[FairfieldLife] Re: Question to Edg about MSAE

2007-09-05 Thread Duveyoung
Education at MSAE -- in the 80's -- was catch as catch can.  Some good
teachers, some nice people who shouldn't be teachers, and some anal
types that were true believers who tried their hardest to sound like
Bevan.  

It was mostly rich folks' kids mixed with the kids of poor folks who
worked for their kids' tuitions by being MSAE crossing guards etc. 
None of the teachers were real world in that they toed the party
line on most issues.  Try to get them to whisper about where all the
money goes and you'd better be a close friend for them to open up. 
Politics played big with who was in charge, and arbitrary abuse was
common -- teachers were sometimes just fired for obscure reasons or
Maharishi said reasons.  And if the teacher is a good one, it was
stressing to see them mistreated.

The kids came out pretty good though -- meaning, they weren't
brainwashed cultists and saw TM for what it is really worth, saw the
MSAE curricula as about 30% mood making crappola and/or not usable in
the real world -- like Vedic math, memorized Sanskrit passages, five
minute meditations before class starts, etc.  I'd say maybe 20% of the
kids were obviously there only because their parents made them go
there -- they tried to get out of meditation, skipped dome, etc.

I think MSAE works good enough, because the parents are motivated to
keep the kids churning on the homework etc.  For a small school it
tests well, and it has lots of success in inter-school activities
like sports, drama, science fairs, etc.  There was a family feel in
many scenarios.  I was happy to drop the kids off.

The bad parts are that the teachers are slaves for the most part --
working for a free trailer on campus, free kids' tuitions, small cash
stipend.  This reward package attracts only a certain type of teacher. 

I don't know the MSAE of today -- it might be much more goofy-assed
with King Tony Nadar running around -- don't know how his status is
explained -- how do you tell kids to talk about His Highness in a way
that wouldn't get the snickers and guffaws going in any non-TM group?
 I feel sorry for the kids in how little they are offered that's real
world -- something they can use to actually identify with the movement
that's defensible to non-TMers.  My son quit MUM so that his degree
wouldn't be from there, so that instead is diploma would be from
another institution with his credits from MUM transferred.  It's tough
to explain to a prospective employer, ya know?  There's a palpable
disconnect in the stance of the teachers regarding the quality of
MSAE's education -- they pump the kids up with a ton of we're the
best, but it leads to an isolationist POV and a snobbishness towards
townies.

And it costs way too much, because half the dough goes for Girish's
lavish parties in India donchaknow.  The people with school-aged kids
are the hardest pressed to make ends meet, yet the movement (Girish)
treats MSAE as just another cash cow instead of, you know, buying more
books for the library, giving teachers decent salaries, subsidizing
uniform purchases, gym equipment, etc.

I don't know, but I would bet that most of the rich kids don't end up
going to MUMa tell that the rich folks understand the real world.  

All that said, I moved to California with the family, but my daughter
was in her senior year, so we rented a house in Fairfield for her
(next to a sister-in-law,) and she graduated from MSAE.  MSAE never
knew that she was living on her own with scant supervision heh heh.
 But don't miss the point, my daughter had so many friendships there
that she just couldn't do anything else.  That's a testament for the
quality of personalities in the community -- my daughter is very big
hearted but not a push over, but she had dozens of friends and a very
big social life.  I think Fairfield can offer an actual home town of
some merit just because somehow the MSAE kids are coming out with a
real world clarity due to their having been subjected to the MSAE
delusions which imbues a certain level of cynicism in them towards
cultish mindsets.  A good thing, I guess.

Other parents will tell other stories.  The rich folks will be much
more positive about it.  The poor folks will have been shamed many
times by having to contort their lives to afford the uniforms, field
trip fees, etc.  

The separation of the genders is probably a good thing, but that's
just me.

And MSAE, back then, was a real pill if you tried to take your kid
somewhere that didn't mesh with the MSAE schedule. But only for the
poor kids.  The rich kids got to go anywhere anytime and the teachers
even taught them long distance -- Chris Hartnett's daughter
graduated from MSAE, but she spent a ton of time in Europe during that
time.  These special dispensations were all too common and all too
visible.  Classism was the result to some degree.

Following the lives of the friends of my kids for the last three
decades has lead me to believe that most of them are able to integrate
with the real 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Question to Edg about MSAE

2007-09-05 Thread Vaj

Yeah, sounds like a real nice place:

http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2007/02/program-pedophilia.html

One lovely young girl in elementary school was refused admittance to  
Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (MSAE), after thorough  
interogation before an all male board of well-suited MSAE faculty.  
They interogated her in detail about a prior childhood sexual  
molestation. Her mother's presence was forbidden for this unique  
admissions interview, as the interview board wanted an objective  
evaluation of the child. The panel asked detailed questions and  
listened attentively to her history. Of course, none of the interview  
panel were child therapists, as Maharishi abhors therapy. After this  
grueling voyeristic experience, the child was denied admitance to  
MSAE as her impurity would taint the rest of the student body. She  
said that experience of blame-the-victim was more traumatic than was  
the original sexual molestation.


