More than a Dream

More than a Dream: How One School's Vision is Changing the World, written from the perspective of an insider, details the birth, growing pains and success of Cristo Rey, a Catholic high school created especially for poor urban youth in inner city Chicago.

G.R. Kearney’s telling of the Cristo Rey story is fair and complete.  Creating a new model for an urban high school is difficult at best and while perhaps not changing the world as the subtitle suggests, this new approach is changing lives of students and the minds of thoughtful educational leaders.

The Cristo Rey model has since been duplicated in other urban cities and is based on a foundation of true caring for disadvantaged youth, listening to the needs of the youth and their families and the creation of a unique and powerful economic model designed to assure affordability and sustainability of the school.

The Cristo Rey story is a book well written and researched.  It is a book designed for a wide audience and especially helpful for those who want to rethink high school education especially in urban areas.

Bert Blake
Superintendent Emeritus, Grand Rapids Public Schools

Comments

[G.R. Kearney]

Thanks for the post and for the kind words about the book. It was a joy to write it. One thing I'd like to add. This is a story about a small group of people making very real change. The subtitle may overstate it, but the fact remains that Cristo Rey's founders showed that a willingness to take risks coupled with some serious ingenuity can have a dramatic effect on the lives of thousands of young people. We've all been saturated with messages of change over the past two years. I think this book is a great example of how things do actually change and it's proof that the Church is capable of making great change in our modern world.