The gang member caring for his disabled mother. The baby-faced 9-year-old with a mean tongue – and a knife. The timid, school-phobic adolescent signing up for ‘the school for bullies’…

Just three of the unforgettable characters whose stories are told in this remarkable book about love, education and transformation. Just three of the students whose lives have been turned around by a new type of school: a new type of schooling.

Love Changes Everything is the first manifesto of a real ‘education revolution’. With clarity and passion, Dr Ron Farmer argues the case for values-based education:placing character, conduct and community before academic curricula – and enhancing academic performance in the process. This is an evolving, vibrant and therapeutic system of education,
bringing troubled kids out of the ‘too hard basket’, and giving them back their futures. The story of Toogoolawa Schools is the story of a handful of individuals who saw a big problem and wanted to make a small difference. It is a story of personal transformation – in teachers as much as in students – which has challenged conventional notions of what education can be and achieve.

"We would never say that this is the only model for healing the damage in these kids’ lives, or for getting them back into education. But it is a model that appears to work. Whether you’re an educator,parent or grandparent, an activist or just a person with an interest in the continuing wellbeing of our society, I hope that’s enough to warrant your reading this wise, uplifting and challenging book.”
John Fitzgerald, CEO, author, success coach and co-founder of Toogoolawa Schools

“This wonderful little book chronicles the commitment to the spiritual development of each child that is Toogoolawa School. All teachers will be enchanted by an approach that aims to reveal the diamond inside each young person.”
Dr Paul Mc Quillan, Director of Administrative Services, Brisbane Catholic Education,and Honorary Research Fellow at Australian Catholic University.