Captain English's Legacy: The Englishton Park Children's Program

By Harve E. Rawson

Captain Englishs Legacy is about a wealthy and concerned Indiana business leader of the early 1900s who leaves the grounds of his summer home in Southeast Indiana as a place to work with indigent children having problems as his final heritage. Years later, on these very grounds, a program working with troubled elementary school-aged youth for over four decades quietly portrays the myriad of problems young children sometimes have to face in their lives, the resilience such children often demonstrate, and the caring but steady methods that work well with the majority of these young children no matter what the problem.
The Englishton Park Summer Program for Children, as it is now called, is a short-term intensive residential treatment center for children aged 6-12 suffering various behavioral maladies - a program now into its fourth decade. Often nicknamed Camp Englishton, the treatment program is disguised as a summer camp complete with Indian tribes, cook-outs and campfires. But underneath is a solid therapeutic treatment program designed around the specific needs of each child - a program that emphasizes predictability and stability to support each child.
Captain Englishs Legacy is also a story of the devoted hard-working young adults who give themselves totally to the needs of these children, often sacrificing their own ego in the process, thereby changing them forever in small degrees. It is mainly a story of success: a rare example of a federally-funded one-year demonstration project that is going even better four decades later under private funding; a staff who make sure every child receives everything they have to offer the children they are working with; and a vivid portrayal of the social ills that produce these wounded children. The story is sometimes sad, sometimes humorous, sometimes pitiful, sometimes courageous - but it is always uplifting and hopeful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456711368

Harve E. Rawson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Harve E. Rawson was raised in the Ozark Mountains of Southwestern Missouri. He attended Antioch College and then Ohio State University where he received his Ph.D. in psychology. His first post-doctoral job was working for North American Aviation as a psychologist on "Project Apollo." After that, he began a long career as a professor at Hanover College, a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. During his 32-year tenure at Hanover, Dr. Rawson taught thousands of students, completed post-doctoral work in both experimental and clinical psychology, founded and directed (for 25 years) a short-term residential treatment center for behaviorally-disoriented children, was twice president of the Indiana Psychological Association, was awarded the Indiana Psychology Association's Distinguished Academic Psychologist Award and later their Community Service Award for his work with children, was awarded Hanover College's first teaching award (receiving it a second time in 1980) and, in 1988, was named a Fulbright Scholar with assignment in Bahrain. In 1994, the same year as his early retirement from Hanover, Dr. Rawson was again named a Fulbright Scholar, but instead became Dean of Faculty and, later, Dean of the College of Franklin College (another small liberal arts college). In 1998, he was appointed visiting professor of psychology at Mississippi State University, a brief interlude prior to further world travels which now includes over 170 countries. Dr. Rawson has over the past decade completed two radio broadcast series, 3 CDs, and seven published books ranging from a collection of parables drawn from his early childhood, three books of travel tales, a book on his college teaching experiences, a book on parenting, a radio series on world travel, a science-fiction "retro-historical" novel, a family history, and a book centered on the experiences of a World War II soldier.

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Captain English’s Legacy

THE ENGLISHTON PARK CHILDREN’S PROGRAM

Harve E. Rawson

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© Harve E. Rawson. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/11/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4520-8073-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4567-1136-8 (e)

Printed in the United States of America

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DEDICATION

This chronicle of the Englishton Park Children’s Program is dedicated to those listed below without which there wouldn’t have been a program now or in the past.

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The Board of Trustees of the Indianapolis Foundation (part of the Central Indiana Community Foundation) who have generously supported the program unstintingly for over 38 years to date, making the Englishton Park Children’s Program their longest beneficiary, hopefully one of their proudest accomplishments, and without whose help and encouragement there simply wouldn’t be an Englishton Park Children’s Program today. A truly remarkable commitment!

The Board of Directors of Englishton Park United Presbyterian Ministries, Inc., whose unfailing support since 1970 allowed the program to develop unhampered and made it possible for over 5000 children of special needs to receive some significant help at a critical period in their lives. Through thick and thin they never faltered, even to the point of selling off some of their land to save the program.

