Center for Redemptive Education

The Center for Redemptive Education exists to articulate, cultivate, demonstrate and facilitate an approach to teaching and learning that is Biblical, Relational, Integral, and Experiential. Our mission is to help equip teachers, school leaders, parents, missionaries and other educators in their quest to align with God's design for Christ-centered education. Building a soundly Biblical philosophy gives birth to soundly Biblical practices which honor ALL of God's Image-Bearers in the school community: children, adolescents, young adults, teachers, parents, administrators, leaders. Redemptive Education specialists in the US and overseas seek to infuse homes, ministries, schools and communities with beauty, joy, and effectiveness using curriculum and methods that work with God's design, not counter to it. We are committed to providing Redemptive Education training in print, video, digital media and in person. We are committed to supporting educators desiring to align with God's design!

We provide workshops, programs, videos, publications, digital media, conferences, retreats, professional development, ongoing training, coaching, and support in Redemptive Education here in the US and around the world. We help educators to employ whole-child curriculum and methods to increase student engagement, academic progress, life-long learning and the pursuit of virtue. We travel to underserved and overlooked populations in locations from rural southern India to urban Metro Washington, D.C. The Center for Redemptive Education is a young but swiftly developing organization, offering programs such Boots & Roots (early childhood outdoor education and nature study); Scent of Water Learning Communities (supporting home schooling families of K-8th grade children in primarily outdoor learning spaces; tutoring for students who struggle in reading; workshops in Redemptive Discipline; an association of Redemptive Education schools (REACH Schools); resources for teachers; an annual conference offering workshops in teaching from a Biblical worldview, effective leadership of learning communities, blessing the image-bearers in your home and school. The CRE publishes redemptive literary fiction, non-fiction, music and poetry for use by families, teachers and children' ministry workers.

We have a small but growing team of deeply committed board members, specialists, educators, writers and volunteers who provide trainings, workshops, video, podcasts, print and digital media, retreats, conferences, coaching and training. We employ Redemptive Educators to teach at our Boots & Roots and Scent of Water Learning Communities. This year, a priority is to transition some of our top leadership who have operated as volunteers for the past several years to salaried employees for sustainability of the organization. Currently, our staff includes five part time employees who teach and direct programs as well as a number of independent contractors who provide bookkeeping, web management, curriculum writing, print and digital media, and other services. We seek to create more longterm permanence in these roles in 2021, if resources allow.

In January 2018 the CRE was officially founded as an educational 501(c)3. We established the Redemptive Education Association of Christian Schools (REACH Schools) with four founding member schools; we published a book of essays in Redemptive Education (Wind from the Sea); held a Benefit Concert; held Dessert & Discussion Nights for teachers; offered a Day Retreat for teachers; created instructional videos on Redemptive Education methods; wrote curriculum; did teacher training of K-12 teachers, college education professors and students in rural southern India; conducted professional development at our Founding Member Schools; conducted a Redemptive Education conference; presented at other conferences such as Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and Christian Deeper Learning; created our website; created and built our social media presence through Facebook, Instagram, blogs and a digital newsletter; developed donor relationships; launched Boots & Roots outdoor education program.

In 2019, our board determined to focus on developing programs and resources to support home schooling families. With providential timing, we were swiftly prepared to help the exploding growth in the home schooling population as schools closed for COVID 19 and families responded by an over 500% increase in decisions to teach their children at home or in small learning communities. The development and inauguration of the Scent of Water Learning Communities (SOW) launched in Sept 2019 with robust enrollment and a waiting list. The success of this program is leading us to establish additional SOW programs in the coming year, in multiple locations. Each program requires us to identify and train teachers, find hospitable hosting locations, receive applications from families, register and enroll students. We project ability to double or triple our student enrollment in 2021-22.

Another endeavor to support parents teaching their children at home or in small localized learning "pods" is the development of units of stand-alone curriculum that a family or families can use to teach all of their preschool through 8th grade children. These will be available with other educational resources on our website.