A college preparatory school for black and Latino boys opened in Washington, D.C., last year to a burst of public interest—and the inevitable question from the American Civil Liberties Union of the Nation’s Capital: What have you done for girls lately? In the city’s newest public high school, you’ll see blue blazers, khakis, gold and purple school ties, confident handshakes, door holding, and eye contact, but the real salvation might come from the heart-to-hearts and hard lessons handled with care. It’s a school culture aimed at teaching teenaged boys how they can right their own paths, and girls—according to the equal-in-all-things reflex—ought not be left behind.

The freshman class at Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in D.C.’s Deanwood neighborhood was rebounding from back-to-back snow days when I visited its morning meeting earlier this year. The boys and the faculty took their seats around the edges of a rectangular meeting room that doubles as the dining hall. Frederick Douglass, Duke Ellington, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama looked on—their portraits posted on the wall, exemplars of greatness—while students who came in late quietly reported to their teachers.