Townhall...
A
Teacher
Saving Lots of Lives
by Bob
Beauprez
March 28, 2012
It is a
common cliché; “You changed my life.” But, how many people really do?
Tom
Tillapaugh not only changes lives; he literally saves them. Lots of
them.
In 1985 Tom
was led by his faith to begin an education ministry in Denver for the
most
seriously at risk, often forgotten, kids in society. He launched the
Denver
StreetSchool on East Colfax with the financial help of a business man
and three
kids in desperate need of help.
His model
is built on four principles:
1. Small
schools – typically only 50-60 kids
2. Small
Classes – limit of 10
3. Strong
interlocking relationships – adults willing to be “extremely
inconvenienced”
4. A
Christian School – Jesus “gives hope and purpose to even want to try.”
Tom says
the schools are run like an intensive care ward in a hospital. We need
“adults
who will pour themselves into these kids,” he says. Saving and changing
lives
requires “sacrificial intervention into the lives of these kids by
loving,
caring adults to the point of extreme inconvenience.”
What’s that
mean? “Doing something during the work day is not sacrificial, that’s
your job
– what are you doing with the kid at 10:00 at night?” Tom asks. And, he
walks the
talk. Tom had to identify the body of a murdered student because he was
considered next-of-kin. He held another as she died with AIDS. Tom and
his wife
routinely open their home to needy kids. As many as seven students –
and their
babies – have lived with Tom and his wife at one time.
These are
kids that have already had too much trouble with the law, with drugs
and gangs,
and the public schools have given up on many of them. Personal
relationships in
their lives have typically been destructive. They will tell you that
the
StreetSchool saved their life – and they are not exaggerating.
Instead of
going to jail – or a morgue – 85% of Street School students are
graduating from
high school. And, 83% are going on to a post-secondary education or a
military career.
Many have returned as StreetSchool teachers.
Tom’s
remarkable results quickly caught the attention of other committed
education
reformers across the nation. Today there are at least 40 StreetSchools
in 24
states. The Bill Gates Foundation was sufficiently impressed with the
performance of the StreetSchools that they made a rare grant to the
faith based
school. The Bush Administration invited Tom to participate on multiple
occasions with First Lady Laura Bush’s “Helping America’s Youth
Initiative.”
Far beyond
three kids in a vacant building on East Colfax in Denver, Tom now heads
up a
national association, the StreetSchool Network,
http://streetschoolnetwork.org/. Below is a link to a 13 minute
presentation
Tom made for a Heritage Foundation sponsored event hosted by the
Centennial
Institute at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, Colorado. See
the
website to learn more, contact them, visit a school, donate and pray
for Tom
and the StreetSchool Network and especially for the kids. Be sure to
also check
out the guest feature Tom authored for this April issue of A Line of
Sight, “A
History of Islamic Expansion.”
To see the
links and read other columns at Townhall, click here
|