FAQ for Students
General FAQ | FAQ for Parents | FAQ for Agencies & Schools
This section is our attempt to anticipate the kinds of questions potential students are most apt to ask about Penikese, to give them basic information and a sense of what dealing with Penikese might be like. We have written a similar FAQ for parents that, along with a Penikese overview can be found below.
How is Penikese different from other programs? Aside from being on an island, the biggest way Penikese differs is that we aren’t a “because I said so” kind of place. Instead, we focus on giving students information, guidance and options, let them decide what they want, and then learn from other people and the world around them how that choice and behavior went over.
One of the biggest parts of growing up and getting ready for adulthood is learning how the world works and what it expects of you, and being responsible for what you do in life. After all, as much as we prefer, no one can act any way they want and not be responsible for the things that happen as a result. No one likes being told what to do, or being told they can’t do something they want to, but we all have to face the reality that we are all accountable. So, on Penikese we do our best to recreate a small community of people where this stuff comes up again and again. There are rules, limits and expectations, but the idea is not to control and conquer kids but for them to learn what they came to learn and get better at what they need to improve on.
How long do I have to be on Penikese before I can go on my first home visit? Students have to stay on the island for 42 days until they are eligible to go home. Rather than get into all the reasons for why we require this, let’s just come out and say that this is by far the toughest part of the program. Everything and everybody on and about Penikese seems so new and different, and time seems to crawl at first. Although tough, this time is valuable in that helps students slow down and focus on what’s important. Once this time is behind you the program seems to fly by.
How often are home visits? Once you earn your first home visit, all students are eligible every two weeks after that, but each one has to be earned with good behavior on the island and by following the home visit contract when you are off the island.
How long do home visits last? Most home visits start Friday morning when students get off the island, sign their contracts, cash their checks ands get on the bus or get picked up, and end when they return on Monday, which they must do by noon.
What can I do on my home visit? What you can do and depends on your circumstances and what home visit you are on. The first home visits sharply limit your unsupervised time, but with every successful home visit your freedoms – and responsibilities – grow. Every student contract expects the basics: no drinking or drugs, appropriate and cooperative behavior at home, and so forth. Every student is searched and urine tested when he returns from his home visit, whether on his first or his last home visit.
What is the point of home visits if you can’t do anything? Yes, the first few home visits are restrictive, but it is important to remember that the purpose of the home visit is to practice better choices and behaviors that you are starting to learn on the island so that you can rebuild trust and relationships with the important people back home. It can be a lot of work and it stinks not be able to do everything you might want to do, but the greatest reward – and the one you know you want the most - is being able to graduate and get away from programs and have back your life at home.
I hear Penikese is in the middle of nowhere. Won’t I go crazy? Penikese is an island, so it might feel as if it’s in the middle of nowhere and yes, you might feel as if you are going crazy. Penikese is, however, safe, structured and calming. It might take a while to slow down from your hectic life, but the slowing down thing is an important step towards getting your head clear, thinking, talking about and sorting out what’s going on in your life rather than just running, getting high or going 100 miles an hour and getting nowhere.
Along the way, most students begin to notice and better appreciate the world around them (the island is beautiful and gives everyone a lot of space to roam and run around), the world inside of them, and learn new ways to have fun, calm themselves down and entertain themselves without resorting to getting high, starting trouble or plugging into the TV or video games all the time.
Speaking of that, is it true there is no TV? Yes and no. There is a TV on the island, but it is usually kept in the schoolhouse and used for educational stuff. There are times when the staff will bring the TV up to the house to watch some sports or a movie. But in the sense that you can just turn on the TV and watch whatever you want, no, there is no regular everyday TV on Penikese.
Can I keep my cell phone? No. We will keep it for you at the onshore house and give it to you when you go on home visit. We might charge it for you between home visits if you want, though.
Can I bring my iPod and video games? No. The whole idea of being on an island and slowing your life down is getting away from that kind of stuff, too. For the music-starved, Penikese has a radio that gets played in the weight room and in the kitchen quite a bit.
What if I want to call or stay in touch with my friends, my girlfriend or my parents? Penikese keeps a cell phone in the staff office for emergency and other important calls, including calls to your parents for an appropriate reason depending on the student and circumstances. Otherwise, regular telephone use is not permitted, but we do encourage you to write letters as often as you want. Some students don’t like writing but it’s a good thing to get into and those who write letters tend to get letters, which is usually something to look forward to.