The over 350 Staff of the Englishton Park Children’s Program since its inception in 1969 without whose blood, sweat and tears; their undying efforts and determined will to make the program succeed; their total commitment to a ‘mission’ they saw as paramount; and their willingness to forget all about themselves and their own needs and devote themselves totally to the needs of others has made the program what it has been and still is today - ‘A Very Special Place.’

The over 5000 children (along with their parents, care-givers, social workers, therapists, etc.) who participated in the Englishton Park Children’s Program and who hopefully benefitted from what it had to offer at a critical time in their development.

The many individual Presbyterians who demonstrated their Christian concern for God’s children with their financial and moral support over four decades.

My late wife, Joyce, who always pitched in gung-ho whenever Englishton Park had an emergency, a crisis, or just a problem. Without her, over the years the program would have just stopped several times.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

No book ever sees a printing press without a great deal of editing, proofreading, and organization.The person who has served this all-important function over my last three books is a wonderful individual who is a retired coordinator of reading and bilingual in a K-8 school district in Illinois. Her untiring efforts, her gentle criticism, her interest in the book’s subject matter, and her insistence on high quality writing are invaluable and she deserves more thanks than I am capable of giving her. Thanks, again!

Catherine Dornblaser

There are many other people who helped me with this book, but the following need special mention:

Thomas & Lisa Barnett, current Co-Directors of the Englishton Park Children’s Program for all the information on changes and current practices within the program.

Greg Lynn, Vice–President of the Indianapolis Foundation, for his encouragement and help with information about the Foundation’s consistent funding of the Englishton Park program for the past 38 years.

The late Janet and Rev. William (Bill) Heilman whose ministry for many years was Englishton Park and whose enthusiasm and support for our work with children never wavered. They always believed God’s hand was directly on our program and told the staff each year just that, labeling each staff therapist an ‘agent of God’ whether he/she knew it or not.

The late Marla Oberhausen who as the resident director for the first five years shaped many aspects of the program that survive to this day and whose love of the program steadily grew over the years until her untimely death relatively early in life.

Wes Jones, an elementary school counselor in the Gwinnett County School System and a former Englishton Park staff member, who gave valuable advice about the organization of the book.

Mike King, current Director of Englishton Park, for providing information on the history of Englishton Park; my former student and long-time friend Connie Jaquith, for information on the origins and initial planning of the Englishton Park Children’s Program; my good friend the late Mrs. Albert (Katherine) Parker, Jr., who single-handedly obtained the first private funding for the program and who always said, You run the program just as you see fit and I’ll worry about the money; and Christopher English Walling, the great-nephew of Capt. English and who has a long standing and vibrant interest in the children’s program.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

THE MYTHIC CAPTAIN ENGLISH

PART I: THE CHILDREN OF ENGLISHTON PARK

Chapter 2

SEVERE CULTURAL DEPRIVATION AND SOCIOPATHY

Chapter 3

CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE

Chapter 4

CHILDHOOD DEPRESSION

Chapter 5

ABSENCE OF CHILDHOOD SOCIALIZATION

Chapter 6

PHYSICAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN

Chapter 7

IMPULSIVITY, RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR, AND NEED FOR ACHIEVEMENT

Chapter 8

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)

Chapter 9

OPPOSITIONAL DISORDER (OD)

Chapter 10

THE EQUILIBRATOR

Chapter 11

INTERNALIZED ANGER

Chapter 12

OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)

Chapter 13

TALKATIVENESS

Chapter 14

THE SAINT OF INDIANAPOLIS

Chapter 15

TEMPER TANTRUMS

Chapter 16

EMOTIONAL DEPRIVATION

Chapter 17

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS (ASD)

Chapter 18

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS OF SOME UNUSUAL SITUATIONS

PART II: THE PROGRAM OF ENGLISHTON PARK

Chapter 19

THE PROBLEM

Chapter 20

AN OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISHTON PARK CHILDREN’S PROGRAM

