News-Letter

Media Credit: Britni Crocker Knight lectured throughout Europe, Japan, Australia and the Americas before taking up a position as professor of history.

History professor Franklin W. Knight's studies have taken him to vastly different places, from Jamaica to Japan to Baltimore to Wisconsin, and he has traveled extensively throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.

Knight's interest in Latin America and the Caribbean emerged from his special relationship with renowned historian Elsa Vesta Goveia, though he jokes that the high quality of Latin American "girly magazines" that his boarding school classmates used to ogle over may also have piqued his interest in the region. Knight sat down with the News-Letter to share his experiences earning a reputation as a renowned expert in his field and to advise Hopkins students to pursue their passion, wherever it may take them.

Knight was raised in the British colonies where he studied at a boarding school for six years. "[Studying away from home] forces you to come to terms with your individuality, tests your resilence and forces you to learn skills," Knight claimed. Ultimately, Knight believes that his time at a boarding school filled with students from all over the world taught him more than what can be learned in classrooms.

For this reason, Knight believes that more children should be sent to boarding school.

"[Students at boarding schools] learn to walk alone and learn to accept responsibility for their actions," Knight said.

He argues that because parents of boarding school children see their children infrequently, the time parents do spend with their children is filled with "quality affection."

After leaving boarding school at the young and impressionable age of 19, Knight chose to attend University College of the West Indies, London, a college run by the British in Jamaica.

Knight entered college with no preconceptions or advice about what he was to learn or where it would take him. At the time, it seemed to Knight as if University officials did not give advice or guidance to entering students - they were instead simply told to try and learn.

Knight's interest in history was sparked "accidentally" when he met two great historians who would serve as great influences throughout his time spent at the University.

Continued...

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