I’ve been thinking about education a lot lately as I continue my Walk Across America through the rolling hills of North Carolina. Part of the reason I’m doing this walk is because I’ve seen how the lowering of educational standards over the past 60 years has devastated Black communities like the one I live in on the South Side of Chicago. Without a good education you can’t get far in life in America. My ambition is to reverse this insidious and life-sucking trend across America, and when I reached the city of Raleigh, I decided to visit two schools that I heard were successful.
The boys’ school is called Iron Academy and the girls’ school is called Academy31. They are both on the same campus in separate buildings, yet their mission is the same: to raise children as God designed them to be, strong in faith and ready for life.
When I walked into Iron Academy, the boys looked me in the eye and shook my hand like men. They talked about responsibility as if it were normal. I am so used to emphasizing responsibility towards my own childhood that it is sometimes startling when I see that this is ingrained in a child. All these kids were regular boys who understood that the purpose of school was to go home every day having learned something important.
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The small classes (15:1 ratio) were led by Christian teachers who knew each student’s name. Their mission is to “develop young men with biblical masculinity and integrity.” Every student has to lead some kind of initiative, and that is the core of the program. In addition to the books, much emphasis is placed on physical training, public speaking, working with the hands and using the Bible as a guiding foundation.
The results show improvement: grades are rising, attitudes are improving, and young men are starting to act like someone is counting on them, because someone is. Each year, Iron Academy publishes outcome data showing that IQ has increased by an average of 8.7 points after the first year of enrollment.
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Then I walked the path across campus to Academie31. The atmosphere in the air was different, but the power and conviction were the same. The girls greeted me with quiet confidence. They were like the Proverbs 31 woman: smart, capable, kind, and fearless.
The girls I met who attended Academy31 greeted me with quiet confidence. They were like the Proverbs 31 woman: smart, capable, kind, and fearless. (iStock)
I saw these girls studying Latin, logic and literature, in addition to cooking, finance and how to run a house or a business. They were surrounded by mentors, the older students who discipled the younger students. The school felt like a house full of sisters who decided that the world shouldn’t tell them who they are – God already did that.
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What I liked about these two schools in North Carolina was that there was no mixed chaos, no dilution of norms or behavior to keep everyone comfortable. Boys become boys and discover what it means to unapologetically pursue biblical manhood.
Girls become girls and grow into biblical womanhood without competition. Growth is the key word here. Both boys and girls are given the time and space to grow into themselves and this allows their roots to grow strong and sturdy. And because the schools are right next to each other, the boys learn to respect the girls and the girls learn to respect the boys – the old-fashioned way that still works.
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I stood there on that campus and thought about the kids on the South Side. Fatherless boys wandered around the block looking hard because no one had ever shown them how to be strong properly. Girls raise babies while they are still babies themselves because no one has taught them their worth. We continue to throw money at programs that treat symptoms and wonder why nothing changes.
This is the answer I have been praying for.
We don’t need another government report or celebrity PSA. We need places where boys become men of God and girls become women of God, separated if it helps them grow, together if it teaches them honor.
North Carolina already has the blueprint. Iron Academy and Academy31 are proving it works, one young man and one young woman at a time.
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When I return to Chicago, Project HOOD is starting two schools of its own, one for boys and one for girls. Initially small. Bibles from the ground up. No excuses, no shortcuts. We learn to read, write, and do arithmetic, but even more, we learn character, courage, and Christ.
Because strong boys and strong girls don’t just happen. Someone has to build them on purpose.
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