My Boarding School Blog

Boarding School vs Public School

Public School Alternatives: Back to the Classics, or Something Completely Different?

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind act in 2002, which awards money to schools based on how well the children perform on standardized tests, many public school administrators and teachers are feeling pressure to “teach to the tests.”  Combined with ever-tightening public school budgets, this can mean a distressing decrease in the resources available to students at public schools to pursue the knowledge and skills that they wish to learn.

Instead of dealing with substandard schools, or schools that simply don’t, or cannot, provide for the individual needs or wishes of particular students, many families are now turning to alternative school systems to meet their needs.

Private schools and boarding schools, the most common alternative to public schools, have a long tradition in the United States. This tradition goes back even to medieval England, where boys could be sent to a clergyman or noble to pursue scholarly endeavors.

While there have been some ugly periods of American boarding school history (such as the sad legacy of Indians sent against their will to schools that would teach them to assimilate to White America, or the Girl, Interrupted style “therapeutic” boarding schools that border on prisons for teenagers who may or may not genuinely need mental care), there exist many quality private day, and boarding, schools that suit a diversity of needs, as well as other options that exist outside of these institutions.

The most common boarding schools are the traditional college preparatory schools: schools with excellent academics, often including Advanced Placement (AP) courses, which students can later use for college credit. These schools typically serve students in grades 9 – 12.  While some boarding schools serve grades seven and eight,  as well, there are also some junior boarding schools for younger children, and a smaller number of boarding schools that serve students of all ages.

Other boarding schools have a special emphasis on one curricular area, such as math and sciences, or a strong focus on development in the visual and performing arts. The latter type of school prepares students to go to art institutes or conservatories such as Juliard.

Religious boarding schools incorporate religious beliefs into students’ lives, both inside and outside, the classroom.  While there are a number of Catholic or Jewish boarding schools around the country, there are schools of many denominations–even Quaker schools.

Just like colleges, boarding schools often have a distinct personality, which gives students a very strong sense of pride in their schools.  They are great for students who are already very motivated and self-disciplined. In addition to the challenging classes typically found in boarding schools, the environment provides students with a bit more freedom and responsibility in their out-of-class hours. This fosters, in many students, an independence and maturity they may not have gained during these secondary-school years in a different environment.

Military schools, which combine the typical college prep courses with military preparation, have long been used as a way to teach discipline to students.  They also provide excellent academic standards for even the most well-behaved, motivated student.

For students with eating disorders or substance abuse problems, there are residential treatment centers that do provide good counseling and care throughout the day, along with classes.

Students and parents looking for something a little closer to home can find most of these types of programs at loca,l private day schools.  Additionally, some boarding schools offer the option of day school attendance. One can even enroll in a sort of day school-boarding school hybrid: boarding school Monday through Friday, with weekends spent at home with the family.

Another alternative to public school is home-schooling. While some critics wonder if home-schooled students are at a disadvantage because they don’t spend 8 hours a day socializing with others their own age, many home-schoolers meet peers through other avenues, such as local children’s theater groups or sports teams.  Students can make friends in other settings while taking charge of their own education at home.

Some parents also form home-schooling co-operatives so that their children can have a sense of community, and so that they don’t shoulder the responsibility for teaching their child every subject, every day.  Different states have different requirements for home-schooling, but some allow students who are mainly home-schooled to attend their local public school for just one or two periods per day, so students can take subjects such as advanced math courses or orchestra classes that would be harder to pursue at home.

Taking the idea of self-directed learning a bit farther, some families follow the philosophy of deschooling or unschooling: the idea that children are most engaged and learn best when they’re doing what they truly want to be doing.  For these children, the whole world becomes the classroom.

Following a similar educational model are free schools. These are private schools which, instead of providing the traditional courses or a religious education as most private schools do, allow the children decide how to spend their time each day.  Teachers are there as resources to assist with whatever the students want to pursue, only teaching traditional classes if the students request them.  (One such school, the Albany Free School has been in operation for 40 years.)

Although the United States undertook quite a noble mission in deciding to provide a free education to all of our country’s children through public schools, there is no doubt that public schools face increasing difficulties: large classes, overworked teachers, increasing pressures to narrow the curriculum, and strained budgets.  When public education falls short, students and their families turn elsewhere to find the education they’re looking for.

Whether it’s a return to the classics or something quite new, every family can surely find a model that fulfills the curricular focus and the environment that suits each student best.