Posted: Feb 13, 2015 4:28 am
archibald wrote:trubble76 wrote:Be careful about adopting an over-simplified and unnuanced view of boarding school. It's not all fagging and privilege any more than state schooling is all truancy and poverty.
I agree.
I had a whale of a time at boarding school, for a variety of reasons.
To begin with, I came from the backarse of the middle of nowhere in Rural Ireland, so my after school (primary school) and weekends mainly consisted of playing by myself or with one of my two sisters. Boarding school meant having an instant set of available pals 24/7. And there were girl boarders too.
Secondly, my parental home was not a happy one. Much dysfunctionality. Getting sent to boarding school was, in hindsight, an escape to a world of order and rules and study and personal responsibility. I wouldn't be half the person I am today without it.
Please. No one say, 'well, exactly. Thank you for illustrating the concerns raised in the OP so clearly.' Lol.
Yes. My family home was not a pleasant place -- I much preferred being at school than having to endure my father and his brutish ways.
We didn't have girls in my schools tho'.
That said, the schools I attended (both prep and secondary) employed corporal punishment with considerable enthusiasm. I was caned and or strapped on a regular basis, but such was the style of the time.
Perhaps Australian boarding schools were different to those in Blighty. When I was a yoof boarding was pretty much essential for kids from the bush. A considerable number of the fellows I boarded with were cockies sons. If you were from a pastoral or grazing family, you might live hours and hours from the nearest settlement and boarding was essential for upper schooling.