Education: School of Hard Knocks

"Andrew, do you realize that you're a gutless chameleon?" asked Teacher Jim Searles of the shy, withdrawn teen-ager who had come for an interview at the Hyde School in Bath, Me. Andrew was close to tears, but Searles was only following the sock-it-to-'em pedagogic philosophy of his boss, Hyde Founder Joseph Gauld, 50. Faced with a rebellious applicant, Gauld once shouted, "Listen, I'm telling you either change your attitude around me or I will jam it down your throat."

Although annual fees for tuition, board and room add up to a hefty $4,700, life...

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