Catholic school was the initial preparatory experience for freelance journalist Maya Francis. It was her mother’s choice. She came from a family of Catholic school students. But once given the chance, Maya chose a different path.
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If it were left up to my father, I would’ve went to public school. He went to one, and he turned out fine, he says. The very notion, however, makes my mother’s hazel eyes widen and flicker like they’ve been powered by a kerosene lantern. Mom and her family had almost all been Catholic school children. So at 3 years old, much to Dad’s chagrin, I was enrolled into a Catholic school, and was the only black face in my class. This would be my prep for prep school.
By the time I reached 6th grade, I’d outfitted the particulars of my parochial school and was growing weary of the misnomers in our education as it pertained to people of color. I needed to be somewhere that appreciated my curiosity, as opposed to stifling it and understood the differences between diversity and quotas, and multiculturalism and race-neutrality.
My parents shopped through prep schools in the area until it finally came down to two. Like a good prep school kid, I pleaded my case and cried until I had them convinced and got what I wanted.
In hindsight, I fell in love with Friends’ Central School initially because it was nothing like parochial school at all: no uniforms (Dad griped about “young dudes wearing their hats backwards,” on visiting day); minor oversight (on my first day, I laughed as I caught myself erroneously waiting for a teacher to walk us to the cafeteria for lunch); and the push to make us think outside ourselves. Catholic school was about conformity. Prep school encouraged my independent streak.
My experience at an independent Friends school has proved invaluable in the exposure to new thoughts, cultural nuances, lifestyles and ideas. Exposure is the enduring challenge to complacency, to conformity, and the road to finding out what your values really are. For that, I am a better journalist, and more importantly, a better person.
- Maya K. Francis
Freelance journalist
Public Relations Coordinator, McKinney & Associates
