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A lot of adult people thinking about sending children to some kind of boarding school to get quality education are very often biased against this kind of educational facilities; especially if they have not yet done any real boarding school research. The same is true for high schools students, too. As it was discovered by corresponding polling and surveys, the majority of people do have a definite preconception of what a boarding school is like. The foundation of such preconception has been predominantly created by books like "Catcher in the Rye" or "A Separate Peace" that you might have read, or probably you might have got a prejudice against boarding school through watching such movies as "Dead Poets' Society" or "School Ties”. Those are fine books and movies, really, there is no arguing about it – but the boarding schools they depict have little in common with modern facilities of this kind. The storylines of those books and movies that we have mentioned above are quite entertaining, but the events depicted in them take place at old-time boarding school and therefore the picture a reader (or a viewer) gets is old-fashioned, its totally out-of-time! The settings of a present-day boarding school are very much different from the one you get through those stories. We have composed a short, but, as we believe, quite comprehensive list to summarize the most obvious differences, so a person interested in the subject can differentiate between myths originated by fictional boarding schools and realities of the modern facilities. The overall evolution that dramatically transformed the environments of universities and colleges of USA during several past decades, have touched upon the boarding schools too. The perception of a boarding school in public eye is gradually changing for the better, still old lingering myths die too slowly, so be careful not to make a mistake regarding the decision of taking a boarding or whether you would fit in it or not. 1. In the first place you should realize that the old-time image of a boarding school depicted a place that represented the very essence of any adolescent’s discontent: some kind of a cold and distant place, where parents drive their children in September, drop them off and happily forget about the unruly brood till next June. What happens in between is not their concern at all, there are schoolmasters to take care about getting it done! You surely remember Holden Caulfield, the main character of "Catcher in the Rye" novel. Well, Holden would be getting a HUGE surprise if he were to return to his boarding school in our days. He would realize that his familiar world of proctors and prefects, dorm teas and Mr. Chips has experienced a really dramatic change and transformation. Nowadays the predominating number of students at boarding schools (on the average about 35,000-40,000 a year) are quite willingly leaving their homes and parents – not to mention the f??t that online communications and daily e-mail messages, as well as cell phones, guarantee their constant and practically free of charge communication with their moms and dads. Taking into account the growing selectivity and competitiveness of admission it is quite likely that your son will share a room with a real prince of Thailand or with the fresh prince of Bel Air! The old-fashioned scenery that included rather monastic life-style with its formal dinners, daily chapel and cold showers has been transformed into much more dynamic and debonair way to spend time and make it real fun: international theme meals, contemporary ecumenism and inter-dorm dances! 2. You must realize that nowadays you do not have to be very wealthy to go to a boarding school. If you happen to suffer some financial difficulties a boarding school can always provide a grant or a student’s loan or some other kind of financial aid for you. Actually, about one third of all boarding school students enjoy the beneficial financial aid programs nowadays. Naturally, the volume of the aid will to a greater extent depend on the school and your family's situation. With each year more and more boarding school students emerge from public schools and families with average level of income. The boarding schools nowadays take great care to provide financial aid grants so they become accessible for as wide range of students as it is possible. The financial aids come in several kinds, including student’s loan programs, K-12 private school loans and merit awards/scholarships. The financial aid has made boarding schools much more affordable for not so wealthy families and their kids! In the terms of demographic, geography and ethnic representation the boarding schools have become much more diversified today than they were thirty or forty years earlier! 3. A lot of people are sure that diversity is rare at boarding school. Nothing is far from the reality as far as modern schools are concerned. In fact, the boarding schools are generally more diverse than public schools – over 25% of boarding students are international students or students of color. The boarding schools do not depend on local neighborhood population with its rather uniform ethnic or socio-economic structure. Besides, they create much better conditions for different students to get to know each during a year than ordinary public or private schools, since the diversity of geographical or ethnic representation is significantly higher among them. 4. Another popular belief is that boarding schools do not care about kids having fun while there. Well, surely, the rigorous academic discipline, as well as curfews and sticking to a certain set of rules will be part of life at any boarding school. That is only natural. Still modern boarding schools take great care to create a positive and inspiring environment for making the time spent in them good fun – think just about what incredible friends you will have an opportunity to make there and what fun it could be all along! Boarding schools aim at both academic and personal development and maturing of their students and after-classes activities play the key role in this process: meeting new people, developing some personal interests and hobbies and so on. This side of boarding school life is always well-provided for. 5. Another common myth about boarding schools is the idea that mostly kids with some problems and troubles at home or at a common school are usually sent there. This myth was generated by certain confusion in the public mind, since the boarding schools are actually of two types: college-preparatory boarding schools and therapeutic boarding schools. And those two types often get mixed up though they should not – the aims and objectives of those two schools types are considerably different. The boarding schools of college-preparatory type are aimed at education and motivation of students who are planning to explore new opportunities of college education and career-building. Such students usually benefit from finding new challenges and surmounting them. Surely, a student with some kind of personal problem - such as drugs or alcohol, or behavioral problems – should not be admitted to college-preparatory type schools, since that would be totally wrong strategy to employ. Students with personal problems should be sent to therapeutic boarding schools – such schools also prepare students for college, but it is not the only objective, since the stuff of such schools and the entire environment are better equipped to handle students with behavioral / emotional problems, substance abuse, as well as those with learning difficulties. As a rule, they are listed in a special division of therapeutic boarding schools, in order not to be mixed with college-preparatory type facilities. 6. It is widely believed that students at boarding schools find it difficult to keep in touch with their families and friends outside the school and that often scares prospective students away. Though it could be the case in the times before the advent of online Web communications, when students were offered a rather modest choice of writing letters, sending telegrams and making long-distance phone calls, the situation, in total, has changed dramatically in this respect. But in our age there is nothing easier than to stay connected at the world-wide scale. All quality boarding schools provide regulated Internet access to their students, in their rooms or at special premises. Since the access is regulated the students are restricted from online communications during certain hours but in general are welcome to make good use of Internet to keep in touch with the families and friends on daily bases. Another good way of world-wide scale communications are cell-phones, though their use is usually regulated by schools polices too. The best way to learn what the modern boarding schools are like would be to visit the campus and see it for yourself, getting in touch with actual students and learning their comments and testimonies. It is important to keep an open mind so you can make a correct choice, in the long run! boarding schools
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