Inside Scientology


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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