I hope this April has been the best April you have experienced in your life. I suspect you are wondering - "Why is he talking to me" this way?" Truthfully, as I reflect on the wonder and beauty of this first part of 2008, I am so proud to be an American, living in one of the 50 States with people like you who begin each day with the freedom to take actions you chose, the faith to help your neighbors because you can and the hope to invest in each day because you believe something good and significant will come from your efforts.
We share a wonderful place in time with the opportunity to improve on what we found yesterday and to know that our children will take the responsibilities for a better tomorrow.

Please share our website with your friends and collagues - - The ARKGROUP's WEB site can assist you now to get to the information you need. The ARKGROUP's website provides the information that you need , about the ARK (Adults Relating to Kids) Programs and Processes for Teachers and Schools, Parents and Others who would be Intentional in the lives of Kids, both faith based and secular. Visit our site today. ARK (Adults Relating to Kids) programs and processes are here to help.

Thanks for joining us today through our newsletter.
I look to Albert Scheitzer again this month, a wonderful human being, Medical Doctor, Missionary, concert organists and composer who wrote:
"Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly and reach (and now I put in my own words to do the right thing, do his best and treat people with care), even if they roll a few stones upon his way"......."



Bill
William R. Duffy
National Executive Director
281-537-1301

Start this second Quarter to commit to renewal and growth with education and networking facilitated by the ARK Program DVDs: ARK for Teachers, ARK for Parents (Faith and Secular based), ARK Facilitator Training, The ARK Group Process and an Introduction to ARK hosted by Pat Summerall. Order yours today at www.thearkgroup.org. The ARK Program has excellent lessons, DVD's, manuals, workbooks, texts and advertising materials -- they will equip you to begin ARK programs today. ARK programs provide breakthrough parenting and teaching "skills courses." With your help, we can make ARKrelationships the norm for the 21st century family, church, school and community.

For our Friends and Followers , we have had outstanding record breaking participation through March with over 70 churches in the Dallas area participating in our ARK for Parents - Church Programs . We are also excited that over 76 churches have also joined our numbers in Houston through April. Facilitation training can be scheduled to fit your schedule. Thanks to a wonderful gifts by kind benefactors, we are able to provide ARK for Parents Programs to Dallas area churches and in Houston. The program includes facilitator training, lessons on DVDs, books, and a host of supporting materials and services. We invite you to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity. Contact us today by e-mail, letter or by telephone in Dallas at 817- 268-2100 or Houston at 281-537-1301 to reserve these programs for your church to enable your church family to become the parents and intentional adults in the lives of children that will change the world through your care

We never forget our great teachers who filled us with a sense of self, a self-concept with deeper understandings, enduring passions and open doors that altered our lives. My friend, Dr. Glenn Wilkerson always recalls Mrs. Switizer, whom he says held a special place in her heart for Glenn and in fact, she held a special place in her heart for every student who spent 9 months of care in her class. For me, it was Mrs. Edwards in Muskogee, Oklahoma. She loved English and sharing the great stories, myths and truths of literature. More important, she used her love of literature to love me into consciousness and thinking.
How did teachers like Mrs. Switizer and Mrs. Edwards come by their craft and their care for kids? How did you development your most competent and caring approach to relationships and teaching? I believe such questions have become critical to the future of public education in the U.S.

Did you know that about 3.2 million people teach in our public schools. According to William Hussar at the National Center for Education Statistics and additional 2.8 million teachers will need to be recruitied over the next 8 years. 30% of our teachers will quit the profession in the next 3 years. $7 Billion is the estimated annual cost of teacher turnover.
Teachers cited secveral reasons in the following order in 2001 as to why they left. Lack of time to prepare, too heavy of a teaching load, class sizes were to large, student behavioral problems and a lack of influence in schools. Isolation is the term which seems to be used most often by departing teachers.

What can we do. We know instinctly, that we can help.
We are, for the most of us, uncertain and a little afraid that what we might bring to the school yard and the classroom will be too little.
The Good news is that all and everything that you might provide can be channeled to help. This wonderful gift which is in all of us to give is as close as the Principal office in our neighborhood schools. It can begin with our personal visits and a simple question to your child's teacher: "How can I help?"

It really very simple, we are asking you to volunteer today by asking your child's or your neighbor's childs teacher, where can we give a helping hand? Every school can use:
Tutors and Mentors to spend extra time with those kids who can learn to learn when they have that extra attention to identify what they need to understand and learn that topic which is giving them fits.
Hallway adults to be available for those kids who need an adult in their lives to work through the rough spots that come each day.
After school time available to those kids who need a little extra help, or who want to take part and join a group, which you can make available.
An extra pair of eyes and hands in the lunch room or on the playground to allow teachers time to themselves to plan, think, organize, study- up, and think through their next class.

Many teachers and parents tell us in ARKGroups that they want to help. I am convinced we are only waiting for someone to ask us to join the team or to tell that team that we are waiting to be asked.

I began this thought with many reflections as to how we we can become systematic in our efforts to pass around accumulated wisdom of teaching and public school practices to each new generation of parents and teachers. We can start now to establish networks of probelm identification and solving to enrich the lives and careers of our professional teachers and in turn the opportunities for our students. I believe it boils down to a simple issue of finding the time in each of our lives to give " a little time" so our teachers in the trenches can find a little time to invest in themselves.

