Education Helps Children Fulfill Potential
Oct 05, 2011
His mother died when he was only nine, and he lived in a backwoods area, but Abraham Lincoln was determined to get an education. Studying by candlelight and reading borrowed books, he was 28 before completing his law degree. Later Mr. Lincoln said, “Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in.”Providing an environment with opportunities and encouragement to get a good education is a major goal of Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries. We are especially concerned for our children because they usually come from deprived backgrounds without appropriate early childhood experiences and without the benefit of positive role models to encourage them.
One of the top priorities for the children in our care is to help them “catch up” academically. On our campuses we have structured tutoring programs to identify areas in which they need help and provide special assistance.
The children gather several days a week in our administrative buildings to receive individual attention, and the results have been encouraging. For example, last year on our Decatur campus, 53.1 percent of the children made noticeable improvements in their overall academic letter grades from the first report card to the last, and 28.1 percent were on the A/B honor roll for the entire school year. Working with the children on our campuses, foster homes and emergency shelter homes, our house parents, foster parents, staff and volunteers are committed to the educational process and provide huge amounts of encouragement.
We are thankful individuals have given to scholarship funds so that our students who have the ability and desire can continue their educational pursuits beyond high school. We anticipate having 15 students attending college this fall.
We may never have a child in our care to become President of the United States like Mr. Lincoln, but we want to be able to help them achieve their God-given potential.
Paul Miller, Children’s Homes
Email your questions and comments to pmiller@abchome.org