Does Penikese open my mail? Penikese is forbidden by law to open any private mail, incoming or outgoing, so it doesn’t. Sometimes students have mail restrictions that might be imposed by the court or their parents, in which case we honor those wishes. Any time a student mails a letter out with something in it, we ask what it is (usually beach glass) and recommend a different way to mail it so the letter won’t get wrecked during delivery. Also, whenever students get letters that appear to have something inside them or a care package of any kind, the student will be asked to open the letter or package in the presence of staff.
Is there fun stuff to do on Penikese? Well, Penikese doesn’t have dirt bikes and quad tracks, but it is one of the most beautiful places you will ever see. Sure, we have the regular outdoor sports stuff like basketball, volleyball, manhunt and football. Students do a lot of swimming, boating and fishing during the warmer months of the year, and there are indoor games, too, such as ping-pong, pool and foosball. What most students remember best about Penikese is having room to move around, and some of the best games were the ones they made up on their own, like regular kids.
What is a day on Penikese like? A detailed description of the daily schedule is in the Parent-Student Handbook. Students and staff work and do school 6 days a week, with Sunday the only day off. Each regular day, work and school starts at 9:30 with some students going to school and others going to work in the morning. After lunch and a mid-afternoon break, those groups switch. The day ends around 6:00, dinner is around 6:30 – 7:00 followed by snack and study hour. Lights out is at 10:00.
Does Penikese have real school? Penikese is a real school and the time you spend in school and the credits you earn count towards your high school diploma. Because Penikese is year round and its classes so small (only 3-4 students at a time in school), motivated students can make up for a lot of lost time.
What do you do for work and chores? Work and chores can be anything that needs to get done to keep the place going, just like in a regular house: cooking, cleaning, laundry, and so forth. On Penikese work includes cleaning the kerosene lanterns, feeding the animals, repairing and maintaining equipment, landscaping, and lots of chopping wood. Penikese also has a Woodshop where students work on projects and learn carpentry.
Do you have a point system? Penikese uses a point system to track student behavior and for students to earn take home pay and build savings. Students receive negative points for negative behaviors and positive points for positive behaviors according to several categories. Students must earn a minimum of 165 points in a day to earn a green day; less than that and they get a red day, two or more of which in a 2-week period means they can lose their home visit. Students also earn 3 cents a point, the total of which gets added up every two weeks and converted to money. The students take a portion with them on home visit and the balance goes into savings for graduation. Some students graduate with a few hundred dollars in savings.
What do you use for consequences? The biggest deal for students is their home visits, which means the biggest consequence would be losing one. Students can lose their home visit by having too many red days, getting too many fines or failing to redeem community service. Again, a detailed discussion of how this works can be found in the Parent-Student Handbook. Staff tend to tailor consequences, especially community service, in such a way that it makes some sense to the student, and to make it challenging enough so he has to work hard to redeem himself but not impossible. Staff try to be fair and avoid giving consequences for no reason at all or just because they are angry. In the end, the object of discipline is about teaching, not about punishment, although it might feel that way to the students sometimes.
What happens if I get upset and feel like going off? In life we all get upset and feel like going off, but no matter how in the right we are, we can’t just go off, and this is true on Penikese as with anyplace else. If this hasn’t landed you in trouble already, it will eventually. We all have to learn self-control, but for most people it is difficult to go from having poor control over our feelings to having total control in one step. The nice thing about Penikese is that we realize it takes time and practice, and there is plenty of room to take a walk and cool down. In a way it is important that you do run into stuff that makes you upset on Penikese, because that’s really the only way to practice getting better at handling yourself. That’s not to say that if you break a window or something like that you won’t get a consequence, but the object is to make progress and keep working at it. Eventually you will be able to get upset and then cool yourself off without having to blow out of school, and maybe sometime not even get upset at all.
What if I think Penikese isn’t helping me and I want to leave? Most students want to leave Penikese at some point, and when they do it is usually a sign they have run into the very thing that they came to Penikese to work on in the first place. How is that? All people have their way of dealing with things, and all people tend to not deal with things unless they really have to. Kids are no different. At your interview, you will tell us all about the things you need to work on, but telling us about how you will change the next time and then actually doing when the time comes is very different. When it happens, most students will say, “This is different, this place (or staff or whatever) is bull!” and they might even really believe it, too.
