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

Harve E. Rawson

Nov 2010 · Author House

About this ebook

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.

About the author

Dr. Harve E. Rawson is the founder and for 25 summers the director of the Englishton Park Summer Program for Children, a well-known short-term intensive residential treatment center for children aged 6-12 suffering various behavioral maladies. The program was a pioneer in many therapeutic techniques now considered part of the standard repertoire in dealing with problematic children, methods clearly established as effective by numerous research studies. Although the Englishton project was one of his favorites, Dr. Rawson was also a professor and chairman of psychology at Hanover College for 32 years, dean of faculty and later acting dean of the college at Franklin College, a visiting professor of developmental psychology at Mississippi State University, and a Fulbright Scholar twice, once teaching research methodology in the Sultanate of Bahrain. He is the author of over 50 published research articles in his field, 10 published books to date, two series of radio shows (one on parenting; one on destination traveling), and two CDs of modern day parables. Dr. Rawson, a recent widower, has traveled to over 171 countries and has two sons.