Parents who are frustrated with their local schools and wary of their own ability to homeschool may be wondering if boarding school is the answer. One boarding school alumna assures them that it is probably not the case:
"[A]n increasing number of parents are deciding against boarding school. Enrollment at private day schools has grown 15 percent in the past decade, while enrollment at boarding schools has grown only 2.7 percent. Overall boarding school enrollment dropped from about 42,000 in the late 1960’s to 39,000 in the last school year — even though, according to the Census Bureau, the population of 14- to 17-year-olds was more than 1.5 million higher in 2004 than in 1968.
"Reporting on this, The Wall Street Journal attributed the shift away from boarding school to a trend of greater parental involvement, which translates into parents reluctant to be apart from their children. This is, evidently, the same reason some parents are now accompanying their teenagers to boarding school; these mothers and fathers literally move, sometimes cross-country, to be close to the campuses of the boarding schools their children attend.
"While the new breed of super-involved parent strikes me as slightly creepy (having worked as a private-school teacher, I’ve also seen parents whose idea of "involvement" is doing their children’s homework for them), I don’t think the conclusion they’ve come to is the wrong one. Among the reasons I wouldn’t send my own child to boarding school is that being around one’s adolescent peers 24 hours a day doesn’t seem particularly healthy. It makes the things that already loom large in high school — grades, clothes, sports, heartache, acne — loom even larger.
"Going home at night provides physical distance from the relentlessness of all teenagers, all the time, and, ideally, parents provide perspective. Although they might be dorky, parents know an important lesson about everything from serious hazing to the embarrassment of dropping a lunch tray in a crowded cafeteria: This, too, shall pass."
Maybe it’s my inner fox eyeing the grapes dangling out of my reach, but there’s some satisfaction in discovering that the most expensive educational alternative is not always the best choice for children. What counts is not the money a parent throws at the problem, but his own involvement in shaping his child’s studies. A parent worried about his own ability to homeschool can at least take comfort in the fact that he is likely to do a better job at it than others who are unable to give the child personalized attention and parental values.
We could never do boarding school. We would miss our kids too much.
I have had the same questions about my children’s education. Right now the oldes is 8 and we are pretty happy with out local Catholic school, but when it comes to high school…..
Well, the local Catholic High Schools are football factories and nothing more than places for the privledged to send their kids. It’s a lot like a pulic school with uniforms.
We have looked into to starting our own school, but as a Ph.D. student on instructional design and online learning, I am becoming more convinced everyday that online education is the way to educate our kids.
Keep an eye on this and we’ll see what happens in the next few years.
Keith
I read somewhere that if you took your kids out of school and played cards and board games with them all day they would get a better education than in the public(and sometimes private)school cesspool. I don’t really adhere to that… but I know many homeschoolers with only high school educations that do a superb job homeschooling. Most people CAN do it and do a much better job than institutions can.
Hyper-involved parents who follow their kids to school and do their homework for them has been a big problem in our One-Child Policy (read: forced abortion policy) friends in China.
The U.S. does not need a totalitarian government policy for our society to follow the same path of self-destruction. The secularists are doing that for us.
Sleep well everyone.
Our local university has coined a term: helicopter parents. They are the ones that “hover” and don’t let little Johnny go. The university even cited one parent who camped out in the dorm for the first week of school. It seems to me that when you choose career over family until you are 40 or so, and then have one, you could easily set yourself up as a “helicopter parent”. I must confess to being a “hoverer” myself. It’s the only way my children will get their math done in my homeschool.
I am the product of a boarding school (grades 10-12). I can think of some other reasons for decline in enrollment, such as the accellerating costs (compared to private day education) and divorce. None of my kids wanted to go to boarding school (“I’m already at Dad’s half-time and Mom’s half-time, why would I want to add a third home?”).
The great advantage of independent schools is that they are all different in nature. Not all boarding schools are alike. A boarding school with a strong culture is a great place to be an adolescent. Another advantage to the boarding environment is zero time spent on communting.
I left boarding school more than 30 years ago and remain in contact with many of my peers. We all agree that boarding school causes more upset and social consequencs for years to come than could have ever be imagined by our ‘caring parents’ wanting to give us a better chance in life. The feeling of rejection and the exposure of ones critical and bullying adolescent peers 24 hours a day term after term (as mentioned above) leads to years of insecurities and failed personal relationships. I refused to send my own children and they are far more balanced and greater achievers than I will ever be.
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The ink barely dried on our divorce papers in December, and my ex suggested we investigate boarding school as our son had expressed interest. He’s a HS freshman and complains everyday that he hates school, it’s boring, etc. Currently, we’re “co-parenting” with him spending 50% (she keeps a ledger) of time with both of us. I have come down to the position that he’s not going anywhere, and that the main issue is the joint custody. I think what he really needs is one place to call home. His weekly therapy already doesn’t do much good, except to identify that he is depressed. Accounts of any similar experiences and their outcomes appreciated.
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Secondary education is a crucial stage in students life and a well focused education of a good boarding school is very helpful in shaping the future of students. There are many high schools also which provide a good academic curriculum.
I think your points are valid, especially that in a public school kids can go home to get away from school related angst. But a boarding school does have its merits as well. If a student has a good bunch of friends to hang about with then boarding school can be great! It all depends on how you handle yourself…
As a teen is not entirely prepare to face the challenges yet in these schools far from their parents he learns a lot about his future. It is said that Boys high school is the first challenging ladder. A teen get higher education after crossing high school.
Private Schools for Teens provide quality education and scope to teens in other activities also. In these schools the students can get excellent education, can experience new things of life. They provide very highly educated teachers so that students can discuss them anytime.
http://www.teensprivateschools.com/
This is very interesting and informative article. It is right that the enrollments in the boarding schools are not increasing as compared to private schools. But these schools provide excellent education. Day boarding schools have the benefit of boarding school and private schools.
http://www.teensprivateschools.com/schooltypes/Day-Boarding/index.html