Education That Works

Removing the Child from the Poverty Trap
For many children in families that live above or at the moderate poverty level, public schooling is available. In many countries, families still must pay for schooling as well as school uniforms and books. For many children whose family is below the extreme poverty level, even public schooling is not an option. These are the children we are currently focused on. By pulling the child out of the environment and social structure that entraps them, we allow them to focus exclusively on school and personal growth. We have achieved this by taking the child from the home and inviting them to live in hotels that we have deemed "Boys Town" and "Girls Town". We send the children to public schools, and provide a supplementary educational program during the evenings and weekends. Boys Town, our first project of this type, has been so successful that we reached the following two major conclusions:

(1) Education is by far the cheapest and most effective method of reducing poverty.   Our students have not only shown an incredible mental and social advantage over children in government schools, but their education has greatly affected the whole family. Many of the children now expect to obtain careers that where once considered unimaginable with salaries that will not only support them sufficiently but support the entire family. By helping the child break out of the bondage of poverty, you give an entire family a chance to break out of the poverty cycle.

(2) A general educational curriculum is not enough to break the cycle.  While general education does give the child the scholastic assets to enter the educated job market, it does not remove the child from the identity trap of poverty. Many children have known nothing but abject poverty, creating a psychosis that identifies with poverty. It is critical to implement a program that modifies the child’s self identity, along with a general educational curriculum. The intent is to move the child’s perception of themselves to an entirely new perception, one of self-efficiency and the ability to identify with material well-being and social standing.

	Boys Town
	Girls Town