As we all wind down from school and the busy schedules of our churches, community centers and volunteering, please let me be one of the many to thank you for all that you have done over this first half of 2008 to make our communities a better place and our children, families and neighbors richer and healthier because of your care. Across this great land, we witness many instances and daily events of the beauty of relationships which makes us better humans and your kind acts of teaching, nurturing, listening, facilitating, helping, and suppoting has made us more capable and energized to meet the challenges and opportunities of the day. Thank you.
Because of your commitments and time, children and adults and all the lives you have touched smell the summer breezes with a new sense of the possible and their self-concepts are more firmly anchored by your actions which sends them running into summer with joy.

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 and over these past months through our newsletter.
I look to Albert Scheitzer again for the third month, a wonderful human being, Medical Doctor, Missionary, concert organists and composer who wrote:
"....... As soon as people do not take their existence for granted, but behold it as something unfathomably mysterious, thoughts begin "



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

Start this second Summer 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 May with over 70 churches in the Dallas area participating in our ARK for Parents - Church Programs . We are also excited that over 91 churches have also joined our numbers in Houston through May. 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

Edmund Burke once penned the following, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) which you may be able to use in your teaching and communications with your school community as we work together in the shared vision of education for our children and students.
"Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure. But our role should be looked on with reverence; because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the temporary and perishable. It is a partnership in all science, all art, in every virtue and in all pursuit of education. It is a partnership in many generations and of those to be born."

I believe that each of you provide this most necessary link (communication of the contract of society) to our neighbors and children in providing the opportunity for education to all that is good, beautiful and true. We at the ARKGroup want to support your existing commitments and programs to this end

Most certainly today, we face many challenges on a world wide scope. As I read the papers this morning I saw major artciles on worldwide commodity shortages, religious conflicts, economic delimas and technological changes.
While all of these issues and many, many more are constantly in the paths we walk, I am confident that we have a place that our chlldren gather that will create environments and minds that will address these challenges and the many more to come.... That place is the school yard and the school room.

What can we do. We at the ARKGroup believe and I suspect we all know that we can make a difference and that we can help.
I know this because of conversations I have had this week with Principals and Teachers at Spring, Klein, Houston, Irving, Dallas and many other Independent Schools Districts.
The Great news is that all and everything that you might provide can be channeled to help. This daily pattern for living and helping others is in all of us and gets demonstrated daily by the teachers and parents who walk into the school buildings around this country and offer their hands and feet to get things moving. It begins daily with simple question to our children and students: "How can I help?"

To address this contract we have with America and the world, we are asking you to partner today by asking your child's or your neighbor's child's teacher, where can we give a helping hand? Every school can use:
Tutors, Mentors, hall monitors, artists, musicians, school crossing helpers, readers, and bus loaders to spend extra time with those kids who can learn to learn. Our schools all agree that when children receive extra attention, they grasp and learn their studies much easier and more completly. When we as their neighbors help them to understand that we care for them and their futures, magical things happen as they find their life matters and their efforts are significant.

Many teachers and parents tell us they want to live in a community of contract, partnership and care. We are thankful to you for the impact you make in bringing us closer.

Thank you for your lives and for the differences you make and for the relationships you grow for our belief in public education and little networks of faith we create.

We would like to hear your thoughts.

Check this website out for ways to get involved at your local schools

Do any of these emotions sound familiar as having gotten in the way of your actions?

"Fear of Regret" - an inability to accept that you've made a wrong decision, which leads to holding on to actions which were really the wrong thinigs to do at the time. This emotion is a whole cycle of denial, anxiety and depression. As with any difficult situation, we first deny there is a probelm, and then we become anxious as the probelm does not go away or gets worse. Then we go into depression because we did'nt take action earlier, and hope that something will come along and recuse us from the situation.

"Myopic loss aversion" - that translates to short- sightedness. A fear of losing the relationship with your child and the subsequent inability to withstand short- term events and maintain the long-term perspective. Basically, this means to attach to much significance to the emotions of the moment rather than look at the long term. Fear of loss may be the most important emotional factor in child rearing.

"Cognitive dissonance" - The inability to change your opinion after new evidence contradicts your assumption. Dissonance whether musical or emotional is not comfortable. Most of us would rather ignore it, rather than deal with it. We tell ourselves, what just happened is not important and we walk away from it. Herd mentality is a big force in the business of parenting. If the other adults are allowing it, then I guess I have to follow.

"Overconfidence" - Our ability to overestimate our abilities relative to our having greater expertise than the other parents. In sports, most of us know when we are outclassed. But as parents, we sometimes think our way, the way of our parents and culture is best. It is difficult to stand on the balcony, look down on the situation, and ask the objective questions. Looking at alternatives is difficult to do, when it's your family.

"Anchoring" - Our tendency to give to much credence to the most recent experience and to show reluctance to adjust our current facts. We expect the current behavior to continue. We are burned out. We see our children as not being in that croud or affected by those things. We expect their current behavior to continue and have not noticed their new activities, friends and actions or lack of.

"Representativeness" - The tendency of parents to see patterns with random events. That means we see a child's irresponsible behavior and think all behavior is irresponsble. Or, we see an "A" on the math test and asseme all classes and subjects are follwoing similar patterns. Suzy likes English and loves to talk about a "green" environment. We assume she will be a librarian or work for the EPA. What about all the other millions of job opportunities which she will probably select. How many of us are currently in a work field that we began to explore back in High School?

The revival of the questions letting the answers fall where they may. This has been the opportunity of this one way dialogue today.

Please share your ideas and read on...

My Parents taught me Faith.
"You had better appeal to your .......that comes out of the carpet"

My Parents taught me logic.
"Because I said so, that's why".

My Parents taught me foresight.
"Be sure you have clean underwear, in case you are in an accident"

My Parents taught me stamina.
"Your going to sit there until your plate is clean."

My Parents taught me about envy.
"There are millions of less fortunate kids in this world who don't have parents like you do."

My Parents taught me about the weather.
"Your room looks like a tornado went through it".

My parents taught me about anticipation.
"Just wait until we get home"

My Parents taught me about wisdom.
"When you get to be my age, you'll understand".

My Parents taught me about humor.
"When that lawn mower cuts your toes, don't come running to me"

My Parents taught me about the country.
"Shut that door, were you born in a barn?"

My Parents taught me about a beautiful life.
"One day you'll have kids and I know you will love them as much as I love you".

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