One of the things that grieves all of us that work at JRA is meeting a potential student and knowing that we can change his or her life—but they can’t afford the tuition. We give a significant amount of tuition assistance, but it’s never enough. So many low-income children get a double whammy, unable to […]
whose fault is it?
One thing that makes JRA unique is that we will take children with behavior problems. Not all of our kids have these issues, but they certainly don’t scare us. There is a culture of fear and blame circulating around these kids, one that is not helpful to anyone. If a teacher has a child in […]
we need your help
It’s that 101 Club time of year again! In order to start JRA, we asked 101 people to donate $101. Some couldn’t donate that much. Some donated several memberships. But it all evened out and we had the initial funds to start a school. And each year we’ve done it again. And we hope to […]
Zero tolerance for zero-tolerance
I don’t have much tolerance for zero-tolerance policies. You’ve heard me say it before: behavior is communication. Sending kids home for misbehavior is punishing them for symptoms, and a real opportunity for learning is lost. We do send kids home very occasionally, usually because the others need a break from him or her. But we […]
A Different Model
It is often difficult for prospective parents to really understand how we are different from traditional educational programs. We feel we have many solid educational components to our program, many of which can be found in traditional schools. We are fans of Touch Math, Saxon Math, Wilson Reading Systems, Michelle Garcia Winner’s Social Thinking Curriculum, […]
