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Primary Services
Charter School System
Charter School
Website
Public Schools
Summer Gift Enhancement
College Scholarship Program
Vocational Program & PAL
Religious Education
HCYR works with children who have academic deficits. For those who recover in
time to attend college, we have a grants program. For
others, graduating from high school and preparing for employment are
worthy goals. Our aim is to help each child to the highest
educational plateau to which he is able to climb. |
He who
has a higher conception of education will value most that method in
which the tree is cultured so that all the possibilities of growth
with which it was endowed by nature can come to the fullest
perfection. ~ Carl Jung
Every child living at Hill Country Youth Ranch or Big
Springs Ranch for Children is required to be involved in educational activities and programs that provide him with
the essential tools to live life, while enhancing special gifts.
The Ranch calls itself an "open-ended learning
system", which means that programs are constantly
changing to meet the presenting needs and interests of children in
care. Thus, as we work on prescribed issues of
learning and healing each day, we also seek the conditions that
spark discovery and motivation. Often, a program is created to meet
the needs or gifts of a single child. Over time, some programs
have repeatedly proven their worth and become regulars. As a child grows in
such a system, he discovers that his interests have value to others,
and that his work can make a meaningful contribution to
the whole.
For nine months of the year, formal school is a resident’s full-time
job. As with therapeutic structure, an array of opportunities exists for children with various academic and
developmental needs. Progress is monitored and academic deficits are
addressed at whichever school the student attends.
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An Educational Creed
A child
knows
who has touched his humanity
It is our belief that
there are two ingredients of great importance in the progress of a
traumatized child -- healing and learning. The
two ingredients are actually different manifestations of the same
hidden force, at work naturally to lead a child forward to
light. Unfortunately, the two are increasingly divided in
modern traditional education.
At
the Youth Ranch, we speak of transformational moments and teachable
moments in the same breath, with emphasis on one or the other,
depending on the circumstances. A teacher/healer must be ready to
nurture both aspects in the same setting, and at all times. |
