You’re screwed.
Dude…I once worked with a young-Earther…
Who had a Ph.D. in Astronomy.
Stick that in yer pipe and smoke it! Make sure you protect your head from exploding!
Just because someone has a degree doesn’t mean they are smart 
The Church of Scientology is pretty active in the recovery business… Narconon is a Scientology outfit.
Remember, Brother, there’s a special place in Heaven for whistleblowers.
OK, I’m talking out my ass, I don’t believe in a personal afterlife. But it’s a good thing to call those in authority on their crap.
If she isn’t a practicing Scientologist and hasn’t mentioned them then I wouldn’t use that name in my complaint. The problem really is that’s she’s presenting a blatant anti-psychiatry viewpoint without providing any balance, and successfully treating dual diagnosis patients requires that you all get the full picture.
I believe their approach is to sweat a lot in a sauna and take a lot of vitamins.
And, of course, to fork over a lot of money to Scientology.
She has no business teaching a class anywhere. It is your duty to report her asap. How in the world did they hire such a nutcase?
I had a nut psych professor who perpetuated the “10% of our brains” myth and a few other nonsensical things. Smart lady, but with a few bits of bullshit rattling around in her brain.
Yup. Go to the dean. You’re not just a student- you’re a customer. Demand to receive what you’ve paid for.
Cat Fight, the OP could get in trouble taping the lecture-I’ve been told that could possibly violate copyright laws and such-I know a lot of professors didn’t allow it when I was in college.
Soul Brother Number Two, good luck-nail her ass to the wall. And please, please report back to us!
Why are you wasting time getting worthless credits? This is garbage, as you have correctly pointed out. Garbage credits aren’t going to help your future clients/patients, they are going to hurt them. You have an ethical obligation to not rely on a garbage education that is harmful.
You’re welcome. This is heartening. Better a batshit Christian than a batshit Scientologist. Both are bad for you, but at least she’s not trying to recruit you or the class. If she were a member that would be her goal. Boy, I’ll bet they’re trying to get her to join. They have to have her name and address from when she bought the DVD. You can’t just pick that up at a corner video store. You’d have to get it directly from them. Unless someone gave it to her. Whatever. This is selfish but I feel much better because my first thought was that the cult was planting shills in psychology/psychiatry/pharma classrooms, the way Christians do for school boards and pharmaceutical schools.
It’d still be fun to let her know somehow that the people who produced the DVD believe that Jesus was a pedophile. Here’s a quote and explanation, not from an anti-Scientology site, but from what looks to be a fundie site (it’s all over the net, but this was the first one that came up in a search and I thought, how appropriate).
As long as I’m at it, here’s a very in-depth page regarding the public and private face of religion in Scientology. It points out that they say one thing, but actually believe another, and don’t broadcast it. Much like their Xenu creation story, they know that most people, when hearing it, would regard them as batshit insane. Quite rightly. So they keep it a secret. Scientology has a looooot of secrets. Luckily for us, they’re all on the internet! 
Here’s a nice bit from that page that your fundie lady will just love:
and
There was no Christ. Christ was merely an implant. But Jesus was a hot-tempered pedophle. All from the fevered delusional mind of L. Ron Hubbard. And Hubbard’s word is law. Everything he believed, everything he wrote, is pure, true gospel. It can’t be changed, it can’t be updated, it can’t be questioned. It can be hidden, or bent for publicity purposes, say, if they’re asked straight out by a reporter if someone can be a Christian and be a Scientologist, they’ll lie and say yes. Beyond that, if someone wants to update, change or question, they can no longer be Scientologists. It’s that black and white.
You probably know all that though, you’re a very smart person. Hooray for you for smelling the bullshit and checking out the DVD.
I don’t see any hint of racism in your posts. It was clear that you’re a sensitive and caring person.
Good. Yay! Make that 100%.
Oh, man! I’m taking CAC (Certified Addiction Counselor) classes now, and I have to say the standards are pretty abysmal. This is just beyond reason, however. Our classes (also at a Community College, although I already have a BA and most of the work for a Master’s) are mostly good, but one instructor was terrible and ended up giving us the answers to the state-required “test” (more of a quiz, really - anyone should be able to pass) because she knew she hadn’t covered any of the material she was supposed to. Like you, I have had to learn the hard way to pick my battles and was cautious about giving in to my inner crusader. I went to a couple of other instructors and told them about the situation without mentioning which class or instructor it was. Both of them advised me to talk to the professor who ran the CAC program. I did, and she was very nice and seemed very pleased that I told her about it. She said that the instructor, although an experienced counselor, had never taught a class before and had had trouble meeting the qualifications for teaching the course. She said she would “make sure she (the instructor) knew what the requirements” for the course were.
I would assume that there is some state agency that oversees the certification process. Both of the instructors I asked for advice in my situation said that if I really wanted to make sure the other instructor suffered consequences, I could go to the person who ran the program for the state. If you don’t get satisfaction from the college, I would definitely contact the state certifying agency, which I would expect to be very interested. If that doesn’t work, I would suggest contacting your state legislator, if it’s someone competent. They set the standards for the oversight agency, but may not be able to do anything about your immediate situation.
