Sorry this is going to be a bit of a ramble (or rant!).
It's the "all" that's bothering me in freshmint's last post: I've spent a couple of days wondering whether to respond or not to the posts which seem to be quite inflammatory, perhaps deliberately, perhaps not. They certainly sound quite trollish: if they are, I've wasted my time; if they aren't, then I think it might help if some explanation was provided as to why "fucking mad" people might choose to educate their children this way.
Obviously, there are some parents who will use laziness, a warped sense of social climbing, latent bitterness about their own childhood treatment, "abused/abusing", cowardice, or some other reason to "send" their children to boarding school. It may, in certain schools unfortunately, be a preponderance of parents, although honestly I doubt it even in these schools. I don't deny that these parents, or these reasons, exist, but the fact that they do, and that they are terrible, does not mean that boarding is, in itself, a bad idea. And some schools have been around long enough and/or have enough experience, to be able to transcend, or get past these initial rationales to provide what can be an extremely enriching experience for the boys, girls and parents alike despite the original reasons for them being there.
For us it's very simple: we want our children to learn what it is like to be part of a community of their peers in a really really really immersive way. We hope they will learn compassion, self-sufficiency, a sense of team spirit, an understanding of their privilege, and a recognition of their obligation to the society at large which has given them that privilege and to whom they owe a huge debt which must be repaid by both leadership and good work. I don't think they will get that quite so formatively from a day school, particularly in London. Others may not think that that is actually a good idea (Lord of the Flies etc.)! We actually do, but we may be wrong. Yes, that has to mean some separation from their parents and others, but the plus side is a complete blossoming, in terms of confidence and experience of how to "rub along" with others, in a way that would be extremely difficult to achieve otherwise. It doesn't always work, true, and bullying, exclusion, cliqueyness and all the other things that can happen in any school might arguably be worse in a boarding school. But, providing you have parents, housemasters/mistresses and other pastoral staff there who are savvy to it and earning their salary properly, these are problems which can be resolved. Homesickness is also certainly an issue at first, but normally only for a short initial period; in fact, after a while it tends to be more of a problem for the parents than the children in a lot of cases. Provided everybody is on side with it, and that is crucial to the success of the enterprise, it certainly isn't "fucking mad". Which is where some of the parents freshmint mentions may come a cropper.
Please don't tar us all with the same brush! Sorry for the long rant, but it is so important.