Home Children's Ministry Leaders Articles for Children's Ministry Leaders How Would You Spend $100 Billion Donation to Your Children's Ministry?

How Would You Spend $100 Billion Donation to Your Children's Ministry?



RADICAL IDEA #7
“I would build more high-performing charter schools,
like the ones we’ve opened in Houston. Kids with a seat in these schools will average significantly higher wages over their lifetime than if they weren’t at these schools. But it also creates the FedEx effect: Where FedEx’s success forced the U.S. Postal Service to offer overnight delivery, something it thought couldn’t be done, charter schools force the district to compete and improve. Public schools are feeling very accountable today, but they feel very accountable to the state and federal government, their biggest funders. The main focus from schools should be looking at the kids and parents as the customers they’re serving.”
-Mike Feinberg, cofounder of KIPP, a network of free, college-preparatory public schools across the U.S.


RADICAL IDEA #8
“Lowering class size is one of the most important things. We have 35 students in our sixth-grade classes. Breaking that size down would mean more attention on each child and more differentiated instruction. After that, I would love to bring on the interactive whiteboards.”
-Cole Young, principal of Humboldt Elementary School in Arizona and winner of the 2010 Terrel H. Bell Award, given to a handful of principals by the U.S. Department of Education
 
RADICAL IDEA #9
“Keep schools open for instructional services — before- and after-school programs, GED programs, recreational activities — for both kids and their families.”
-Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers

RADICAL IDEA #10
“I would use the $100 million to improve coordination among different education services. The majority of schools do not have direct access to all of the kinds of support their students need — whether it’s social, like mentoring, or a health check for asthma or vision — all of the things we know affect a student’s academic performance. Those resources are not always talking to each other. I would pull together a panel with representatives from each of those agencies and task them with developing a structure to channel their resources. For example, now kids who get in trouble get a probationary officer who ends up being a mentor for that child. But if we just match a student to a mentor the minute he starts to fall behind — before he gets in trouble — it’d be a lot less expensive. Today we’re spending more on the students who have already fallen off the track than we do on keeping students on track.”
-John Jackson, CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education

RADICAL IDEA #11
“I don’t care whether they’re poor or what color they are, 14-year-olds are only making 14-year-old decisions. They’re goofy. At East Side Prep, a private school in California that serves almost exclusively black and Latino students, every student meets daily with a tutor. Practically, it allows teachers time to plan together. It eliminates the stigma of ‘Oh, you have to go to a tutor,’ because everyone has to. And there’s less time for kids to be left up to their own devices.”
-Gloria Ladson-Billings, author of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children
 
RADICAL IDEA #12
“Public education right now is like telling doctors and nurses that they have to save lives without any materials: You can’t have any tools, you can’t have any medicines, but you still have to save lives — and if you don’t, we’re going to punish you in some way. That’s what education feels like. We’re expected to produce great citizens after students go through 12 years of school, but we’re not given any tools to make that happen. I would make sure that we have updated textbooks in the classrooms, supplies for labs, and instruments for music.”
-Kara Smith, teacher at Lake City High School in Idaho

RADICAL IDEA #13
“Build a better classroom.” (I’ll focus on this tomorrow – this is another post in itself.)

These radical ideas have caused me to start thinking not only about public education, but also about Children’s Ministry. What radical changes do we need to make to be more effective? What processes need to be overhauled? What communication methods need to be reinvented? What teaching pathways need to be adjusted?

What if we were given $100 million to improve Children’s Ministry as a whole? How would you invest the money? Do you think any of the above ideas need to be translated into Children’s Ministry?

What radical ideas have you been mulling over, but haven’t shared with anyone yet? A new curriculum that resonates with the learning styles and technological advancements of today’s kids? New, creative environments that would enhance opportunities to connect kids with truth? New methods that take volunteer development to a new level? New ways to partner with parents? New tools to spread God’s love to kids around the world?

I’d enjoy hearing the radical ideas that are stirring in your spirit. God has a lot more bank than $100 million dollars. And you never know when He might provide us a pathway to radically change the world of Children’s Ministry. It might involve money and it might not. You never know until you start dreaming.