run procesing on them and they didn't even know what was
ahppening. They would come out and say to me, "I can't believe the things
I told her about myself (or my family)." or, "Gee, I went in to talk
about one thing, and she ended up making me talk about something else."
Since I only worked at the one sci Ap Sch school I can't say if my
experience was typical or isolated. I can say that we regularly had L.A.
telling us what to do, and that they were always checking up on us. When
some representatives came from Clearwater to evaluate the school, their
main concern was that there wasn't a picture or a bust of LRH in
reception, and that there should have had more C/S materials on display.
So now I ask you, does that say to you what their main priority was?
From what I have seen, LRH Tech with its checks and balances works
perfectly for church courses because that will be the environment most
people stay in once they start up the "bridge." But when you apply this
to the "secular" world where it's not for the mindless absorption of
scientology but must be used practically in other circumstances, it
didn't really work. All the things these students learned, once they got
back out into the real world, were not the promised panacea. The one
thing that did make a difference was they did learn to use a dictionary
and to make sure they understood the words in the courses they were
studying. Yes this is an excellent practice but you don't need the
church or LRH to learn that. The use of dictionaries was in existence
long before LRH was born and using dictionaries was a practice used
before he ever had a brain to think it up. But who knows, maybe he was
Daniel Webster in one of his many adventurous past lives.
PART FIVE OF FIVE--------------------------------------------------
I still remember the school I worked at the sci's were always taking
about the "Wall of Fire" and different OT states and that the material
you handle is so volatile that it can cause you to either go insane or
commit suicide. Of course if you get through it you are at a new state of
"spiritual enlightenment." I know if something has that effect on a
person it isn't because they are learning something cosmically revealing,
but because they are opening and giving theiir mind to influences they
shouldn't be.
Here is what I find so nonsensical about the statement that sci is a
"religion:" A religion supposedly deals with things dealing with the
human spirit or soul, etc.; i.e. spiritual matters. If you look at
Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hindi, etc., they teach teh path of
spiritual enlightenment freely. As a matter of fact, they strive to teach
as many people as possible to go as far as they possibly can in their
religion FREELY. SPiritual levels are attained by how much time and heart
you put into seeking that knowledge, not by your ability to PAY. No other
"religion" is on a "per apy" basis. Everything they have to offer on the
road up the bridge is only attained through money or in a few
circumstances by becoming a "slave' for the org and trading your life for
it. All their magazines and brochures always have to do with "buy" this
and "buy" that. When you give something by insisting on payment, and the
public cannot attain that "spiritual" enlightenment other than by payment
[also known as "donation"], you are SELLING. When you sell you are a
business, and when you are as diversified as C/S is you are a corporation.
Scientology says it is a religion. If they copyright all their
spiritual beliefs and make them available by payment [donation] only,
then that is SELLING. An organization that makes profit by selling is a
business or corporation, not a "religion." Maybe Texaco, IBM, Microsoft
and AT&T should call themselves a "religion" also. Then, they won't ahve
to pay taxes on their profits either.
Scientology officials say they are for free speech, and that is the
truth. They just left out the part about being for free speech for
THEMSELVES, and not for OTHERS. Well, it's about time they learned that
people aren't going to sit around and let that happen.
This has been a letter, posted with permission, from someone with no net
access who lives in Florida now. Some names were changed.
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