We would like to hear your thoughts.

My hope is that you will share these litte "bits" of yourselves with the ones in your life this day that are working hard to help our children grow their lives and develop problem solving skills. In sharing you will become that "identified person" who makes possible the opportunity for our teachers to develop themselves and improve their environments which our children will take into the future for our world.

Write to us:

2. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of four.

3. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to yours.

4. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to carry in the groceries.

5. Leaving the house without your cell phone which you didn't have the first 5, 20, or 30 years of your life, is now a cause of panic and you turn around to go and get it.

7. You're reading this and laughing.

8. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

9. You are to busy to notice no number 6 on this list.

and Finally, we can laugh at our selves and enjoy the moment.

Please share your ideas and read on...

Today's comments written by others and particularly our young Americans who have become contributing members of our communities, have not really changed that much or I would like to think they have become more intense and personal as our neighbors and friends look at our condition and wonder if we have said enough.

Colin Powell is expressing a sense of urgency in his work now with America's Promise Alliance One-on- One.
He says: 300 million Americans are now in the worlwide playing field of education.
We can no longer watch our kids not get an education.
Only One- third of our total in our larger school districts are graduating. What are we planning and suppporting for the other 2/3rds?

Do we believe that there is no option to not finish school and are we telling our kids what we believe.
He has stonger words which we may want to examine and bring into our own vocabulary.
I quote: " As a parent, relative, freind, neighbor, educator,
" I can not stand by and watch our kids not get their education"
"I have a sense of shame that I have not expressed my expactations to Do the Right thing and make no excuses:
"Do your kids know that they have no options not to finish school that we don't want to hear excuses like, I don't like school."
"This may be the time more than ever before in our history that we not only be seen as adults who have high expectations and are the ones who expect respect of family as they view study, commitment, persistence and challenge seeking at every level".

As I reflect on these words from one of our most respected and concerned American leaders, I can not help but look at my own life and question what more should and can I be doing?
Several others who have spoken on this subject come to mind.

1. Abraham Lincoln: " Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought".
2. Mahatma Gandhi: " You must be the change you wish to see in the world".
3. Gen. George S. Patton: "Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom".
4. John Gardner: "Life is the art of drawing without an eraser".
5. Ralph Waldo Emerson: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit".
6. Pablo Picasso: " I paint what I think them, not as I see them".
7. Africian proverbs: " You don't have to be tall to see the moon. And There are two lasting gifts you can give a child. One is roots, the other wings".
8. Margaret Lindsay: " This very moment is a seed from which the flowers of tomorrow's happiness grow".
9. And finally, my fellow Oklahoma-person, Garth Brooks:"Life is not tried, it is merely survived, if you are standinng outside the fire".

In each child and student who blesses our lives, you as the intentional adult matter and in fact hold the roots, keys, foundations, anchors and relationships given that make possible the opportunities.

As I hope I repeat many times before and now once again, We hope that you will discover a child who will identify in you, a person who they can trust and rely on. A person who, many years from today, they will recognize as helping them to become a creative and contributing member of our world. A person who made possible every experience for enriching their lives.

Every day more money is printed for Monopoly than is printed by the U. S. Treasury.
There you have it in a nut shell.
A lot of good parents, mentors grandparents, aunts, uncles, relatives of all types and neighbors are spending time with their kids enjoying a simpe game. The ARKgroups knows relationships are in progress.
Thank you, we and thousands of others appreciate your unconditional love demonstrated in your time, "well-invested" with them.

Finally for this month, my thanks to Barbara Huckins for this tribute to the "Patience" of our wonderful teachers.

COWBOY BOOTS

Did you hear about the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots?

He asked for help and she could see why?
Even with pulling and him pushing, the little boots still didn't want to go on. By the time they got to the second boot, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said,"Teacher, they're on the wrong feet." She looked, and sure enough, they were.

It wasn't any easier pulling the boots off. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet.

He then announced,"....These aren't my boots."

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, "Why didn't you say so?", like she wanted to. Once again, she struggled to help him pull the ill- fitting boots off his little feet. No sooner had they gotten the boots off when he said.

They're my brother's boots. My Mom made me wear "em".

Now she didn't know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up what grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.

Helping him into his coat, she asked,"....Now, where are your mitten?"

He said, "I stuffed "em in the toes of my boots."

She will be eligible for parole in three years.

Check out some outstanding research on what's right with kids to day authored by Dr. Robert Brooks.

Your support of The ARKGroup, Inc. creates possibilities in our churches, community centers, and public and private schools. If you have an opportunity, idea, challenge, or destiny to fulfill through helping children to grow into their full potential, please contact us. Together we can improve the quality of life in our communities--one child, one family, one classroom, one school at a time. Helping other people lifts one's spirits and gives hope for the future.

GoodSearch - a way to support ARK while using the Internet. You can contribute to the ARKGROUP which we will invest in your favorite community services, church, juvenle justice program or school just by searching the Internet or shopping online with GoodSearch - www.goodsearch.com - powered by Yahoo!

Read on at the ARK website