anyone here see this BBC Documentary about three young boys (aged between 8 and ten) at boarding school?
shareI did not see this, but if an eight-year-old is indeed among Britain's youngest boarders then times have changed. At my prep school boys started at age 7, and in exceptional cases (e.g. older sibling already at the school, both parents abroad) six. This was in the 1950s.
shareWhat was boarding school like for you, then?
shareHow long have you got, PJ? You are, after all, talking about ten of the most formative years in a person's life, of which a total of, say, seven were spent in closed, single-sex, conservative institutions. I spent six and a half years at a prep school and a further four at a public school. It is fair to say that, some details and exaggerations apart, Lindsay Anderson's film (made three years after I left school) was a remarkably accurate vision of a public school of the 1960s.
The short answer to your question is: with minor and specific exceptions, not good. For the long answer, PM me, or read all the posts you can that I have made on this message board.
I believe that boarding schools should be abolished. They're unnecessary and unnatural and I.can prove it!
share