Re: various

> People often ask me, "Is BS ok? Should I send my child?"
>
> I tell them the question is almost unanswerable. Even in one family
> you can have different children with different reactions. I loved it,
> one brother tolerated it, another did not do so well.
>
> Human social interactions are so complex as to be almost
> incomprehensible. :)

Iain

I agree with you that the issues are very complex and would be very hard
to study even aside from variations in the child and their home
situation. Some are even time dependent and seem to be experienced by
chance:

1.One year while the regular couple who ran the school in Africa, were
back in America, a couple took over, at least one of who IMO was a
sadist. Fortunately for me it was also our time to return to America so
I only was exposed to them for a month or two, but I was terrified.
Children were whipped with switches cut to draw blood.

2.The school in America I was at for two years of high school had at
various times, children from 2yrs of age and still in a crib, through
end of high school. I was there twice, once for part of kindergarten
and then again from grade 10 and 11. The first year I was there for high
school we could easily form two basketball teams. The second and last
year we had to get almost all the high schoolers to come out or play
with one or two people short on both teams. The school closed about
three years after I left as the "parents came home in droves" because of
the damage being done. If your age was such that the school was closed
then you managed better.

I have never met any MK who was not damaged. Many of the people who
staffed the schools were Godly and I still respect them deeply. A
friend of mine was a practicing psychologist who did pro bono work with
at least one mission that I am aware of, said that he had never observed
any MK in the churches he attended or in Africa, who were unscathed.
Many from the schools also deny that any thing bad happened and refer to
the so called "house parents" and their parents (who they only saw every
fifth year) as saintly people, however, in my observation they lead very
broken lives and were in total denial. I and my friends are all what
are referred to as the "angry whinny ones" in the newsletter for former
inmates of the boarding schools. One of the reasons that I only read
the newsletter on line is that at times of stress it can and has tipped
me over into short lived serious depression. Have had years of
counseling help but when these things come up in extended detail, they
always resonate with the past.

So I give exactly the opposite advice to prospective missionaries. If
the parents can't or the mission will not allow home schooling or if the
children can't live at home and attend day school, then they should NOT
have children. My mother regretted to her dying day that she did not
defy the mission and home school my brother and I as she could have
easily have done.

I will try not to post any more on this topic at this time, but it does
push my hot buttons. Obviously you had a different experience thank
God. For me at least, if I were given the choice to relive my life
without the boarding school experience but also sacrifice the churches
that exist now where my parents were stationed, I would choose the same
life I have had. I expect that others of my friends would choose
differently as they are atheists or some suicided...

Dave Wallace
Received on Wed Mar 29 09:25:46 2006