Private Boarding Schools
One thing I have never understood is boarding private schools. I know there are great schools out there, and there are many parents who want their children to get the best education they can get, but I wonder about the wisdom of being separated from your children for long stretches of time. While I don?t think children should be coddled or anything like that, I do think they benefit from the security of their families. Is a child who is sent away to boarding private schools lonely and independent at too young of an age?
There are many great advantages to sending your child to a school like this, but you do have to have the money to do so. Many families don?t, and I think this is why they are not nearly as common as regular private schools. When you send your child to boarding private schools, they stay there much of the school year, but come home for breaks, much like a college student. I?m not sure a child under 18 is ready for that, and I don?t know if that?s the best thing for them, even if they are getting a great education. There are other places to get the same learning, and you don?t have to miss your child so much, and you don?t have to worry that the boarding private school is instilling values in your child that you might not like.
A child can learn a lot from boarding private schools, and much of that has nothing to do with education. They are probably getting the best from their teachers, but are they learning that their parents are not there for them? Are they learning that they have to be independent when they are not emotionally ready to do so? Those are questions that each parents has to answer when they decide to send their child to such a school. I?m not sure anyone knows the answers, but they are things to consider.
If you really want to send your child to boarding private schools, you should be aware that you may have to send them far from home. That means that if something goes wrong that you might not be able to be there for them. They may learn to think they can rely only on themselves, and you have to decide if that is a good lesson. Independence is great, but humans are meant to live in families, and it is good to know that our family is there. Make sure you strike a good balance if you send them for this education, and make every moment you are together count.