--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > -snip- > But I am also coming from a place of having been the > person in the TM Western Regional Office who *ran* > residence courses for the movement for several years. > I set up thousands of such residence courses, and > taught hundreds of them myself. I know *exactly* what > the Rules were for how such a residence course should > be conducted, and what things the participants should > be allowed to do and not do. I should; I typed up these > Rules, exactly as they had been dictated by International > Staff, and distributed them to the course leaders. When > I taught a residence course, I followed those Rules > myself, to the letter. > > And, looked at without discrimination, they were horrible. > At worst, they were based on the idea that TMers should > and must be treated like CHILDREN. They cannot be allowed > to leave the course and go into town, because they might > be so spaced out that they would do something that could > bring injury to themselves or embarrassment to the TMO. > They cannot be allowed "free time" because they might be > tempted to do something Off The Program during that time. > They cannot be allowed to eat their favorite foods, > because we know better than they do what they should eat > and not eat. And they should *never* be allowed to > question the absolute Truth of something said on a tape, > because if it's on one of the tapes, it IS absolute Truth. > >-snip-
i hardly think what you have said here is a view about residence courses without discrimination. i don't know about your experiences, but i personally really enjoyed the rounding and used to regularly get quite fatigued and spaced out as a result. i was glad the rules were there. as for the food, it wasn't great but with all the sleeping i did, i was glad it was fairly bland and easy to digest. the tapes were kind of boring sometimes, but nothing controversial or difficult to understand. we were always encouraged to discuss them and i recall several discussions about disagreement with some of the things said-- was not made to feel as if that was a no no. anyway i am glad that you reinforced the rules when you were in a position to do so.