The gravel road wound through a valley, surrounded on all sides by mountain ridges covered in verdant leaves and fragrant redbuds. Spring had arrived in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, and so had we. Cresting a hill, we reached our destination: a lot and a small wood building—the future campus of St. Dunstan’s Academy, an all-boys Anglican boarding school for grades 9–12. If all goes as planned, it will officially open next year.

As the father of two young boys—and the spiritual father of many more—I am increasingly concerned about the state of young men in our disintegrating society. Our culture is producing adult-sized boys and infantile men. Absent real challenge or adventure and without an established masculine community handing down the rites and responsibilities of maturity, boys are often bereft. They need more than a desk or a sports team. These concerns led me to the Blue Ridge. …

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