Atlanta Classical Academy Commencement Address

On May 20^th, 2023 Ian Rowe addressed the graduating class of Atlanta Classical Academy, a virtues-based public Charter school in Atlanta, GA, at their spring commencement.

Good Morning. Thank you Mr. Andrew, Mr. Schepps, Mr. Kirby, Mrs. Mcafee and the entire ACA Board,

Thank you parents, grandparents, friends, and everyone who has played a role as these young men and women embark upon the next steps of life’s journey. And most importantly thank you to the graduating class for the honor of addressing you today.

I bring greetings from Vertex Partnership Academies, the virtues-based, International Baccalaureate charter high school I lead in the Bronx. Similar to Atlanta Classical Academy, which emphasizes the principles of virtuous living, Vertex Partnership Academies is organized around the four cardinal virtues of courage, justice, temperance and wisdom. I thought I would share a parable that symbolizes the core virtues of courage and humility which Mr. Andrew shared with me was added as a virtue this year to remind us of the importance to challenge our most deeply held beliefs.

My parable is a tale of a small village on the edge of a river.

The people in the village were good, and life was good. One day a villager noticed a baby floating down the river. The villager quickly swam out to save the baby from drowning. The next day this same villager noticed two babies in the river. He called for help, and both babies were rescued from the swift waters. And the following day, four babies were seen caught in the turbulent current. And then eight, then more, and then still more!

The villagers organized themselves quickly, setting up watchtowers and training teams of swimmers who could resist the swift waters and rescue babies. Rescue squads were soon working twenty-four hours a day. And each day the number of helpless babies floating down the river increased. The villagers organized themselves efficiently. The rescue squads were now snatching many children each day. Though not all the babies, now very numerous, could be saved, the villagers felt they were doing well to save as many as they could each day. Indeed, the village priest blessed them in their good work. And life in the village continued on that basis for many years.

Yet one day the villagers noticed a young man running northward along the river bank. They shouted, “Where are you going? We need you to help with the rescue.” “Stop. You must help save the babies now!” The young man looked back and responded, “I am. That’s why I am going upstream to find the person who is throwing these babies into the river!”

I share this parable because our society, like this village, is overwhelmed with issues. The urgency of the immediate need can be so great that we never stop to ponder the underlying cause of the problems. The people are good, and doing the best they can in a difficult, complex situation. Yet what allowed this young man to go upstream, to have the courage to see the suffering, and boldly go in pursuit of another path? What gave him the humility to challenge the wisdom of the village elders? I would like to think that this young man received the blessings of an education similar to what you have received at ACA.

I share this parable because our society, like this village, is overwhelmed with issues. The urgency of the immediate need can be so great that we never stop to ponder the underlying cause of the problems.

An education grounded not just in virtues, but virtues in action.

In each of our lives, we will face what I call epiphany moments. Moments that once experienced, the world you have known looks different and makes you different. Moments that illuminate, reveal, lead to new understanding and purpose. Moments that force you to confront and maybe even question your or society’s most deeply held beliefs, to practice humility and accept the possibility that those beliefs might actually be part of the problem. I had such an epiphany moment on July 11, 2016 at about 4 PM on 149th st and 3rd avenue in the South Bronx.

At the time, I led a network of schools, educating more than 2,000 low-income students. Each year, our random lottery left nearly 5,000 applicant families on an excruciatingly long wait list. We had moved our headquarters from Manhattan to the South Bronx,

committed to open new schools in a district in which only 2% of kids graduated from high school ready for college. On that hot summer afternoon, my team and I toured our new neighborhood, and we came upon a 27 foot, baby blue winnebago truck with graffiti lettering. Adults gathered around, similar to kids excitedly welcoming an ice cream truck. The graffiti lettering said “Who’s Your Daddy?”

It turned out that the Who’s Your Daddy truck is a mobile DNA testing center, where low-income folks were spending between $350 and $500 for swab tests to answer questions such as are you my sister?; could you be my father? Demand was so robust that a second Who’s Your Daddy truck provided services to other boroughs in New York, and nationally in Washington, DC and Chicago. I remember being shaken, not only by how needed the paternity testing services were by real people in fragile families, but also by the absolute normalcy and acceptance of the truck. In this village, the people are good. They are doing the best they can. But what role did the state of our families play in the challenge faced by those of us running schools? Like the young man in the parable, it struck me that there had to be a new way. I endeavored not only to build schools that stressed academics, but also the ingredients of human flourishing, starting with strengthening the fundamental building block of our society — a strong family.

In my experience, young people who ultimately enjoy thriving lives entered young adulthood having developed a sense of personal agency, a belief that they can lead a self-determined life. I define Agency as the force of your free will, guided by moral discernment.

I share this real world story of my epiphany moment because if you have not yet, you will ultimately face yours. It will be the moment in which you must live out your responsibility to return what you have been given by ACA; what you have worked so hard for to bring you here today.

Over thirty years, I have worked with kids from every imaginable background, rich, poor, black, white, hispanic, asian, intact family, completely unstable family, foster care, homeless. I have seen kids grow up in challenging situations — domestic violence, poverty — who succumb to those conditions and unfortunately recreate them as they enter young adulthood. But I have also seen kids under those same exact conditions make different sets of decisions that put them on a different trajectory to break the cycle of disadvantage. The question is what makes the difference?

In my experience, young people who ultimately enjoy thriving lives entered young adulthood having developed a sense of personal agency, a belief that they can lead a self-determined life. I define Agency as the force of your free will, guided by moral discernment.

But the ability to become morally discerning doesn’t come from nowhere. In my observations, students who were able to break the cycle of disadvantage have usually embraced the four pillars of human flourishing that I call FREE – Family, Religion, Education and Entrepreneurship.

My first observation is that these young people recognized that regardless of the family that they were from, the family they were on the pathway to form made all the difference. They were usually following what is called the “success sequence” – finishing at least a high school degree, full time job so you learn the dignity and discipline of work, and then if they had children, marriage first. 97% of millennials who follow these steps in that order avoid poverty, and the vast majority enter the middle class or beyond.

Second young people who were able to break the cycle of disadvantage had a personal faith commitment, usually informed by a religion. Didn’t matter if Christianity or Buddhism or any particular religion, but that they lived by a moral code, and were part of a community of people that loved them and expected them to live up to that moral code.

My third observation is that young people who broke the cycle of disadvantage benefitted from educational freedom or school choice, such as you had the power to choose ACA.

And finally, young people who broke the cycle of disadvantage had an entrepreneurial mindset, problem solvers within their own lives.

FREE is my empowering alternative to inspire a rising generation to fulfill their God-given potential, to promote empowering messages of hope and agency versus grievance and dependency.

As you take this next step in life, I ask you: What will be your empowering alternative?

As a graduate of ACA, you have a commitment to pay forward the education you received, and a commitment to communicate to young people, especially those that are struggling, that their life can be their own, that there are pathways to prosperity and power, even in the face of life’s inevitable obstacles. That is virtues in action.

When you do have that epiphany moment, will you have the humility to recognize it, to check your premise, to question your previously held beliefs and think critically about different solutions — to re-examine everything you have already known.

But more importantly, when that moment comes, will you have the courage to act on it, to lead others onto a new path of being.

To the 2023 graduates of Atlanta Classical Academy, pay attention. Be on the lookout. When that moment comes, I hope… that I will see you upstream.

Congratulations.