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Education has been on my mind a lot lately as I continue my Walk Across America through the gentle hills of North Carolina. Part of why I’m doing this walk is that I have seen how the lowering of education standards over the last 60 years has devastated Black communities, such as the one I live in on the South Side of Chicago. Without a proper education, one cannot go far in life in America. It is my ambition to reverse this insidious and life-sucking trend everywhere in America and when I reached the city of Raleigh I decided to visit two schools that I heard were successful.
The school for the boys is called Iron Academy and the girls’ school is called Academy31. They both sit on the same campus in separate buildings and yet their mission is the same: Raise kids the way God designed for them, 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 like it was normal. I’m so used to stressing responsibility to my own youth that it is sometimes startling when I see it ingrained in a child. All of these kids were regular boys who understood that the purpose of school was to go home each day having learned something of consequence.
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The small classes (15:1 ratio) were led by Christian teachers who actually knew each student’s name. Their mission is to “develop young men of biblical manhood and integrity.” Each student is required to lead an initiative of some sort, and that is core to the program. In addition to the books, there is a heavy emphasis on physical training, public speaking, working with their hands and using Scripture as the guiding foundation.
The results show improvement: grades jump, attitudes straighten and young men start acting like somebody’s counting on them, because somebody is. Every year, Iron Academy publishes outcome data that shows an average 8.7-point IQ increase after the first year of enrollment.
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Then I walked the path across the campus to Academy31. The vibe in the air was different but the strength and conviction were the same. The girls greeted me with quiet confidence. They resembled the Proverbs 31 woman: smart, capable, kind and fearless.
The girls I met who attended Academy31 greeted me with quiet confidence. They resembled the Proverbs 31 woman: smart, capable, kind and fearless. (iStock)
I saw these girls studying Latin, logic and literature right alongside cooking, finances, and how to run a home or a business. They were surrounded by mentors who were the older students discipling the younger ones. The school felt like a house full of sisters who decided the world doesn’t get to tell them who they are — God already did.
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What I loved about these two North Carolina schools was that there was no co-ed chaos, no watering down of standards or behavior to keep everybody comfortable. Boys get to be boys and figure out what it means to strive for biblical manhood without apology.
Girls get to be girls and grow into biblical womanhood without competition. Growth is the key word here. Both the boys and girls are given the time and space to grow into their own selves and that allows their roots to grow strong and firm. And because the schools sit 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 thinking about the kids back on the South Side. Fatherless boys wandering the block, looking hard because nobody ever showed them how to be strong the right way. Girls raising babies while they’re still babies themselves because nobody taught them their worth. We keep throwing money at programs that treat symptoms and wonder why nothing changes.
This is the answer I’ve 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, separate when it helps them grow, together when 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 get back to Chicago, Project H.O.O.D. is starting two schools of our own, one for boys and one for girls. Small at first. Biblical from the foundation. No excuses, no shortcuts. We’ll teach reading, writing and arithmetic, but more than that, we’ll teach character, courage and Christ.
Because strong boys and strong girls don’t just happen. Somebody has to build them on purpose.
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