Rivers of a Living Education

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A Persistent Need

There are millions of school-age children in this nation and around the world who are academically disenfranchised, culturally diverse and disesteemed, and economically disadvantaged. The persistent challenge is how to effectively educate a child who:

  • Underperforms academically or has learning challenges
  • Comes from culturally different social, racial, ethnic, and/or linguistic backgrounds.
  • Lives in economically low and/or moderate-income families.

We call them A.C.E. children for short. Education is the greatest hope for an effective and successful life for these A.C.E. children, yet most do not learn well in the schools they attend. This is true even though many A.C.E. students are in well-resourced schools with highly qualified educators utilizing proven pedagogical practices. For several decades, billions of dollars and multiple school reform efforts have failed to improve the plight of A.C.E. children.

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S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Children and the educators Who Help S.H.A.P.E. Them

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Simply put, the more resources available to a child, the more assets a child has for productivity. Resources are like capital gains. Low-resourced children possess very few of the capital assets necessary for being productive.  As a result, a quality education which historically represented the way out of poverty has all but eluded them. An education that should hold out the hope of attainment for low-resource children often becomes an instrument of containment to a life of poverty. They are often locked in at the bottom with little to no hope of acquiring the capital necessary to be the productive and resourceful individuals they can be.

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God’s Heart for Children

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Most of the references to children in God’s word are children in need of help (miracles). There are more than 70 references in over 300 verses to children with needs. They were destitute children, children who were doomed to death, children who were put to death, demonized children, children who were eaten, diseased children, and dead children. Also, most of the references to children in the Bible are children living in single parent homes (fatherless children). Whereas the scriptures make only about a dozen references to children who had no apparent need such as the boy with the fish and loaves that were used to feed the 5,000. Read more