Boarding school: the good, the bad, the ugly.

I remember highschool like it was yesterday. I spent my entire highschool experience at two different boarding schools. They both had a different experiences but there were a lot of similarities too.

Both boarding schools I went to were Christian boarding which meant that Sundays were spent at church or we had daily devotionals. I loved this, I don't think I would have grown so much in Christ if I did not go to boarding school. Also I made friends I want to keep for life,there is so much of my country I want to explore and more languages I want to learn.

The first boarding school I went to,we were allowed to really be creative,there were socials,art exhibitions, talent shows etc. There was a big singing and dancing culture too. This is where I discovered I loved to write. 

In the second boarding school they were more focused on developing a leader. It was very time and chore based. The seniors lead most activities and the way you presented yourself was important. My leadership skills really came to fruition there.

Now let's talk about the not so good . Firstly, homesickness, you will miss home in boarding school and this can make you really depressed. Secondly, is academic pressure. The reason your parents/guardians sent you there in the first place is because they want to see an improvement in your marks which can make the pressure double. You end up developing unhealthy studying mechanisms.

Thirdly, is peer pressure. There will be many decisions that you make,that you will regret because you want to fit in. Fourthly, which is something I hated is that the people put in charge of your well-being matrons,boarding executives etc. Will project their own perceptions and fears on you. For example,in the last boarding school I went to there was an obsession with how the girls dressed. We were constantly made to feel bad about what we wore, we were often sexualised by older males and bear in mind we were children.

Perceptions of beauty and spirituality were also placed heavily on us.

Depression and anxiety are also overlooked. We would spend huge chunks of our day sleeping and would mask it by saying we are "tired". Always having to be punctual, look in a certain way, having to adjust resulted in so much anxiety. Lastly, there is a big homophobic culture in boarding schools especially on the male side.

I asked a few of my friends on their boarding experiences. A lot of responses were positive. They mentioned having a sense of community,learning to be independent, diversity and being responsible as the biggest lessons from their experience. However,most of them mentioned not being able to trust people as a bad experience that they had.

Should you take your child to boarding school? It is up to you honestly. I do not regret going. It was the best solution for the situation I was. The experiences good and bad prepared me for so much.