Chapter 21

THE PROGRAM ’S OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES

Chapter 22

THE THREE-PERCENT RULE

Chapter 23

DERIVING A SPECIFIC INDIVIDUALIZED THERAPEUTIC PLAN

Chapter 24

THE STAFF

Chapter 25

PEOPLE PROVE TO BE THE MOST EFFECTIVE POSITIVE REINFORCEMENTS

Chapter 26

THREATS TO THE PROGRAM

Chapter 27

SUBJECTIVE FEEDBACK

Chapter 28

IMPROVEMENTS IN STAFFING AND PHYSICAL FACILITIES

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

A DISCOURSE ON DRUGS AND CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR

APPENDIX II

STAFF TRAINING COURSE OUTLINE

APPENDIX III

STAFF EXAMINATION

APPENDIX IV

ENGLISHTON PARK AND THE INDIANAPOLIS FOUNDATION

Chapter 1

THE MYTHIC CAPTAIN ENGLISH

Every summer day exactly at 1:05 PM in a large converted barn near the small village of Lexington, Indiana, Captain English’s ‘friend and confidant’ strides to the front of the ‘Barn’s’ dining hall and the excited voices of over 30 children and 17 young adults simmers to a low murmur. The time has come to hear what the good captain wants to share with his kids that day, who he has noticed doing particularly well that day, and to once again express his pleasure that so many kids were enjoying their stay at his ‘summer place’.

In the hand of his agent Captain English has placed a number of special awards to be handed out publicly, so all can share in this small celebration of personal accomplishment. But first, it is pointed out, Captain English wanted to make sure everyone saw him this morning when he was flying his crop dusting airplane right over the grounds of his estate. Did everyone notice how he dipped his wings in salute to them? Did everyone know that the crop duster was simply one of several airplanes he owned, all kept at the nearby Lexington International Airport? And did all his boys and girls notice the wonderful weather he had arranged via his large and expensive weather machine which was set for ‘hot and steamy, but great for kids?’ Did anyone see him, shy as he admittedly is, as he was watching them from the woods over by the Chippewa Trail?

I saw him, a frail little boy sitting at the Seneca table exclaimed. He was peeking out behind a bush not five feet into the woods.

Sharp eye! Captain English’s assistant responded to the excited boy. Each one of you guys might spot him if you keep your eyes open and stay alert. He’s a shy ol’ devil, he added with a wink to the audience.

Well, the good Captain gave me some awards he wanted presented today for some boys and girls he said were working exceptionally hard - harder than they ever had - on bringing out the best in themselves. He really likes that, guys, especially men who used to think they couldn’t do something or other - you know, like keeping their temper under control; like listening to what a teacher has to say; like making a real effort to get along with the other members of your tribe; like owning up to how smart you are. All you guys are working on that, but Captain English noticed some have practically conquered it and he wants everyone to know it. So if you get an award today, come up and shake my hand and let everyone cheer and clap for you and you guys who don’t get an award today - keep up the good work and before you know it, Captain English will probably have a special award on some day or another and then everyone will clap and cheer for you too. Captain English likes kids who really appreciate others and are happy when others are recognized for doing good things - not just themselves all the time.

The first award Captain English wanted me to present today is the You Can’t Get This Man Down No Matter What Award which goes to a Seneca who this morning never gave up in class even though it was really hard for him and stuck right with it until he got the answer right. This special award goes to the famous Indianapolis dynamo M’Bawi ________.

M’Bawi, a sturdy looking 9-year old Afro-American boy from south side Indianapolis, leaped from the Seneca table and strode just short of strutting to the front of the crowd. Once there, he didn’t know what to do - never in his life had he ever won anything - let alone be recognized for winning in front of others. His blush gave way to a feeling of wanting to run away from the public gaze and his eyes darted furtively around the room.

Captain English’s representative grabbed his hand and shaking it firmly, announced Everyone here’s happy for you, M’Bawi ignoring a few muttered sour-grape comments from the back rows like ‘Why’d he get an award and I didn’t’ or ‘Shit, he ain’t nothing special.’

