What Students Love Most About Boarding School
Going away to a boarding school can have its benefits and drawbacks. It presents an excellent opportunity to set students up to go to their desired college and have an incredible career. Students get a chance to be out on their own and to study without the distractions that being at home can sometimes present. But it also means that you are far away from your family, in a new setting, around new kids and without the familiar things and people you have at home.
There is an adjustment period required by students who attend boarding schools, partially to the lifestyle and partly to the new environment. However most come to love it and when given a choice, continue for the remainder of their education.
What they love about boarding school can be a diverse set of answers, but there are some common things that many say. Here is a list of what they love:
A Chance to be Independent
Boarding school presents a chance for students to get out on their own and be their own bosses. After spending all their lives at home with mom and dad, the chance at calling the shots yourself is a strong lure. They can decide how to spend their time and with whom and even expand their diet a bit from what they ate at home. But along with this newfound freedom quickly comes the understanding that they have to get mature quickly or things can go wrong for them. They must get themselves up and dressed and make sure they get to class on time. Parents find that after a semester or two in boarding school their kids come home as independent adults, ready to do their laundry as an example.
Multinational Student Body
Boarding schools will usually consist of a broad range of students from many different countries and cultures. In fact, private schools are an international melting pot because schools actively recruit students from all over the world. Global recruitment is done partially to ensure that students have a diverse set of classmates and also because international students broaden students understanding and appreciation of our multi-ethnic world. Boarding school students come to love this. Mainly because most have not been brought up interacting with other cultures, yet they have been curious about them. The extended period they get to spend with these other cultures in a school setting allows them to engage around common topics and interests. They will build lifetime friendships from different nationalities, ethnicities, religions, and backgrounds.
An Environment Designed for Learning
Students who attend boarding schools love to learn, and boarding schools are set up specifically as learning environments. Teachers are accessible for most parts of the day, there are libraries and study areas everywhere, tutors abound, and the attitude of the students and staff is on quality education. For students that commit to learning, this presents an ideal environment. Furthermore, if the student wants to major in performing arts high school programs, or an area of science, the boarding school will have many assets and activities to support the student. For music there are music classes, performance halls, bands and ensembles and opportunities to participate in live and recorded performances, for STEM majors, there are laboratories and the chance to work on real scientific research.
Teachers with a Passion for Teaching
Students attending private school pay a hefty tuition and may have to pass stringent tests to be here. Therefore they are very focused on learning. Many come from schools where the teachers were just working for their paychecks and not entirely dedicated to their students or teaching. When they encounter a boarding school environment that has teachers who are the most skilled, experienced, and have a passion for their jobs, it, in turn, inspires them to learn and to enjoy learning. Many students choose to attend summer school classes because they love the teachers so much.
With so many reasons for kids to love boarding schools, it is no wonder that students who attend them are the top students in the country.