On the face of it, at school, Acia Johnson was a miracle. The story we all dream of — long for — for the children of America’s tough inner cities.

She was 14, all smiles, and — in spite of a tough life at home — Acia Johnson was on her way to better things. Straight A’s. Big dreams. A responsible girl. Top athlete. High schools wanted her.

And eight weeks ago it all died. She died. In flames — alleged arson — with her little sister in her arms, in their own home.

Acia Johnson dreamed big, and a world of drugs and violence and crime pulled her down.

This hour, On Point: Fourteen, fighting hard — and now gone.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Keith O’Brien, reporter for The Boston Globe, he co-wrote the front-page article about Acia Johnson, “A Girl’s Life,” in last Sunday’s paper.

Donovan Slack, City Hall Bureau Chief for The Boston Globe, she co-wrote “A Girl’s Life.”

Lex Mathews, principal of the Patrick F. Gavin Middle School in South Boston, where Acia Johnson was a student.

Angelo McClain, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, where he took over last year.

William Damon is one of the world’s leading scholars on adolescence and human development. And when he looks around the world, he sees a growing problem.

It’s not just that young adults don’t know what they want to be when they grow up. It’s not simply that they won’t leave home. No, it’s that and more: A growing trend of rudderlessness or purposeselessness.

But don’t just throw your hands up and despair for America’s youth, Damon says. Answer the wake-up call.

This hour, On Point: It’s time to give the children a purpose.

-Jane Clayson

Guest:

William Damon, Director of the Stanford University’s Center on Adolescence and author of “The Path to Purpose: Helping Our Children Find Their Calling in Life.”

A big sister’s nailpolish and eyeshadow. Mom’s high heels. Rites of passage–and good fun–for many young girls.

But these days, girls are digging deep into their piggybanks and hitting the malls. Glitter products, pedicures, mini-makeovers.

These tweens, as they’re called, are now spending $51 billion of their own pocket money. And marketers, sponsoring birthday parties and sleepovers, are eager to know what a girl wants — at age 10 and 8, even as young as 6.

This hour, On Point: When little girls become beauty consumers, and how young is too young.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Camille Sweeney, contributor to The New York Times, her article “Never Too Young for That First Pedicure” appeared on February 28.

Samantha Skey, senior vice president of strategic marketing at Alloy Media and Marketing in New York.

Jeanne Brooks-Gunn, professor of child development and education at Columbia University, and director of the National Center for Children and Families.

Joan Jacobs Brumberg, professor emerita at Cornell University and author of “The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls.”

One in five children in America today is a child of immigrants. And those numbers are only rising.

Yet as the immigration debate rages, the real lives of those children are too often invisible. Transplanted to a new country, they struggle to master a new language — and a new culture. Some will thrive in school. Others will drop out — or worse, end up in jail.

Now, two scholars argue that if these children don’t get the education and support they need, all Americans, not just immigrants, may pay a steep price.

Up next, On Point: Immigrant children and America’s future.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, professor of globalization and education and co-director of immigration studies at New York University, he’s co-author of “Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society.”

Carola Suarez-Orozco, co-author of “Learning a New Land: Immigrant Students in American Society,” she’s a professor of applied pyschology at New York University.

Sometimes a novel’s plot is unlikely. Sometimes it’s ripped straight from life — or life we can easily imagine. Novelist Tom Perrotta’s latest book, “The Abstinence Teacher,” is the second type.

Ruth is a broad-minded sex-ed teacher at the local high school — in a suburb where evangelical Christians are taking charge of the local culture. She makes a casual remark about the joy of sex, and the roof comes off.

Sex-ed becomes abstinence ed. A “virginity consultant” is sent in. And all-American cultural mayhem ensues. This is our life and times.

Up next, On Point: Tom Perrotta and “The Abstinence Teacher.”

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Tom Perrotta, novelist and screenwriter, his new novel is “The Abstinence Teacher.”

School shootings and the shadow of youth violence around them are very much in the news these days. In the last decade — from Columbine, to Amish country, to last week’s deadly shooting in a Cleveland school and images of an angry Philadelphia teen’s shocking arsenal — the headlines have become almost routine.

Gun. School. Mayhem. It’s hard for adults to read. But what is it like for kids to see it on the news and fear its possibility in their own school hallways? We’ve asked them.

This hour, in a special co-production of On Point and Youth Radio: what American kids think about American school violence.

Guests:

Drew Koncz, clinical social worker and safety coordinator at the Humanities Preparatory Academy, a 180-student progressive high school serving at-risk students.

Jennifer Freed, co-founder of the Academy of Healing Arts, which runs teen after-school and in-school programs that help build self-esteem through dance, writing and leadership training.

Ronald Durkin, Director of safety and security at Parma City School District, which borders Cleveland.