Much more often than not, wanting to blow out of the program comes from the same place that wanting to run away, get high, give up, or slug someone does: an troublesome issue, situation or feeling that you don’t want to deal with or don’t know how to deal with. We understand this and try to slow things down, hear you out, honor your point of view, and if possible, head you off at the pass. If in the end you are bound and determined, we will get you off Penikese, although there might be some court or other consequence for that choice.
What do I get out of all of this if I complete Penikese? Students get a lot of things by graduating: the savings they earned, a nice graduation, and lots of presents. But the best and most important things in life aren’t “things”: the post-Penikese outcome you wanted (live at home, go back to school, live independently), rebuilt trust with families, a sense of accomplishment and achievement, that if I can do this I can do anything.
We always tell students that everybody talks about changing their life, but the number of people who even try is few, and those who stay on track and finish the job fewer still. Graduating Penikese makes you one of those rare and special people that have the courage and determination to make a better life. It might not sound like much, but there isn’t a person alive who can’t look back on their life and point to a time and a moment when they had a chance to make the tougher, harder choice, and how doing so or not made the difference down the road.
Do students get regular therapy? All Penikese’s students receive individual therapy from the school’s state-licensed clinicians experienced in adolescent psychotherapy. However, Penikese understands the limitations of traditional talking therapies with adolescents and for these and other reasons, many of its students have failed to progress in the therapies they have had prior to coming to Penikese. Penikese therefore augments individual counseling with as many other approaches as possible, the most powerful of which include its group therapy experience, the Communication Program.
What other therapeutic approaches do you use? Whether one on one, group, or in the here-and-now between staff and students working and living together, Penikese’s goal is for students to understand what they are feeling, put those feelings into words and talk to another person about them rather than act them out. Most often, this process occurs during the many teachable moments of any given day as staff give students feedback and their honest reaction about the impact their behavior has on them, and then offers alternate strategies for the student to get what they need and want from their relationships. Progress is achieved through modeling, practice and repetition, little different than parenting.
How long is Penikese’s program? The average placement length on Penikese is 9 months, although this can vary considerably from student to students. Upon their enrollment, all students must spend 42 days on Penikese before being eligible for a home visit, understandably the toughest part of the program for the student, and quite often, his parents, too. After this initial period, students are eligible for home visits once every two weeks thereafter. Homepasses typically last from Friday morning until Monday at noon. Occasionally students need to come in for other reasons such as doctor’s appointments, and in the later stages of their program students may be granted slightly extended stays for job and school interviews as they prepare to transition from the island.
How does Penikese decide when students are ready to graduate? To be eligible, students must complete a number of graduation requirements in different areas such as academics, life skills, and vocational arts. Other factors determining graduation timing include evaluating appropriate places to go after Penikese, and the general sense of readiness according to the student, his advocates, and Penikese.
How does the school work with families? In a number of ways, the first of which is through the above process of “telephone” therapy where school and families become acquainted and share information and strategies. During the course of placement numerous meetings take place, sometimes in Woods Hole, the referring agency or school, and on the island. Penikese pays special attention to home visits, reviewing the contract and rehearsing scenarios and strategies with the family and the students beforehand and offering support when needed should conflicts arise. During the first few home visits, parents are encouraged to avoid power struggles with their visiting sons, play the role of score keeper, and let Penikese be the bad guy and hold the students accountable. Over time and with progress, parents tend to take this role back over from the school and to the extent they are able signifies progress on all fronts.
Are there physical restraints on Penikese? There are, but not many. When restraints do occur they tend to come in bunches and with one boy who might be acting out his anxieties and testing physical boundaries. For instance, it isn’t unusual to have no restraints during a three-month (or longer) period, and then have two or three in a few days before life settles back to normal. Part of the reason for this has to do with the island location: staff can tell a student to take a walk without having to worry too much about where he will go. Also, Penikese’s approach is to deemphasize behavioral control and “Because I told you so” staff attitudes. Conflict and opposition is a bit more tolerated and worked with in the moment up to a limit that depends on the circumstances and student in question. Behaviors threatening staff and student safety are dealt with more firmly and directly.
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