Castaways: The Penikese Island Experiment - Hardcover

Cadwalader, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0930031121 ISBN 13: 9780930031121

Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co, 1988

Synopsis

Cadwalader, a Marine captain severely wounded in Viet Nam, recuperates but is unable to return to combat. Strongly influenced by his experience in the Marines, he recruits a small band of unlikely “teachers,” well-educated social drop-outs, and launches an experiment in the rehabilitation of hard-core juvenile delinquents. The site he selects is Penikese, a remote island off the Massachusetts coast. Once a leper colony, Penikese is slowly transformed by the students and staff into a school community. The Outward-Bound atmosphere the author and his staff create on the primitive island involves construction, boat-building, farming, and nature study. If the wood isn’t chopped, there’s no heat; if the vegetables aren’t harvested, there’s no food. Cadwalader and his cohorts treat the kids consistently, and try to hold them accountable for their actions. Buffeted on all sidesâ by the weather, the violent unpredictability of the kids, jittery surrounding communities, and a rudderless criminal justice systemâ the author undergoes some painful changes as he confronts the stark irrationality and rock-hard recalcitrance of his juvenile criminal charges, some of whom he takes into his own home. The admonition of an old Marine sergeant comes back to haunt him: “That son-of-a-bitch was born bad, and ain’t you or anyone else gonna change him.” But Cadwalader and his colleagues persist, and despite setbacks, the school survives. The dialogue is raw and gritty. The narrative moves from the hilarious to the somber and back again as the author chronicles the lives of the boys who come to Penikese. Castaways is a true story, a tale of idealism tempered but not surrenderedâ an intensely human portrait.

About this title

Reviews

On Penikese Island off the Cape Cod coast, Cadwalader, an ex-marine, developed a program to rehabilitate delinquents. The program is more humane than the old "training school" model, but sadly, it has not had much impact on recidivism rates. The castaways of the title, "appear incapable of love, driven by unfocused anger." But Cadwalader and his staff continue to work with them, demonstrating that acting for humane considerations is sometimes the means that justify the end, even when the statistics do not. Useful to anyone interested in working with or reading about streetwise juveniles. John Broderick, Stonehill Coll., N. Easton, Mass.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co
• Publication date: 1988
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0930031121
• ISBN 13: 9780930031121
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 193