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Schools & Program
Visits - Feb, 1994 Issue #26
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CEDU SCHOOLS
Running Springs, California
Saul Rudman, Admissions
909-867-2722
Visit by Tom Croke, Fall 1993
In one of my relatively unusual forays into the West, I had the opportunity to visit the CEDU group of
schools (CEDU, CEDU Middle School, and Hilltop) in Running Springs, California. Since CEDU is one of the best known special purpose
schools, I will just focus on what I found new and surprising.
The most exciting part of my visit was CEDU Middle School. As staff were proud to acknowledge, this is
a program still evolving. This is not a euphemism for describing a program badly in need of further development. They acknowledge
that CEDU Middle confronted a period of uncertainty and negative feedback. They are justifiably proud of the way the program has jelled
since then.
From what I see, I must concur. This program has found its direction, utilizing the best of the CEDU
principles of education, personal growth, and behavioral correction, as we have come to know them over the years, but with some new
twists. Within the program we can still find the traditional (but less confrontative) CEDU "rap" ?? under leadership of a credentialed
mental health professional. But we also find a team conference including a consulting pediatric psychiatrist ?? the same psychiatrist
who will be the attending physician if the student requires admission to a psychiatric hospital. The best of alternative disciplines,
such as play therapy for the younger children and use of medications for ADHD and mood disorders, are put into use when needed. This
is virtually unprecedented cooperation between multiple traditions, which has required a great deal of creativity and energy to merge.
I got the impression that when CEDU middle opened, an attempt was made to do everything according to
the original CEDU tradition, reduced to a younger age level. This did not seem to work as well with the more complex issues which
present in younger children placed in a residential setting. Still committed to the principles and procedures which have made the
CEDU organization great, and not wanting to evolve into a medical model Residential Treatment Center, the task confronting the staff
was to find a way to apply the CEDU principles as well as possible to this population.
The students I observed ranged from nine years old up to sixteen (Since my visit, CEDU has capped ages
at CEDU Middle School at fifteen). The nine year olds had trouble making good use of the rap, but were also involved in play therapy.
The sixteen year olds appeared to be pretty much at age level, but were reported as having lacked the requisite maturity levels to
be placed in the upper, or secondary school, at the time of admission. The wide age range presents its own challenges, but every student
appeared to be dealt with at his/her own level of maturity.
The program presented a broad continuum from which staff could select appropriate interventions, as would
be appropriate to each student. There was a strong sense of a program still evolving, which will use today's experience to become
a better program tomorrow. But there is no question that CEDU offers an alternative for a latency age child or early adolescent to
gain all the advantages of the CEDU tradition, many advantages of more traditional care, in a very warm nurturing setting.
CEDU Middle School shares a campus with the original CEDU secondary school. It is a beautiful mountainside
setting, which surprised me. I was not expecting the beautiful lush green vegetation and the cool mountain air.
CEDU (High School) and Hilltop deserve brief mention. Visiting CEDU a year after my first visit to Rocky
Mountain Academy (RMA), CEDU's sister school in North Idaho, I was surprised to see the degree to which CEDU is also integrating other
therapeutic disciplines. Availability of a psychotherapist, introduction of twelve step work for those with addictive behaviors, and
an upgrading of the academic program were all apparently new innovations. Interviewing Bill Valentine, [since this visit Bill has
moved to be the Director of Hilltop] who sponsors the twelve step work on campus (and two of his students), and calling on my own
background in addictions, I was extremely impressed by the balance I sensed as CEDU offered genuine twelve step group support, balanced
with a reserve in not moving too quickly and maintaining the CEDU tradition.
I was also pleasantly surprised to see how far CEDU has gone to provide a sensitive environment for students
with sexual identity issues. This is a population not often considered, but one needing very sensitive support.
CEDU is apparently working on a goal to become the most academically competitive of the structured boarding
schools. I did not have time on the CEDU campus to evaluate how far they have gone toward meeting that goal, but there was evidence
of greater academic emphasis than I had seen at Rocky Mountain Academy a year earlier.
Special purpose schools are a niche business, where I get suspicious of anyone trying to be all things to all people. But I was truly
impressed with the breadth of the population CEDU can serve effectively.
Hilltop brought the fewest surprises. I was surprised that the campus did not directly abut the CEDU
campus, though it is in the same small town. The group experience was more leader directed than I had expected with structured goal
oriented exercises which seemed like part of a personal growth curriculum ?? unlike rap groups at CEDU and RMA. The students seemed
to be more dependent than oppositional, but that is just an impression. Maybe with greater age, they simply lacked some of the "zing"
of the kids who populate the structured boarding schools at secondary level. But Hilltop is just what it is advertised to be.
I very much enjoyed my trip to CEDU, regretting only that I had not allowed enough time to do justice
to three very distinct facilities. I would comfortably refer to any of the three, and encourage all consultants to visit. Just leave
enough time to do it right.
Copyright © 1994, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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