Dr. Timothy S. Stuart
by Lydia Rose Proenza

Dr. Timothy S. Stuart serves as the high school principal at Rehoboth Christian School in New Mexico, a school located in the United States' third poorest county, serving mostly Native American youth. Tim has taught at schools on three continents and has recently completed his doctorate in education as a Gates Millennium Scholar. Dr. Stuart is the founder and president of At Promise, Inc. and is the co-author of a new book, "Children at Promise," which includes nine principles to help kids thrive in an at-risk world. This interview with Timothy Stuart (TS) by Dr. Robert A. Schuller (RAS) took place at the Crystal Cathedral on January 4, 2004.

RAS: I am so excited to welcome to the Crystal Cathedral for the first time, our guest, Dr. Timothy S. Stuart. Timothy, God loves you and so do we.

TS: Thanks

RAS: So, tell us about your book, Children at Promise. Why did you write this?

TS: Well, I guess I wrote it because, for many years as an educator, I've been living with this label of "Children at Risk" and something within me didn't like that title. I think that our society has labeled children at risk of failure because of a variety of different circumstances. They are at risk of failure, statistically speaking, because they come from a minority family, or because they come from a single-parent family, or even that both of their parents are working and when they come home after school they're alone at home. So, all these reasons put ninety percent of our children at risk of failure in the United States, supposedly.

RAS: Ninety percent at risk of failure of what?

TS: Well, at risk of failure of not graduating from high school, of not going on to college, of not getting a good job. But, from a Christian perspective, and from a biblical perspective, we know that all children are created in the image of God. They are all fearfully and wonderfully made in His image, and that means they possess characteristics of the Creator.

RAS: Well, Dr. Stuart, you were labeled at-risk weren't you?

TS: Yes I was. I grew up in France; my parents were missionaries in France. And when I came back to the United States, when I was thirteen years old, I could not speak a word of English. And so, in order to put me in the appropriate program, the school gave me an I.Q test in English. I didn't do too well and I was labeled educable mentally retarded.
And so that qualified me to spend a year in a special education classroom with a lot of special-needs students, and I remember having to wear a big name tag around my neck wherever I would go so that I wouldn't get lost in the hallways. And so, yes, I was technically considered at-risk.

My parents could have removed me from that situation; they could have taken me out, put me in another school. But they didn't. They didn't for two reasons. One, they knew that I would learn English better in a small, very nurturing environment such as a special education classroom. And second, they wanted me to learn a very valuable lesson. They wanted me to learn that not everything people say about you or think about you is true.

And two years later, I remember my English teacher in high school coming up to me and saying, "Tim you will never go to college. You are not college material." And I looked at that teacher and I said, "Sir you are wrong. I will go to college." And I think I should be sending him a copy of my doctoral dissertation. That might shock him a little bit.

I think that the most important thing is that, having this kind of background; I have seen the power of negative labels that we place on our children. And now in the school where I work, a school serving mostly minority students, sixty-five percent Native American kids who are also often labeled at-risk, I now have the opportunity to speak truth and promise into their lives, and it's amazing to see what happens.

RAS: You have nine principles to help kids thrive in an at-risk world. What are some of those principles?

TS: First of all, every child, in order to realize their full potential needs to experience a certain level of adversity. Your father, in one of his books, says that there are many talents, spiritual talents and gifts that are not uncovered until a person experiences adversity. And that's so true. And so in this book we talk about the power of adversity in the life of a child, but also the power of a caring adult relationship. And it's really when a child experiences adversity in the context of caring adult relationships, and ultimately Christ is the ultimate caring adult relationship in our life. There is power in that, which develops characteristics such as perseverance, optimism, motivation, and integrity, service. All these things are developed through adversity and relationship.

RAS: You have a new website you've put together specifically designed for kids. Is that right?

TS: That's correct. We've developed a website called KidsAt.com which stands for "Kids at Promise." And we all know that the Internet is one of the most powerful educational resources that we have available to us. But it's also one of the scariest places for our children to be. And so we designed this website to be completely safe, fun, and uplifting. We have lots of very healthy games available to our children. We have safe email services for the kids, and we also provide that in a Christian context. So it's a really fun place for kids to hang out.

RAS: What can we do, as parents? I'm a parent of four children. As grandparents? I'm not a grandparent yet. As educators? What can we do to help with this dilemma in creating and giving people, and children specifically, a sense of purpose?

TS: Well, first I think the most important thing is that we need to work on our own character. If we are to instill perseverance and optimism and integrity into the lives of our children, we need to be looking at the mirror and we need to say, "Am I being perseverant in the face of adversity? Am I being optimistic in the face of challenges? Am I serving others?" Because, if we do not possess those things ourselves, then we cannot give those away. So that's the first thing.
Secondly, I think we need to ask God to reveal a child's true identity. Many of us have looked at these "magic eye" pictures where it's all very fuzzy and there are lots of dots all over the place. And, you know, we're sitting down on the couch next to our spouse, and she asks us to stare at this thing. And she says we have to focus and, just as our eyes are going cross-eyed and we relax and start seeing through the haze, we see the seven horses come out of the snow and we're all excited. And from that point on, we can't see anything but those seven horses.
It's a little bit like that when we look at our children, nowadays. We look at them through a haze, at their appearance, their behavior, and we say these kids are at-risk; these kids are going to fail. And yet, God gives us His perspective if we ask for it. And we can see through that. I call it seeing them at-promise, not at-risk, seeing their potential. So, once we see that, we may be the only person on the block who sees that promise in that kid. But it's our responsibility, as caring adults, as educators, as parents and grandparents, to speak that into the child's life. Speak the truth: "I see the plans that God has for you and you have a bright future." Those are powerful words.

All of us here who are contributing to our communities have had that experience. We've had moments where we didn't deserve to be believed in. But somebody came alongside us, somebody spoke truth into us, and it made a huge difference in our lives.

RAS: The name of the book is "Children At Promise: Nine Principles to Help Kids Thrive in an At-Risk World." You can get it at our website at hourofpower.org, or can get it at Dr. Stuart's website, and the website is?

TS: AtPromise.com.

RAS: Well, Tim, we want to thank you for your dedication and your commitments to helping kids become and realize they're really kids of promise. God loves you, Tim, and so do we.

TS: Thank you.