---
http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2007/01/letter-to-san-rafael-school- 
boardor-how.html


The Transcendental Meditation community of Fairfield, Iowa is as-if  
my extended family. I harbor no ill will toward individuals in the TM  
Movement; in fact I love many of them. To this day, some graduates of  
MSAE request my guidance as they strive to function in the real  
world, outside of their protected meditation society. Their  
intentions are noble, as are those of any True Believer.


On Sep 5, 2007, at 12:59 PM, Duveyoung wrote:


Education at MSAE -- in the 80's -- was catch as catch can. Some good
teachers, some nice people who shouldn't be teachers, and some anal
types that were true believers who tried their hardest to sound like
Bevan.

It was mostly rich folks' kids mixed with the kids of poor folks who
worked for their kids' tuitions by being MSAE crossing guards etc.
None of the teachers were real world in that they toed the party
line on most issues. Try to get them to whisper about where all the
money goes and you'd better be a close friend for them to open up.
Politics played big with who was in charge, and arbitrary abuse was
common -- teachers were sometimes just fired for obscure reasons or
Maharishi said reasons. And if the teacher is a good one, it was
stressing to see them mistreated.

The kids came out pretty good though -- meaning, they weren't
brainwashed cultists and saw TM for what it is really worth, saw the
MSAE curricula as about 30% mood making crappola and/or not usable in
the real world -- like Vedic math, memorized Sanskrit passages, five
minute meditations before class starts, etc. I'd say maybe 20% of the
kids were obviously there only because their parents made them go
there -- they tried to get out of meditation, skipped dome, etc.

I think MSAE works good enough, because the parents are motivated to
keep the kids churning on the homework etc. For a small school it
tests well, and it has lots of success in inter-school activities
like sports, drama, science fairs, etc. There was a family feel in
many scenarios. I was happy to drop the kids off.

The bad parts are that the teachers are slaves for the most part --
working for a free trailer on campus, free kids' tuitions, small cash
stipend. This reward package attracts only a certain type of teacher.

I don't know the MSAE of today -- it might be much more goofy-assed
with King Tony Nadar running around -- don't know how his status is
explained -- how do you tell kids to talk about His Highness in a way
that wouldn't get the snickers and guffaws going in any non-TM group?
I feel sorry for the kids in how little they are offered that's real
world -- something they can use to actually identify with the movement
that's defensible to non-TMers. My son quit MUM so that his degree
wouldn't be from there, so that instead is diploma would be from
another institution with his credits from MUM transferred. It's tough
to explain to a prospective employer, ya know? There's a palpable
disconnect in the stance of the teachers regarding the quality of
MSAE's education -- they pump the kids up with a ton of we're the
best, but it leads to an isolationist POV and a snobbishness towards
townies.

And it costs way too much, because half the dough goes for Girish's
lavish parties in India donchaknow. The people with school-aged kids
are the hardest pressed to make ends meet, yet the movement (Girish)
treats MSAE as just another cash cow instead of, you know, buying more
books for the library, giving teachers decent salaries, subsidizing
uniform purchases, gym equipment, etc.

I don't know, but I would bet that most of the rich kids don't end up
going to MUMa tell that the rich folks understand the real world.

All that said, I moved to California with the family, but my daughter
was in her senior year, so we rented a house in Fairfield for her
(next to a sister-in-law,) and she graduated from MSAE. MSAE never
knew that she was living on her own with scant supervision heh heh.
But don't miss the 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Question to Edg about MSAE

2007-09-05 Thread Duveyoung
Sad to say, but I find the below quite believable.  I think the
parents should sue bigtime.  This story is screaming wrong on so
many levels.  The males-on-top culture of the TMO can be so sick.

This is the elitism of the movement's structure -- people in power
trample those below knowing that they'll probably get away with it. 
Mostly men gravitate to these positions.  I'm moment by moment ashamed
of my gender.  

On the other hand, a lot of the poor teachers at MSAE were victimized
by this too, and many of them were simply in the same boat as the
other poor folks and HAD to teach to get their kids' tuitions.  They
weren't there to pull power plays and brow beat the massesdecent
people trying to stay in Fairfield -- even if it meant wearing
blinkers to so much -- I still have the dents in my face from wearing
my blinkers let me tell you.  Hard to throw a stone at parents who let
their kids be abused cuz I did it too -- not to the degree that the
below parents did, but in kind, yes, I abused my kids by having them
stay at MSAE and being, ahem, mum about so much.  I was always back
peddling to explain something about that system to my kids.

That said, don't get me started about real world schools and what's
okay there.  Kali Yuga, sigh.

The black list -- has it ever been acknowledged openly by the
movement uppers?  Bush's Homeland Security spies could recruit from
the ranks of those who were in charge of the black list.  It would be
chilling to see into those minds with any clarity -- a simple yuck
response is all I can bear to grunt out.