If you have any doubt about what to do or need support, I would find someone intelligent who is already certified and has some position of responsibility, even if it isn’t someone connected with the classes. Most people have an interest in supporting their profession and ensuring that it upholds its standards. Such a person might have more knowledge of how the courses are governed and how this could effect your future certification. They might even know the instructor and how nutty she is!
ETA: Addictions counseling is a great career and you can do a lot of good while doing some fun, creative work that usually requires a more fixed academic path. (That’s the upside to the low standards!) I love my job, and with a little critical thinking and compassion, you can really be good at what you do. Good luck!
From the OP
If I were the OP I would still mention that the teacher is using Scientology propaganda to teach students about psychology. That’s seems like a conflict of interest. So yeah, be careful the admins don’t think this is a witch hunt, but certainly mention this.
There are a lot of people of various fringe religious views who, alas, accept fringe ideas from what would ordinarily be ideological foes because they are also on the fringe. Witness how a lot of white racists & black separatists & Christian Identity & Islamists all rehash variations of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and also anti-Masonic or anti-Catholic conspiracy theories. A fundie Christian who opposes “Establishment Psychiatry” may well find an ally in the CoS.
One of the best examples was how a lot of Christian conservative groups in the early 1980s received massive donations from various Moonie front groups.
So how does the teacher mix “being a Christian” with “believing Scientology stuff”?
She sounds like the priest that I suffered through Confirmation preparation, who couldn’t answer “what are the dogmas of the Catholic Church?” but once managed to get all of us to leave the room after trying to answer a question about miracles with an answer taken straight out of a DaVinci Code ancestor…
Do what you have to do in order to graduate, but I hope you can find an official of the school who will be willing to listen to this, as it is a serious problem. She’s doing the equivalent of sending out a bunch of surgeons who don’t believe in anesthesiology :smack:
Went to the dean yesterday. As expected, she soft-pedaled and acted like I was being unreasonable. “Are you sure she wasn’t just presenting the viewpoint to spur discussion? I know her and I can’t believe blah blah fucking blah…”
She did not seem to believe that the video in question was inappropriate. “My background is in early childhood ed, and sometimes I would show a video in which parents said it was OK to hit your kids, even though I don’t think that’s true, blah blah fucking blah…”
She did not seem to be taken aback when I pointed out the video was made by the Church of Scientology. She did not seem to think it inappropriate that the video was based on misrepresentation, straw men, and outright lies. She did not seem to care that this virulence was presented as fact and many of my classmates perceived it as such.
She asked me what I wanted to happen. I said I didn’t want the rest of the movie to be shown. She wanted me to go talk to the instructor with her. She explained that her role was to facilitate this “disagreement.” At that point I said I was not going to talk to the instructor, that now that I had told her what had happened it was in her hands, and I left.
When I got to class two folks were talking about the vid and one said that she had ordered the video because “those doctors will give you anything.” The other said “you know that’s true.” I sat down and opened my book.
Insert rolleyes emoticon here.
Second Stone, I see your viewpoint. Thing is that community college is 20 bucks a unit, and even that is a hardship right now. Substance abuse counselors start at 11 bucks an hour here in the Bay Area, and that is not a living wage. So I need to get moving ASAP on certification in order to command a better salary. That’s it and that’s all.
I bring a great deal of professional and life experience to the table, and this course is not going to prevent me doing an excellent job. It would be so great if I could do the work at a university, but that won’t happen. As I stated before, the classes that focus on counseling skills are pretty good. So it’s not all bad.
Ironically, this program is one of only about 20 that is “approved” by CAADAC, the most-respected certification board in California, and the only one whose certification is good in all states. I am thinking about calling them, but I am not there yet. Frankly, if the movie goes back on her shelf and isn’t shown again, I would be satisfied. As I said, it’s not my job to fix this program or rescue the other students.
That said, our clinical experience lab instructor, the only other “professor” in the entire program, is a lazy sack. We are three weeks into the semester, and we are supposed to log 225 internship hours by the end of the semester. It took him until yesterday to provide a list of possible internships that is all of four places long. All faith-based. For 28 of us. There is no way, a., that those four places can take us all, and b., that we can get all the hours done by the end of the semester unless we started this week. What a piece of shit. Maybe I will call…
Oh yeah, I have a favor to ask. Are there any psych and/or substance abuse professional Dopers from the Bay Area? I need to find other resources to find substance abuse counseling jobs or internships besides Craigslist. Is there anything like Opportunity NOCS for this profession, any list servs, anything at all I can look at? My Google Fu is weak as I have not been able to turn up a comprehensive list of providers. Any help at all would be so appreciated. Thanks.
They push the ‘You can be [your religion] AND a Scientologist’ pretty heard when recruiting. I remember Tom Cruise saying it, too (before pointing out that he chose to just be a Scientologist). Of course, once you see that Scientology offers everything you could possibly need for your spiritual well-being, you’ll be dropping that other hogwash.
Uck. That’s pretty much the reaction I expected from a higher-up. Horrible. Hope she doesn’t tattle. Which she will.