My plan for a self-sustaining orphanage

[fish2plus2]

I believe that education is the only way to break the cycle of poverty. My orphanage would recruit orphans at a young age from other orphanages all over the country by sending them tests to give the kids (When I was 5 years old I got tested for being "gifted". It'd be similar to that). These intelligent kids would then be sent to my school where they would recieve an incredible education, and they would also do stuff like dance and martial arts (both inexpensive). They would have other responsibilities as well like planting vegetables and taking care of chickens to lessen the costs of running the orphanage. The goal would be that when all the kids turn 18, and score 1500's on the SATS, they will be able to recieve scholarships to study in top Universities (hopefully their success stories will inspire others to pay their tuition or recieve scholarships).

Now, since these students were apart of this Orphanage so long, I imagine that it will have given them a great amount of pride, and when successful in life, they would work hard to give money and time back to the school, and maybe even to adopt an orphan at some point in their life.

Also, these kids would be pretty insane, like they would all be Muay Thai experts and Physics experts. In some ways, It'd be like I was creating my own army. You figure that in 50 years I will only be 70 years old, with increases in modern technology, 70 will be the new 45. At that time, I will have strong connections to all of the World's top companies, militaries and universities. At some point, it is not entirely unlikely that we will stage a "World Coup" and take control.

Jokes aside, what do you think about this idea? Does it already exist? I understand that there are millions of orphans, and spending 10x's as much on these kids as opposed to the other kids is somewhat reprehensible, but it is more likely that one of these kids will build a 100 million dollar company someday, etc.

I do not know how much an American orphan costs in the USA, but its alot less here in terms of USD. I think alot of people would be interested in donating money to this type of set-up.

[Leaky Eye]

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When I was 5 years old I got tested for being "gifted"

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I think it is time for a retest.

[Spellmen]

This isn't 1890, taking care of chickens?

[HDPM]

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This isn't 1890, taking care of chickens?

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Yeah, things have improved to the point where now the orphans are basically the chickens. Take them from abusive home, put them in abusive foster care, wait for the next generation....

I shouldn't be that cynical, the problem is pretty complex. Good foster parents should get medals and universal line passes. The bad ones though are a nightmare. Same goes for the kids I guess. So many really screwed up kids are in the social welfare system.

I guess I am talking about foster kids the same way as orphans, but they really are constructive orphans. Now it seems like the parents are alive, just drugged out losers or whatever.

[chuckleslovakian]

Sort of similar but Berea College only allows poor students to enter. Then they give full scholarships, and support themselves by the donations graduates give.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berea_College

[cbloom]

To some extent, many top schools are like this. I know they charge money, but they take a big loss on each student, and make it up by the idea that they're training geniuses who will give back to the school. Even top engineering schools like Caltech only produce a significant donor like 1 in 1000 students. At the orphanage your rate of success would be far lower, A) because you're choosing kids much earlier in life so you can't tell they will reach the level of a good college student, and B) because they are still orphans they will have emotional baggage which will decrease their chance of success.

You're far better off running an orphanage by whoring out the hot female orphans.

[JJSCOTT2]

Are there going to be walls and razor wire and a no adoption policy? I mean, genius kids plus martial arts experts and other good skills and stuff, these kids are going to be prime for adoption. The reason most kids stay in orphanages is that nobody wants them because they are not exceptional in anyway. You're going to have a bunch of people looking to adopt with similar plans of world takeover (or at least a kid to take care of them when they get old) and I think you would sell out so to speak pretty quick.

[El Diablo]

f2,

That's like how China develops children (I know they did, pretty sure they still do) from across the country, putting them in dedicated training centers for the discipline they show a special talent for. Back in the Cold War days, many Eastern bloc countries did similar things. Basically, the same idea as yours, except not just for orphans, for all sorts of kids showing speical talent.

[Scofield]

This sounds amazing.

[guids]

I like the idea, but I think the flaw, imo, woudl be selecting only "intelligent" children.