An historical review of boarding
Boarding Schools have emerged from as early as the 9th century as fundamental British Institutions. The house systemOriginally, boys were housed at the schools themselves but over time, as the number of students grew, boys were housed nearby in private homes and hostelries – giving rise to the house system. The number of boys attending these schools meant that there were not enough masters, so authority was given to older boys to manage the younger ones. The first concept was that these boys were to be mentors to the younger ones, but as history reveals, this system led to what would now be seen as gross violations of human rights as boys were bullied and were made to act as slaves to the older ones. Children left unattended without the mitigation of adults develop behaviours that are tribal. Descent into dissolutionIn the centuries leading up to the 1800s, a small group of Public Schools became some of the leading institutions in the country, where families would send their sons from an early age to have the advantages of making the right connections and preparing them for life. However, the irony was that little was taught at the schools over these centuries and that the institutions became more and more dissolute with gambling, whoring and barbarism being the hallmarks of the older boys’ behaviour. It was the British Empire that changed the schools as we have come to know them. Thomas Arnold led the way to the reform of the Public Schools, taking many of the existing traditions that had emerged and shaping them into permanent features of the organisation of the schools. Reform, religion and regulationGreater religious content and much more organised sport meant the schools became regulated throughout. The existence of Empire meant that these schools also had an added function: grooming leaders and managers for roles in far flung places in the world and at home. A sense of duty and conformity was demanded by the schools as ‘skills’ that were required in the army and civil service. A number of other Public Schools emerged at this time to feed the machinery of the Empire which were moulded in the same shape as their predecessors. Girls' Public Schools began to proliferate, often modelled on existing boys' schools. Attendance at the Public Schools grew in even greater proportions. The schools continued in this pattern well into the 20th century, changing little and establishing themselves firmly in the British consciousness as institutions where children would learn to speak, behave and aspire properly to the upper middle classes of English society. Emotions and personal displays of affection were discouraged in society and at the schools. Modern boardingIn the 1960s and ‘70s, there was a social revolution that began to affect the overwhelming influence of Public School education with many of the schools beginning to evaluate themselves in the light of the emerging modern world. During the latter part of the 20th century, many of the schools slowly and unevenly began to realise that social values had changed and that the schools needed to reflect this. Many schools began by taking girls into the sixth form, slowly to become fully co-educational. The number of subjects taught by the schools expanded. In 1989, the introduction of the Children Act put an end to initiations and fagging in many schools and a more democratic form of organisation and administration was adopted. In the 21st century, many of the schools proclaim themselves to be completely transformed from the Victorian model, but nevertheless, they are still ‘total institutions’ where children live and work for long periods at an institution away from their families and subject to the dictates of their peers. The Boarding School Survivors movement, from where Boarding Concern sprang, questions the underlying assumptions that children are to be sent away to institutions – especially at a young age. They have centuries of tradition to overcome.  |
