Boarding Schools and Education

For most people boarding schools conjure up thoughts of young men in navy

blue blazers with white shirts and a tie going to a beautiful school with ivy

covered walls and the game of polo being played in the distance. Oh, and don't

forget thoughts of parents with fat wallets and a family trust fund. This is

what Gordon Vink, the director of admissions at Mercersburg Academy in

Pennsylvania, calls the "Holden Caufield-Catcher in the Rye syndrome"(Parker

111), a book about the troubles a boy faces at his prep boarding school.

To an extent the image holds true. Prep schools offer collegiate type

atmospheres, have strict rules, and often teach generations of students from the

same families. The simplest definition of a boarding school is a place that

parents pay for a student to live and go to school. The school's teachers,

coaches, and administrators live in dormitories with boarders and act as their

family enforcing the strict rules, making disciplinary decisions, and overseeing

behavior and academic performance.

Boarding schools can be one or all of the following: academic boot camp,

a place for parents to put kids they don't want around or don't have the time

for, a haven from deteriorating public schools, a necessary credential for

children of the rich and famous, or a training ground for tomorrow's leaders.

These schools range from small unknown institutions which will accept anyone, to

the elite schools, which are very selective and are a pipeline to Ivy-league

schools and success.

Boarding schools are superior to public day schools. Proponents of

boarding prep schools claim the schools offer unparalled discipline, a stronger

curriculum, exellent facilities, a way to get in to better colleges, a superior

learning environment, staggering extra-curricular options, and allow students to

attain a higher level of performance. Opponents argue that the astronomical

cost, anywhere from $8000 to $25,000 per year for the most elite, is too

expensive. They also claim the rules are too extreme and suffocating, and that

students experience an abundance of stress.

The biggest argument against boarding schools is cost. With an average

cost of $8000 to $25,000 (Topolnicki 100), many parents ask: Are private

boarding schools worth the expense?