FRAMINGHAM'S BEST KEPT SECRET?

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Never say never!

I once said, “I’ll never send my kids to a Catholic school!”

Well, all three of my kids graduated from (Catholic) Marian High School in Framingham (Jon in 2001, Amy in 2003, and Rachel in 2005)! My wife, Mary Ann, has worked at Marian High for several years. Mary Ann started out as a part time volunteer, then a paid part time substitute teacher and helper, then a paid full time substitute teacher and helper, and for the past three years as the school’s Administrative Assistant. People say, “She runs the place!” And, with no disrespect intended to the Principal, Sr. Cathy Clifford, or any of the other staff, in a sense, she does! Mary Ann puts in a lot of hours and does anything and everything at Marian, but she really does enjoy her job.

I was raised Roman Catholic. I attended public school, but I attended religious education at a Catholic school. My image of Catholic school was the pre-1970 Catholic schools of old-fashioned uniforms and incredibly strict nuns smashing rulers across kids' knuckles...stuff like that. And, like many baby boomers who grew up Catholic and then became born-again Christians in the youth revival of the early ‘70s known as the “Jesus Generation”, I’d resented the Catholic religion for “hiding the truth and pushing empty meaningless rituals.” Hence, I wasn’t big on Catholic schools. Ironically, I’m a graduate of a Catholic college, Stonehill College in Easton (I went there before I went to Central Bible College). I’ve never put Catholic colleges and universities in the same category as parochial schools for grades K-12. Stonehill was a very progressive and diverse college. If not for small crucifixes in the classrooms, most of the time it didn’t feel like a “Catholic school” at all!

In the early 1990s, two of our families at First Assembly of God of Framingham sent their kids to Marian High School. I was surprised. “Don’t you HAVE to be CATHOLIC to go to that school?” I asked. I was surprised to find out that you didn’t have to be Catholic to attend Marian. The teens from our church who attended Marian flourished there. Frankly, in their behavior and in other respects, they were a cut above other kids. I participated in an interfaith assembly at Marian High in 1996. I was VERY impressed. For high schoolers, the kids were very well behaved, and the school seemed very much like a (public) high school of the early 1960s . Mary Ann and I decided to send Jon to Marian and he started there in 1997. Like a lot of kids, Jon HATED middle school. I remember really sweating out whether he’d like Marian...whether he’d fit in. I picked Jon up as he was walking home from his first day at Marian.

“So, how was it?” I nervously asked him.

In a positive tone he answered, “It was O.K.!” Jon did well at Marian, as did my girls. This was definitely the right move for us.

Marian has had some amazing sports teams through the years. Even I was surprised to read they beat Keefe Tech in Football this past weekend! See:

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/sports/local_sports/x1550744112/Marian-14-Keefe-Tech-6-Difference-maker

Keefe’s a MUCH bigger school with strong sports teams, so that’s quite an accomplishment for Marian.

With the exception that Amy played some basketball there, my kids weren’t real big in the athletic department, but they were very active in the school’s outstanding drama program. Framingham High gets a lot of publicity for its great drama program, but I suspect you didn’t know Marian has a drama program that’s just as good as Framingham High’s, and I’d say slightly better!

Marian also has been named one of the best private school values in the Boston area by Boston Magazine. See:

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/boston/private2009

You probably think Mary Ann or Sr. Cathy told me to write a puff piece about Marian on my blog. They didn’t. No one did. I was just thinking about Marian a lot this week. My daughter Amy’s a nurse in Springfield, Missouri. She credits Marian’s science teachers, especially Mr. Gilligan with having a very strong impact upon her that helped her greatly in nursing training. My daughter Rachel has lots of praise for Mr. Costello, a math teacher who taught for many years in inner city schools in Worcester. He’s one of those really outstanding teachers - the kind parents very much want their kids to have. That’s also true of English teacher, Mr. Herlihy who has got to be one of the finest high school English teachers in New England. While I’m bragging about the teachers, I’ve got to put in a good word for Religion Teacher Mr. McGarry. He’s used me as a guest speaker numerous times in his classes, and I’ve always enjoyed that.

If you’re concerned about the education your teenager is getting (or not getting) and if you’ve got younger kids and wonder where they should go to high school, I highly recommend Marian if you’re in Boston’s MetroWest suburbs.

Check out:

http://www.marianhigh.org/