Why boarding school

[weloveicecream]

I am a teacher at a private school and have always wondered why parents decide to send their children to boarding school? I'm a mother myself with a child who attends private school (even before I entered the teaching profession) and I have always been curious as to why someone would want their child to live elsewhere.

Not a dig or negative post, I have just always wondered why.

@tachetastic

Go back and read @Stonefromthehenge’s comment to an OP who had said nothing of the sort though.
It was uncalled for imo.

Personally, I can’t for the life of me understand why a person would choose to climb Everest or similar. It baffles me.
But if I asked a climber why they made the choice it wouldn’t be meant offensively. Curiosity is a normal human emotion and MN is (usually) a good place to ask these sorts of questions. It is helpful to see other people’s pov and to gain understanding.

Loads of different reasons.

Don’t live near the school they have chosen as being most suitable for their child

Parents live abroad

Parents travel a lot with work

Military families (or other careers) who have to move base a lot. Boarding provides stability.

Ethos of boarding - good discipline and structure really suits some children

Children have asked to go.

Is it right for all children? No. However, some children really suit boarding school and thrive. Different children need different types of education. I say that as a parent of day pupils at a school with a lot of boarders.

My mother went to boarding school as she grew up in the Hebrides and the options were
A) leaving school at 14
B) attending the State school, but having to live in lodgings
C) boarding school.

My grandparents thought C was best.

We considered BS for ours due to being a Mitary family, but decided to buy a house and have DH commute instead. As it was, DD1attended 5 Primary schools. It would have been 6 if we hadn't, and she would be on her second Secondary school. Boarding School is stability for these families.
DH commuting isn't an easy option for a family either... he drives a 500 mile round trip each week. Then during the week, he can be even further away than that!

That is true, but people are unlikely to respond to that thread by telling the mountain climber that they are a terrible person who does not deserve to have children, which I have had said to me on these threads.

Boarding parents don’t in principle mind being asked why they made their choices but it is undeniably true that these threads have had a history of intrusion by non-boarding parents who turn their chairs around to butt into a conversation and express their uninvited and deeply insulting views, and justify this on the basis that we can ignore their personal insults if we like.

in fairness that has not happened on this thread, but I think that is probably because of the strong response from boarding parents at the start.

The strong response was off putting and rude.,
If your past experience of posting led to hurtful responses simply don’t reply, step away from most boarding threads or wait till page 2.
A teacher (like the OP) might be considering working at a boarding school, and asking why people choose boarding would be a good start to exploring working at one.

That is true, but people are unlikely to respond to that thread by telling the mountain climber that they are a terrible person who does not deserve to have children, which I have had said to me on these threads.

@tachetastic
You’d be surprised 😅
People are judgemental.
Why put yourself in that amount of danger when you have young children etc etc etc

No. If people are rude and hurtful to boarding parents on the boarding school forum the answer should not be that we have to keep away from posting to help each other or wait until page 2 of a thread, which may never come.

if an OP is doing research for a potential career change they should have no problem with explaining that.

OMG! That sounds amazing!

Can I ask you why you/he chose Canada and not a closer one? How was the experience?

One of my peers boarded because she was an only child and her parents thought it would be better for friendships.

I also know another woman my age who boarded at the cost of the state because her parents were teachers in a developing country whose education for girls ended at age 12 (or something like that.)

I know one child who currently boards because he’s a cathedral chorister and he really wanted to go to the choir school which is boarding.

Hiwever, I do also know of someone whose children board because their mum really didn’t want to have to deal with all the hassle of nagging about homework etc. She seems pretty upfront about this. They weekly board.

I think the third example is probably the most common these days. If DD wanted to board for a reason such as that I wouldn’t object, but I think DH would, strenuously.

Posters need to be more thoughtful. It's people's lives they are commenting on. So no posts such as the ones described by the PP. Also ones saying boarding is "against all human instinct". No excuse for that trolling.

Yes there are batshit people on all threads, particularly boarding ones I've noticed..they need to be called out I'm afraid.