Edg

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Yeah, sounds like a real nice place:
 
 http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2007/02/program-pedophilia.html
 
 One lovely young girl in elementary school was refused admittance to  
 Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment (MSAE), after thorough  
 interogation before an all male board of well-suited MSAE faculty.  
 They interogated her in detail about a prior childhood sexual  
 molestation. Her mother's presence was forbidden for this unique  
 admissions interview, as the interview board wanted an objective  
 evaluation of the child. The panel asked detailed questions and  
 listened attentively to her history. Of course, none of the interview  
 panel were child therapists, as Maharishi abhors therapy. After this  
 grueling voyeristic experience, the child was denied admitance to  
 MSAE as her impurity would taint the rest of the student body. She  
 said that experience of blame-the-victim was more traumatic than was  
 the original sexual molestation.
 
 ---
 http://tmfree.blogspot.com/2007/01/letter-to-san-rafael-school- 
 boardor-how.html
 
 The Transcendental Meditation community of Fairfield, Iowa is as-if  
 my extended family. I harbor no ill will toward individuals in the TM  
 Movement; in fact I love many of them. To this day, some graduates of  
 MSAE request my guidance as they strive to function in the real  
 world, outside of their protected meditation society. Their  
 intentions are noble, as are those of any True Believer.
 
 On Sep 5, 2007, at 12:59 PM, Duveyoung wrote:
 
  Education at MSAE -- in the 80's -- was catch as catch can. Some good
  teachers, some nice people who shouldn't be teachers, and some anal
  types that were true believers who tried their hardest to sound like
  Bevan.
 
  It was mostly rich folks' kids mixed with the kids of poor folks who
  worked for their kids' tuitions by being MSAE crossing guards etc.
  None of the teachers were real world in that they toed the party
  line on most issues. Try to get them to whisper about where all the
  money goes and you'd better be a close friend for them to open up.
  Politics played big with who was in charge, and arbitrary abuse was
  common -- teachers were sometimes just fired for obscure reasons or
  Maharishi said reasons. And if the teacher is a good one, it was
  stressing to see them mistreated.
 
  The kids came out pretty good though -- meaning, they weren't
  brainwashed cultists and saw TM for what it is really worth, saw the
  MSAE curricula as about 30% mood making crappola and/or not usable in
  the real world -- like Vedic math, memorized Sanskrit passages, five
  minute meditations before class starts, etc. I'd say maybe 20% of the
  kids were obviously there only because their parents made them go
  there -- they tried to get out of meditation, skipped dome, etc.
 
  I think MSAE works good enough, because the parents are motivated to
  keep the kids churning on the homework etc. For a small school it
  tests well, and it has lots of success in inter-school activities
  like sports, drama, science fairs, etc. There was a family feel in
  many scenarios. I was happy to drop the kids off.
 
  The bad parts are that the teachers are slaves for the most part --
  working for a free trailer on campus, free kids' tuitions, small cash
  stipend. This reward package attracts only a certain 

Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Question to Edg about MSAE

2007-09-05 Thread Vaj


On Sep 5, 2007, at 4:39 PM, Duveyoung wrote:


Sad to say, but I find the below quite believable. I think the
parents should sue bigtime. This story is screaming wrong on so
many levels. The males-on-top culture of the TMO can be so sick.


I doubt they'd have much recourse at this point in time, but I agree,  
it does make you sick hearing these stories.




This is the elitism of the movement's structure -- people in power
trample those below knowing that they'll probably get away with it.
Mostly men gravitate to these positions. I'm moment by moment ashamed
of my gender.

On the other hand, a lot of the poor teachers at MSAE were victimized
by this too, and many of them were simply in the same boat as the
other poor folks and HAD to teach to get their kids' tuitions. They
weren't there to pull power plays and brow beat the massesdecent
people trying to stay in Fairfield -- even if it meant wearing
blinkers to so much -- I still have the dents in my face from wearing
my blinkers let me tell you. Hard to throw a stone at parents who let
their kids be abused cuz I did it too -- not to the degree that the
below parents did, but in kind, yes, I abused my kids by having them
stay at MSAE and being, ahem, mum about so much. I was always back
peddling to explain something about that system to my kids.


And so did we all. We all became experts at spouting the marketing  
package we were sold. It was just so well crafted you wanted to  
believe it. Having heard what many here have heard, I would've wanted  
my children to go there as well at one time. So when I hear these  
stories of kids who need former movement people to help them be able  
to process a life beyond the TMO, it's just unbelievably sad. And  
then I think of those who have no one to facilitate a new life beyond  
the TMO and what their options are. One wonders how many simply find  
another mass-movement that looks more palatable and go in that  
direction. Another movement, another home.





[FairfieldLife] Re: Question to Edg about MSAE

2007-09-05 Thread lurkernomore20002000
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Duveyoung [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Education at MSAE -- in the 80's -- was catch as catch can. 
snip

Perfect. Thanks.  That was just the overview I was looking for.  In 
particular, I was wondering if there was a strong tendency to rebel on 
the part of the kids and if they bought into the whole mindset.  I 
think I have a pretty good feel for things now.

Thanks again.

lurk