Grateful for Education: The Dwight School and Xavier High School in New York City
In a world where it’s easy to be down, I remind myself of all of the ways I am grateful.
On this Sunday, I am thinking of all the ways that I am thankful. Being thankful allows me to avoid focusing on negatives and spiraling into negativity. Being human sometimes means that you are still learning, through experiencing your own emotions.
Today, I am focusing on how grateful I am that my sons are a part of the Xavierian brotherhood, Xavier High School in Manhattan. I am choosing to meditate on how grateful I am that my youngest daughter attends and is a part of The Dwight School.
When I find myself feeling like things are not quite on the path they need to be, I remember all the times in the past that I prayed for what I have now. I prayed for the peace I have now. I remember being upset because my youngest daughter didn’t want to go to school. I go deep into my memories like it was yesterday. “I’m bored!” my 6-year-old exclaimed.
“School is fun!” I rebutted with good reason, but it was no use.
“I want to stay home with you!” I wilted inside because I know how deeply important and crucial education is, especially as a Black person. I remember the sourness and deep helplessness I felt as I reasoned with her to get out of bed, eat the breakfast I prepared and go to school. She stayed home with me until she was 5 years old, learning about different cultures, reading, writing, learning numbers, counting, addition and subtracting. Each week I took her to a new attraction in Manhattan, the Museum of Natural History, The Children’s Museum, The MoMA, The Whitney, Museum of the City of New York, The Cooper Hewitt, the Guggenheim, The Aquarium, Central Park Zoo, Bronx Zoo, and too many to name. I wouldn’t have imagined that being home with Mom, doing math and practicing cursive would be more fun than being with other children her age.
Each morning there was a negotiation that shook the core of who I am as a person, and as a mother. I eventually learned from her teacher at the time, that he assessed her, and she was assessing about two grades ahead. “So, she really was bored, wow.” I said to myself. Now I knew something needed to be done, it was only first grade, and I was watching my baby’s light dim in real time.
Fast forward and she got accepted into The Dwight School for second grade. From the moment she stepped into the building there was an immediate difference, the light inside of her was back on and she was no longer adamant about staying home. She wanted to go to school again, and I was grateful then, and I’m grateful now. I am thankful that she is now able to indulge her natural abilities and is able to take 7th grade math, although she is in 6th grade, I am thankful that she is in an institution that appreciates her natural talents and sees her for the individual that she is. I am an avid, enthusiastic vocal supporter of The Dwight School.
Chronologically, when my oldest son began looking for High Schools to attend, I was looking for a New York City high school that would provide a quality education for my sons, and the structure necessary to mold them into productive, responsible, effective men. I was looking for a school that would provide my sons with an opportunity to be accountable every day for their ascension into manhood and to become a contributing member of society. Xavier has created an environment where young men can aspire to be the best version of themselves. When a young man is going into High School, he is leaving the last part of his childhood behind and is slowly transitioning into the next part of his life, a young man. Xavier’s staff is full of admirable men, and women for my sons to look to for living examples of right and wrong. As a parent, I understand that children will do what they see, not what is told to them.
Each day my sons come home and explain stories to me of what has happened in their day, and I am so affirmed in my decision to send my sons to Xavier. When my sons complain about “jug” or some sort of discipline, I am pleased and in agreement. I want to live in a world where children and adults understand that actions influence their own lives and the lives of those around them.
Until I had daughters and sons, I didn’t understand that girls and boys learn differently and require different learning environments, with tools catered to their biological strengths and challenges. I am thankful that Xavier implements this every day, in every pillar of the foundation of their curriculum, from the very dirt they share with the principles of the church attached to the building, physically, spiritually, and figuratively. I do not know if my sons are aware that they are saplings growing into mighty trees, from the roots and psychological tending, spiritual watering of Xavier. The Jesuit ideologies of the Xavierian education is just a cherry on top for me, as a mother.
I will always be openly passionately shouting from the mountains, in the streets of New York, to anyone who will listen, how much deep admiration I have for Xavier High School, from the softest part of my soul. Amen on today.
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