Tough Love, Hold the Love

The Times today carries a chilling piece on a "behavior modification" (read brainwashing and abuse) camp called Tranquility Bay. The inaptly named center is run by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, which bears the more accurate acronym WWASP. Parents send kids there for counseling and discipline, but there's much more of the latter than the former. Indeed, in a candid interview during a brief separation from the organization, one of WWASP's higher-ups essentially admitted that the staff at Tranquility Bay have no real training or experience in dealing with kids who may require more subtle treatment than isolation and twisted arms. Lots of the parents, sadly, seem willing enough not to ask questions so long as the kids are out of their hair and come back "fixed." Or, at any rate, terrified into docility, which is just as good, right?