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Welcome to my blog! This is a place for me to organize and display my thoughts on education and get feedback. My current plan is to open a private high school called Murray Academy. Above are pages with my most recent thoughts. Enjoy!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Essay on Boarding Schools

I had to write an essay on an educational topic, so I picked boarding schools to start looking at if boarding school is good for kids. Here is my essay:


Is Boarding School a Good Choice for Students?
            In researching this topic, I found that there are two main types of boarding schools. One type is for troubled teens who need a safe environment away from home to pull themselves out of drugs, self-mutilation, eating disorders, and other problems like bullying to get their lives on track and realize their full potential. The other type is a college preparatory boarding school. I am mainly interested in the college prep type, and there are many issues that need to be addressed to determine if these schools are good for children.
            We have discussed in the past the issue of pulling kids away from their parents at a young age for them to attend pre-kindergarten. Some said that sending kids to pre-K will hurt a child’s relationship with his or her parents at such a tender age, while others said that there is plenty of quality time left in the day for a pre-K student to spend with family. I also believe that putting a child in pre-K for a few hours gives the parent (often mother) time to recharge and be able to give more to her child. Sending a student to boarding school is much different because the student is much older, but the same idea is in place because we have to ask: Should a student have to live away from home at such a young age? One mother wrote an article on www.boardingschoolreview.com, and she was very appreciative of her son’s mandatory evening study hall, sign in for breakfast, and evening curfew at boarding school because that meant her time with him was real time instead of spent nagging him about his responsibilities. She said her time with him was much more intimate after he left for boarding school. However, many students who are sent to boarding school as young as six or seven feel abandoned and like they could never develop an intimate relationship with their family, as an article – “Does being packed off to boarding school scar children for life?” – in the British online newspaper Dailymail suggests. However, once these children get a little older and adjust to boarding school life, many of them feel strongly in that they one day want to send their kids to boarding school at a young age because it really shaped them in a positive way. The biggest issue at the time was the feeling of abandonment. Interestingly enough, there is generally little to no difference between the level of homesickness of male and female students.
            Another issue is if students should really have to be so responsible for themselves as teenagers or younger. Reuven Kahane, author of “Multicode Organizations: A Conceptual Framework for the Analysis of Boarding Schools,” suggests that a boarding school offers a child or teen the opportunity to learn to be responsible for themselves while still being able to be irresponsible. Www.boardingschoolreview.com points out that boarding school allows students to make important choices (about things like classes and extracurriculars) and to take responsibility for themselves at an age where many students are running around like chickens with their heads cut off just trying to keep up with life at a day school. “The Times of India” mentions that most boarding school students see in themselves an independence not seen in their peers as well as the ability to make very close friendships and have discipline.
            Boarding schools have been called “oppressive institutions that humiliate students and deny their individuality”  (Wilkinson 1964). It has also been suggested that they encourage an economic and socialization gap because boarding school children are often from middle or upper class white families. However, www.boardingschoolreview.com says more than a quarter of all American boarding school students are minorities or international students. Also, about a third of all boarding school students in the United States receive financial aid. Many boarding schools also focus on diversity, so students get to interact on a daily basis with students and adults who are very different and then not just go home to another homogenous neighborhood at night. In fact, it is easy to form intense relationships at a boarding school and to have a wide range of friends because of the diversity present. This reminds me a lot of Emory because we are so diverse and spend a lot of time being open to different ideas and different ways of life.
            The “totality” of boarding schools, as Kahane stresses, brings students into the boarding school for all spheres of life, so the school is able to better shape the will and character of the students. This, obviously, can be a really good or really bad thing. In many cases, this is a good thing because of the freedom and resources available to the students. Kahane says the freedom of a boarding school allows for students to experiment with different roles. According to www.boardingschoolreview.com, boarding schools often have smaller classes and teachers with higher degrees. There are also higher academic standards, an atmosphere that encourages students to try new things, and a serious college-counseling center.
And speaking of college, the parent who wrote the article on www.boardingschoolreview.com about valuing her time with her son now that she does not have to nag him about school and responsibilities also talked about the jump from high school to college. She said she thought her son’s going to boarding school would mean that the transition to college would be easy and possibly uninteresting, but she and her son agree that it is still a big step. Boarding school lets the students experiment and make their own decisions above a safety net of a lot of responsible adults, but many colleges to not nurture their students in that way.
Before a parent should consider sending a child to boarding school, I believe there needs to be a proper support system is in place at home and at school. Students need to know that their parents are not sending them away. Kids, especially young ones, must be aware of all of the positives that can come out of a boarding school education, including all of the amazing friends and confidence they can get out of it. I read a few accounts of parents who would talk on the phone with their kids every night the kid’s first year in boarding school and other accounts of parents who wrote their kid at least once each week and expected a response. Many parents who lived close to the boarding school would even go to sporting and other events and get to know their child’s friends even better than if their child was at a local day school.
Another important note is that the resources and academics available at the boarding school need to be advanced enough to justify a move to boarding school. Sending a child to boarding school can be emotional and economically burdensome. Fortunately, many boarding schools have the resources to be a better academic option than many local schools.
Therefore, after researching all of this, I think my answer to my title question – Is boarding school a good choice for students? – is that it can be as long as the school is a better option than the local school and the child understands, or will quickly grow to understand, the value of a boarding school education. I also am currently of the opinion that students should be at the very least in middle school (6th grade) before attending a boarding school so appropriate bonds can be made between the child and his or her family.  

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