If all of us work as hard as M’Bawi, I’m sure Captain English has an award or two for everyone before our stay here is over, he gently reminded his audience.

The next award announced was the ‘I’m One Neat Dude Award’ given to 10-year-old who ‘not only made his bed up today without anyone helping him AND got himself all cleaned up this morning all by himself so he looked just as spic and span as you see him now.’

The Cherokee ‘J-K’ was the recipient of that award. In his short 9 years of life to date, never once had he ever been recognized for doing anything right, let alone being called a ‘neat dude’. The only time he had heard that term was in describing the flashy drug dealer who always looked sharp - that is before he was shot in a street brawl right before J-K left for Englishton Park. When his name was announced he was so shocked he just froze in his seat at the Cherokee table, totally disbelieving he was getting an award.

J-K’s Chief Ben quickly picked him right up off the dining table bench and hustled him to the front of the crowd, leaving him on his own at that point before quickly retreating. J-K was so excited he fought back crying in front of everyone and managed to only moist up a bit, blinking his eyes rapidly to dispel the evidence of his emotionality. But he shook the man’s hand, clutched his award and headed back to the Cherokee table rather victoriously as the rest of the Cherokees burst into their exclusive chant celebrating triumph by one of their members.

Chief Ben, along with fellow Cherokee Princesses Peggy and Ellen[1], not only joined lustily in the celebration chant, but were quick to model congratulating J-K both with pats on his back, verbal praises, and the promise he could post his award on the Cherokee bulletin board so everyone in the tribe could enjoy it and celebrate his success before he would pack it with his other things and take it home to hang in his room or put on the refrigerator so others in his family could see it.

And so it went for the next eight awards handed out that very first full day of the Englishton Park Summer Program for Children. Each day of the program, the good Captain would deliver the awards to his friend for appropriate distribution, would enlighten them a bit about his own adventures (considering his advancing age) and share with them the fact he liked nothing better than seeing everyone ‘enjoying themselves working up to their abilities, overcoming their problems, and making new friends’.

Captain English was the perfect grandfather: omnipresent, omnipotent in solving problems, and omniscient in his understanding. On top of that he was compassionate, caring, and vitally concerned about each child’s life. That’s what myths can do - create the best of all worlds.

But Captain William E. English really was a person of many generations ago. He was the son of a wealthy and influential landholder and entrepreneur, William H. English, who was a graduate of Hanover College, passed all his exams to practice law at the age of 18, and who ran for Vice-President of the United States in 1880.[2]

During the end of the 19th century, William E. English pursued many very successful business ventures in Indianapolis allowing him to establish a summer retreat at family holdings near Lexington, Indiana, with significant acreage, an impressive ‘manor’ house, several magnificent horse barns for his stable of fine steeds, formal gardens, fish-shaped fishing ponds, and vine-covered trellises. It featured the first use of electricity in Southern Indiana and people drove their horse and buggies from miles around in the early evening to witness the brilliantly illuminated ‘alley’ of trees that went from the manor house to the fish ponds. After his participation in the Spanish-American War[3] alongside Teddy Roosevelt astride his famous horse named for the battle of Santiago,[4] his large manor house at the summer retreat hosted such luminary guests as Teddy Roosevelt, James Whitcomb Riley, and Vice-Presidential nominee William Hendricks. He hired the first schoolmaster for the Lexington community and as a U.S. Congressman introduced the first, but failed, civil rights legislation to the House of Representatives. He was indeed a Captain in the U.S. Army so the title wasn’t just honorific.

His death in 1926 left many properties, including the famed English Hotel in downtown Indianapolis, large stakes in public utility companies, and his summer retreat in Lexington, Indiana. When the estate was finally settled the English Foundation was founded with funds enough to build a fine building to house charities looking for a home,[5] some modest funds to finance some special projects, and…"Insofar as regards the property known as the Englishton Park estate, I desire that said Trustees shall keep and maintain the same as a summer home (with authority to extend the same into other seasons, if desired) for poor, sick and indigent children, primarily of Marion County, and secondarily of Scott County."[6] Almost 85 years later, Captain Englishton’s intent is alive and well and is known as the Englishton Park Summer Program for Children, a widely acclaimed and well regarded center for the short-term treatment of children with all sorts of behavioral problems.

