Boarding Education
Against the odds, boarding prep schools are becoming more popular, Max Davidson considers the
pros...and asks are there any cons?
board Born to “The
hardest part was running the gauntlet of my friends’ disapproval,” says a mother
who packed her son off to boarding school at the age of nine. “I was clear in my own mind why I was doing it. I felt he needed to spend more time with his friends, and with older boys, who can be invaluable as role models, particularly when a boy does not have an older brother. But in some people’s eyes, I was being a bad, uncaring, and even, cruel mother.” Her experience is not untypical. Send a
teenage child to boarding school and no one is going to accuse you of abuse or neglect. As the Harry Potter stories have so joyfully re-affi rmed, boarding schools can be fun, places of laughter and adventure. But with younger children, you are on shakier ground. You can almost hear the whisperings behind your back as you load your child’s school trunk into the BMW. Such peer pressure can be quite inhibiting.
While the total number of prep school boarders rose steadily between 2000 and 2010, with girls accounting for the bulk of the increase, the very young boarder is becoming far less common, refl ecting the sensitivities of the age.
www.fi rstelevenmagazine.co.uk Michaelmas 2011 FirstEleven 31
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