Thanks to several people who have responded to my request for information about Mace-Kingsley and helped spread the request around. A little more background might be of interest to you. I am not a CoS member and frankly had very little knowledge of it until recently and still am trying to sort out the information that is coming to me.

Someone said they were surprised that a non CoS person would even know about this school. I was given a flier about it by a friend of our family who has connections to CoS. I also found the school listed on a web page of private schools in New Mexico and it has its own web site. A member of the friend's family is dating a graduate of the school and we may be able to talk to this person (out of town right now but supposed to be here later this summer). This graduate had a serious problems and from what we heard was greatly helped by the school. All of this sounded very positive and we had no reason to feel any hesitation.

Several things were very appealing. The school is in a wilderness setting, emphasizes wilderness-camping skills, has farm animals, and appeared to emphasize nutrition. They said they did not use medical drugs for therapy and this was also appealing. We have tried various pharmaceuticals for seven years with limited to no benefit to our child, and we were looking for an alternative approach. I think we share the view of most parents that if our child could be helped without drugs that would be a more permanent and desirable solution. We know our child would love being in a wilderness setting and be highly motivated to earn the rewards of working with animals, camping, etc. Motivation is important to success in any therapy treatment. We liked the emphasize on health and nutrition.

Our therapist here did not know of the school directly, but said methods of remembering childhood traumas are valid and he used them as general therapy techniques in his own practice. He thought we should check into it further. He neither endorsed nor condemned the school.

The School referred us to their web site and sent us a package of information including a contract and financial information. A careful reading of this got me very curious. For instance, the contract appeared to go to great lengths to protect the school from legal liability. As I read the contract (and I am not an attorney so I may have this wrong), if a student started a fire while staying at the school, the parents would be responsible for all costs associated. I understand why any institution would protect itself, but I wondered if this was typical of boarding schools and residential treatment centers? If I was reading the contract correctly, the school also required that it receive the power of attorney for my child. These were red flags that had nothing to do with religious doctrine or treatment philosophy per se.

The cost structure was also a concern. The basic cost of attending this school may sound high but actually was not unreasonable in relation to this general type of facility. However, besides the basic monthly fee and a one-time initial fee (that on the face of it did not seem too unreasonable) the costs also included special sessions which I understood to be about 12 hours each at a price which, in our experience paying for therapy, was high. The number of of these sessions would vary by student. From a strictly financial perspective, it seemed unusual that what I understood to be therapy would be priced out separately and be so expensive. Someone signing the contract, if I understood it correctly, would have no assurance how many of these sessions would be needed by the student. So it was difficult to actually estimate the true monthly cost of having a student attend the school, although I may be missing something here.

The school is very open to having us visit although we have not yet taken up that offer. They have not been defensive or less than forthcoming up to this point, and the questions I have about the contract notwithstanding, they did send the complete contract to me right away -- a good thing. They have supplied a lot of information in a timely way. I have not yet asked them about the contract and questions I mentioned here, and I have to leave open the possibility that they could answer my concerns about insurance, costs, power of attorney, and other issues. I have not yet afforded them the opportunity to address these concerns and they might have entirely satisfactory explanations.

On the other hand, I am hearing a lot of disturbing things and have no interest in exposing my child to anything resembling a cult philosophy. Most of the responses I have gotten so far have raised serious questions.

My goal is to be fair and open minded and get all the relevant information about any place I might trust with my child. I hope this post adequately conveys that I am open to learning more and I am receptive to any information that could help in such an important decision.

This is the background to my inquiry. Thanks again to those who have responded.

Mark Karin Spaink wrote:

> Somebody asked me whether I knew anything about the Mace
> Kingsley school in New Mexico (USA). He had wanted to send
> his child there and then discovered that this school uses
> Elron's technology and "has some philosophical not
> institutional connection to Scientology", as he put it.
>
> I explained that any group or organisation that uses L Ron
> Hubbard's material and texts, is by definition a Scientology
> group or organisation, since Scientology owns all of
> Hubbard's copyrights and only licenses the use of them to
> its own affiliates.
>
> By now that person would like to know about Mace Kingsley.
> Is there anybody around here who has heard of it and who
> knows a bit more?
>
> groet,
> Karin Spaink
>
> - I write, therefore I am:
> http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink

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