Landmark is not education

What I did on my summer vacation--a horror story

August 22, 2000
By a Landmark attendee

After a recommendation from another teacher, and after I received a fax from Landmark on our State Board of Teaching Letterhead (implying that they sanctioned this madness) I applied for and was funded through Staff Development funds to take the Landmark Education Forum. It sounded good and beneficial: "To tap into my potential, to better touch, inspire, and impact the lives of others"--after all, isn't that what teaching is all about?

I walked out of the totally abusive Landmark Forum after two 15-hour days of being demeaned, controlled and browbeaten. We were told we were "disgusting wooses who were doomed to die with our potential intact." I was called a "sneaky super-woos"-- if I left at the break without informing the leader. I did it anyway. I was not going to give this maniac one more opportunity to manipulate and verbally abuse me.

We were forbidden to take notes while in the Landmark Forum and there were only "nebulous" handouts (no doubt so we couldn't prove what was really going on). We were kept so busy that we had no time to process what was happening. Anyone in my Forum who questioned what was happening or showed any sign of being an independent or critical thinker was lambasted with, "You are uncoachable" or "So, are you trying to coach the coach?!"

I have been a teacher for 25 years and I can assure you that this is not education in any stretch of the word [sic]!

I want to warn other school districts that might be thinking of funding staff to attend Landmark seminars of the Forum to reconsider. I hope the word "education" in their title sucks in no other educators.