Hey, fellows, Chief Ben reminded the Cherokees as they headed out for the woods that afternoon, now that the awards had been posted on the tribe’s bulletin board and all the supplies had been gathered up for the ‘unit-participation learning module’ (group cooperative learning exercise) planned for that afternoon, "keep your eyes out for Captain English out in the woods - he’s a shy ol’ coot, but I’ve seen him myself a time or two - just out of the corner of my eye like a flash practically - but he’s watching. He really likes to see you guys earning E.P.s[7] for the evening swim and working toward getting one of his awards and - you know - that great feeling you get when you know you’re just doing the very best you can - keeping yourself in check, acting like a real man, and using your smarts - that’s Captain English’s kind of man". Chief Ben was so enthused it was obvious he believed it himself even if the other Cherokees were still a little skeptical.

Is he wearing his green shirt today, Chief Ben? one of the Cherokees asked as they trudged out to the Cherokee tribal grounds in a ragged little line.

Don’t know, Benjie, Chief Ben shot back, but I know it’s one of his favorites.

I saw an old man in back of the swimming pool wearing a green shirt just yesterday, another Cherokee volunteered. Sort of hiding like. Wondered if that was him maybe.

Might be, but the maintenance man has a green shirt he wears sometimes too. It might have been him - or, of course, it might have been ol’ Captain English himself poking around to check out the swimming pool.

Did Captain English ever have a set of wheels? another Cherokee asked, or is he too old to drive anymore?

Hardly! Chief Ben speculated. "But if he does, I’d bet he has a Corvette or a fast Aston Martin - like James Bond - or something like that. Just from the types of awards he gives out, he seems like the sporty type. I do know, way back when, he stored a whole slew of fancy cars called Packards right in the Barn where we live.[8] That was the car he liked back a long time ago - Packards they were called and quite expensive from what I’ve heard."

Mythic or not, Captain English was in those woods all right. If not in the flesh, certainly in spirit. The good Captain had left a powerful legacy. Chief Ben and all those little Cherokees and all the hundreds that would follow them in future years were part and parcel of that legacy.

PART I

THE CHILDREN OF ENGLISHTON

Chapter 2

SEVERE CULTURAL DEPRIVATION AND SOCIOPATHY

Little Ethel and her two younger brothers had to be coaxed out of the back seat of the social worker’s car. The trip to Englishton Park was the longest trip they had ever taken in their lives. They lived in a remote Indiana county which boosted of no big towns, few services, and the lowest per capita income in the state. Ethel and her brothers were part of a much larger family, 14 in all, where the father was a dirt farmer on rental property, the mother was chronically ill, and the house holding the brood was more a shack than a house which had no indoor plumbing, no partitioning of rooms for privacy, and a dirt floor. Ethel’s only ‘rides’ to date were on the school bus every day where she got a decent lunch, made no friends, and endured a lot of teasing for her one ragged dress, her lack of decent shoes and her unwashed hair.

By her age she should have been in the third grade but she was still in the first grade since she had made little progress learning to read, write, or do numbers. Ethel was now eight, her brothers seven and six, so all three took the bus together and all, it turned out, were in the same grade at school - the first grade since none of them was learning much of anything. By now Ethel and her siblings had earned the reputation of being from a ‘dumb’ family and the prevailing sentiment at her school was that their attendance at that school, at least, was primarily a wasted effort.

It didn’t take long to see where Ethel and her brothers could get that reputation. Their home had no electricity, no phone, no books, no newspapers, obviously no television or radio, and the only source of information was what they could glean from nature, their sick but totally illiterate mother, and a father who had learned to write his name but not much else, had only been to school himself for a few years before