When my mother and I spoke to some of her friends about me applying for boarding school, we were met with concern. Statements ranged from “I never knew minimalist was a bad child!” to “Oh, that’s so sad!” Some even went to say that I absolutely despised my mother for leaving her, or it was the other way around.
The percentage of students that attend BS is very low, resulting in many not knowing what boarding schools really are. There are many preconceived notions that these are schools where bad children are sent or where preppy kids go to party.
Has anyone experienced skepticism and criticism when speaking of boarding school? If so, how did you deal with it?
For me I looked at it as a lack of understanding. Where I live you don’t go to boarding school unless you’ve done something wrong or really snooty. Boarding schools come few and far between where I’m from and the closest thing to them are day private schools. These private schools already have a huge stigma of only the white and rich that attend. Though for the most part people would assume I was joking and I was ok enough to just let them assume it was a joke. Also don’t take the fact to heart many just can’t understand why you would want to leave.
It is amazing and disheartening that such ideas still abound, but they do.
When my kids were in the process of applying I heard just a few comments from other parents at their private school, probably due to the familiarity, on the whole, of those parents with the benefits of attending boarding school. However, I am aware that many still perceive the move to be less a choice than a punishment, one sometimes made out of a need for a family to squirrel away a shameful child.
People who know about the upside and tradition of boarding school will instantly connect and share positive thoughts with you, others are not worth letting inside your head. Try to attach a superlative to the mention, as well as one aspect of a particular school you look forward to: “I am applying to the amazing Deerfield Academy, where I will immerse myself in the ( ) offered there. Can’t wait to go!”
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