Cedu Documentary Main Page

Cedu Documentary
October 8th, 2008 — -

The Cedu Documentary, "Surviving Cedu," tells the story of a half-dozen teenagers who were each sent to the Cedu School, variously described to them as a standard boarding school, a wilderness adventure school, or a therapeutic learning environment in the Western mountains of the United States.

But the experience of the school was something entirely different. Students quickly found themselves in a new, strange, uncomfortable and often frightening world of intense group relationships and heightened, invasive and violent group therapies. Relationships at the school between students - and staff - seemed to have little formal structure or sense of normal boundary - and a student's life was always under threat of intense and unpredictable disciplining and punishment.

The Cedu schools (one in California, and one in Idaho) were each located in a mountain wilderness, and students soon discovered that they were teenage captives, without identification or money, in an imposing geography they could not easily or safely negotiate or escape.

The real origins of the Cedu schools remained hidden from the students, their parents - and much of the staff - until years after their graduation or departure. At the heart of the Cedu program was a philosophy that had grown out of various self-help movements of the 1960s and '70s, such as Lifespring, Werner Erhard's EST, and most directly, from Charles E. Dederich's "Synanon" cult, "church," and street-level heroin-cure program. The Cedu Schools developed into an industry of sister schools, clones and copy-cats, that are now a multi-million dollar, international - and unregulated business.

"Surviving Cedu" follows the narratives of these students, 15 to 20 years after leaving, graduating or escaping from this unique, troubling and isolated world.

Clips from the documentary will be made available here and through video-sharing websites. The documentary, still in production, will be entered into festivals in 2009. The schedule will be updated here: http://liamscheff.com/daily/cedu-documentary/

Blogs and articles on the making and researching of the documentary can be found on the linked page, too.

Video Clips:

1 - Welcome to Cedu

2 - Come Smush with Me

3 - Let's Have a Rap

ASTART - Warnings about Residential Schools

Hi hi hi,

I’m back from three weeks in Cadeefawnya (the home of Gov. Arnold), where I, along with my intrepid co-producer Jessica Pentland, traveled the state, catching up with interviewees for our Cedu documentary project.

We interviewed (and I’m counting in my head...).. 11, or maybe 12 former Cedu school grads and escapees, plus two former staff (one very much "with the program", one very critical).

I had a wonderful time meeting (and re-meeting) everyone, hearing and learning and remembering that very, very strange and often troubling experience of being a... captive? student?... of the Cedu school.

The footage is in editing right now, but I will update regularly, and post a thing or two as clips become available.

Thanks to all who interviewed, thanks to those who gave use of their homes, and all who gave their time and openness and energy to re-visiting an often daunting and haunting past and subject.

very bests, more soon,

Liam


More on the Cedu Schools and therapeutic/"tough love" boarding schools:

• Benchmark Young Adult Schools Exposed


• Thinking of Sending Your Kid to A "Tough Love" Program?
  


• Cedu Timeline


• Synanon - crapupedia article


• Synanon and the Straights


• ISAC on schools with cult ties

Greetings all,

I am seeking survivors, graduates, escapees, devotees and critics of the Cedu schools. I myself, I am reluctant to admit, am an escapee, graduate, and critic. I will be writing about that at greater length very soon, and candidly. I will probably post much of that here at the myspace blog.

At present, I would very much like to hear from you, if you are a former or current student at a Cedu-type school, if you have a story that you would like to be known, a grievance to air, or a comment for the public record. I want to hear the best and the worst. Whether you loved it or hated it, it's individual opinions and experiences that I want to help be known.

Or, if you'd just like to talk/email about the experience, personally, or anonymously, I'd still like to talk.

I don't mind guarding your name, if you'd prefer to be anonymous. On the other hand, if you want to put your name on your story, so much the better.

My goal is to put together a series of articles for print or for web publication, with the possible end of collecting the interviews for a book that will serve to represent these multitude of experiences for a public that is probably quite unaware of the existence of schools like Cedu.

I know that some persons who experienced these schools are quite shy about talking about it. I understand very well this reluctance. I have been hesitant to get into it myself. But time and tide have their way, and I'm taking the plunge. In any case, if you do talk with me for an interview, I promise that:

* I will post nothing that you ask me not to.

* I will not reveal your name unless you give me permission to.

* I will provide you a transcript of the interview for your use. You may post it as you wish, and keep it for your records.

I am interested in listening to and taking down in print the many points of view that now emerge, all these years later, and after the dissolution of the schools - and then their re-emergence in new formats, new schools, using the same and similar formats and philosophies.

I myself am a writer and journalist. I have covered mostly issues relating to human and civil rights, especially in regard to the medical and pharmaceutical authorities, which have, in my opinion, become untethered from the public trust.

But this work is more exploratory; it is also different, because I am a subject too. I was there, have my points-of-view, and certainly my own analysis of the place and its strengths, weaknesses, and function.

You can reach me at liamscheff@yahoo.com , or through the myspace forum, or you can leave a message below.

I have interviewed a couple fellow travellers down this road already, and have found it a greatly rewarding experience. It is quite a thing, to review the many feelings and experiences, the odd rituals and beliefs we were surrounded with, to put it side by side with our adult philosophies, and worldly experience. Quite a thing.

In sum, I look forward to hearing from you, talking, swapping stories, and investigating and understanding our similar, and different experiences.

Please write below, or to my email, with questions, concerns, comments, etc. I will answer whatever questions you have to the best of my ability.

Thanks,

Liam Scheff
http://liamscheff.com