The Problem: Dreams and Lives Unfulfilled

In our society, in our country, in our communities, children live without food to eat, without clothes to wear, and often with a home to protect them.  Still other children (and sometimes the very same children) have a parent or guardian who abuses them, neglects them, or simply exposes them to the same violence and poverty they experienced as children.

These children – our children – will be consistently experiencing trauma, crises, or lack of a safe and secure home environment.  They will not receive safe and secure environments either in the home or in their neighborhoods.  They will not have positive adult role models who are either telling them or showing them how to grow and mature to meet their personal potential. 

When these children come to school, they come into a system whose focus is to meet the educational needs of all children.  On the spectrum of academic, social, and emotional preparedness, these children have needs that are the most challenging to meet.  More often than not, teachers neither have the preparation, training, energy, nor desire to ensure these students grow academically, socially, or emotionally.  In the process, educators, children, and families all contribute to building their own prison walls within which the children will live for the rest of their lives. They are perpetuating the cycle of poverty, hopelessness, and violence.

The Solution

1.  a highly-structured learning environment
   
2. a learning environment protected from mandates which detract focus from providing this necessary learning environment
   
   
3.  an objective-focused learning environment
   
4. a learning environment in which their needs are identified and met
   
5. a learning environment in which high standards are achieved through academic acceleration and character development
   
   
6. a learning environment not requiring the support of parents or guardians
   
7. a learning environment supported by parents or guardians ONLY WHEN
1. parents or guardians already have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and desire to support themselves and their families financially, socially, and emotionally, AND
2. such support does not interfere with the school's focus

8. a team of instructional leaders who …
1. are fully committed to the theory of action
2. have the desire and humility to learn constantly from all different sources (including their colleagues, their leaders, other educators)
3. are driven by growth as evidenced by results

9. a learning environment explicitly and concretely separate from a parallel parent/guardian learning environment, which focuses on …
1. learning how to support themselves
2. learning how to support their child(ren) at home
3. learning how to support their child(ren) at school

The Overall Effect

By the time our children exit the twelfth grade, they will have the following characteristics:

1. they will be have the skills and knowledge equivalent to fourth-year college;
2.  they will be driven to use their gifts to make contributions to the world;
3.  they will be prepared to realize their potential and achieve their life goals; and
4. they will see the world and its challenges like very few can and address those challenges in ways most people cannot (what we like to call The DaVinci Effect).

The cycle of poverty and violence is broken for those who were once most vulnerable to perpetuating the cycle.

The world will have a powerful group of human beings with the knowledge, skills, ability, and desire to transform our world.