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For most parents, sending their children to boarding school is a decision that hurts not just emotionally but financially as well. It's not a cheap option, but it certainly is an option worth considering, if you look at the positive points. How Hollywood portrays private boarding schools doesn't help either. In the real world, boarding schools aren't simply places where unfeeling parents pack off and send their kids to when they don't want to deal with them anymore. Boarding schools are more complex than that.
Many parents are afraid of having their children separated from them, although they feel that the current mainstream educational system is sometimes not enough for their teens' academic needs. Should you send your teen to a boarding school? Here are a few compelling reasons to consider:
- Superb quality of academic programs - Ask anybody who has ever went to a private boarding school or a parent who has ever sent a child to one and they will tell you that boarding schools set the standard academically. Of course it doesn't automatically mean that your child will be admitted to Ivy League schools, but it certainly does mean that there's an academic advantage over students from mainstream schools.
- Takes the strain between parents and children away - Parents won't have to argue with children to turn the TV off or stop playing video games and start doing homework. Private boarding schools have structured study hours where children are often monitored by teachers or proctors. Children are more likely to crack their books when they are done together with other children and in silence.
- Less distractions - Since the use of TV, video games, and internet are tightly regulated in boarding schools, children are more likely to pursue other healthier and more useful ways to spend their extra time. More children become involved in sports, studying music, reading books, and other more worthwhile pursuits while in boarding schools than if they are in mainstream schools.
- Better facilities - Boarding schools tend to have better facilities than day schools. They have better sports programs and a more comprehensive program for music and other performing arts. They are usually set in locations where children can also explore other physical activities like equestrian programs. As a result, children can excel in more things and cultivate their interest in a wider variety of activities.
- Better chances of interacting with a more diverse crowd - For most students, boarding school is where they forge strong friendships with people from different cultural backgrounds. A lot of boarding schools admit international students, which would be useful in broadening the horizons of young minds. Some children spend all of their lives in their city or town. Boarding schools prepare teens for the fact that there is an entire world out there, and different kinds of people to deal with.
- Gives teens a sense of independence - Since boarding schools have students in residence, it's just normal for teachers and counselors to be around most of the time, monitoring the activities of the students. This doesn't mean that your child will be in a prison-like environment. On the contrary, students of boarding schools gain a certain amount of independence which prepares them for the world outside school. They have to live with people who are not their family, so they learn to pick up after themselves or face the consequences of being messy or unruly. They develop a sense of personal responsibility where they begin to cultivate an awareness of what is expected of them and what they should expect of themselves.
While private boarding schools are certainly not for everybody, one can easily see how some would prefer it over other kinds of schools.
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