The School of Life Foundation™ is committed to the social, moral and character development of youth. We provide our workbook, Learn To “School” Your Toughest Opponent™, and accompanying training program to high schools and junior high schools. The book offers life-guiding principles and values to help youth achieve straight A’s in the school of life™. Many of our partner schools are implementing the School of Life program as Tier 2 of their Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) system to enhance their school culture.

Why?

The School of Life Foundation aims to disrupt troublesome high school dropout rates throughout the United States. In a seven day period, the current number of U.S. high school drop-outs would fill the entire Kentucky collegiate football stadium (approx. 58,000 to 60,000 seats). That’s around 8,300 failing students per day. Nearly 3,030,000 students a year will receive no diploma. Life for the high school dropout is nothing short of haunting. Upon early termination, undereducated youth will discover that 90% of all potential jobs will remain beyond their reach and that nearly 75% of all crimes in the U.S. are committed by their dropout peers. –Source: Education Week, Children Trends Database. Research Date: 1.1.2014.

Additional estimates indicate that the cost to society in dollars numbers $292,000.00 on average per drop out. This cost alone is unsustainable and does not begin to reach emotional and social ramifications. –Source: Jason M. Breslow, By the Numbers: Dropping Out of High School, September 21, 2012, FRONTLINE-Education-Dropout Nation

The root of the problem

Students start disengaging long before they get to high school but can still be helped at the high school level. The consequences of dropping out are severe – not just for individuals but for the larger society and economy. Dropouts rarely catch up with high school graduates on any measure. They are less likely to find work at all, and more likely to live in poverty, commit crimes, and suffer health problems. Major barriers these young people face which lead to leaving school are academic achievement and behavior/social skills.

Please help us help youth learn how to “school” their toughest opponent and achieve straight “A’s” in the school of life. We need schools, families, businesses and communities to work together in addressing this challenge.

“Every young person has a distinct yearning inside to create and make a difference in the world. We must provide our youth with character, social skills, emotional resilience and the ability to recognize, develop and use their inner talents. We then teach them to press onward and upward with fortitude to lift the lives of those around them. This resolve will automatically cause their lives to be lifted, thus, the world will be changed!”

                                                              ~ Jack Rolfe, CEO & Founder, School of Life Foundation