Is middle school just too young for your son to live away from home in a dormitory? There’s a good reason so many parents worry about this as they consider junior boarding schools for their sons. Given that there are only a handful in the nation, junior boarding school is hardly a universal experience. Most parents have no idea what life is like in a...
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There are 32 weekends in the junior boarding school year. For a junior boarding school student who lives on campus seven days a week, that’s at least 512 non-sleeping hours outside of the classroom—not even counting weekday evenings. That’s a lot of free time But as we see it, that’s not a problem. It’s an educational opportunity. The experiences junior boarding school students have on...
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If you send your son to a junior boarding school, will he be destined to a life of snobbery? Will he be forever out of touch with the everyday problems of everyday people? Will he never understand the value of doing things for himself, such as making his own bed and cleaning up his own messes? Will he take everything for granted? Of course not....
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Is a private school education too soft? If you enroll your son in a private elementary school, will he be too sheltered? Will he leave school lacking the toughness, the drive, and the street smarts to make his mark in the unforgiving outside world? As your son approaches kindergarten age, one of the first decisions you must make is between private school and public school....
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Your son’s junior boarding school interview might be the most pressure-driven conversation of his young life. Your son is only 10, 11, or 12 years old. He’s never gone to a job interview. He’s never had to impress a date or charm a client over dinner. Most of the adults your son has spoken with have been family or friends, with no particular outcome riding...
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A boarding school, in the 21st century? With all boys? And starting as young as middle school? Isn’t that a bit…old-fashioned? As families evaluate their son’s middle school options, many of them reject the idea of junior boarding school because of what their friends and family might think. But despite the somewhat anachronistic reputation boarding schools enjoy among those who haven’t fully ...
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Separating boys and girls into different classrooms may make a lot of sense at the middle or high school levels, where budding attractions between the genders can distract young pre-teen and teenage students from the work of learning. But in kindergarten, does it really make a difference? Many families who visit our all-boys private Pre-K and Kindergarten program wonder this. Is there any point to...
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There are a handful of ways the culture of a private pre-K and kindergarten program might seem a little different to families used to public education. One thing that gives families pause when they tour our campus is seeing pre-K and kindergarten students (5-year-olds and younger) following a dress code. When you’re used to seeing children this age in sweatpants and t-shirts, it can come as...
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When you’re a gifted middle school athlete stuck in an area where there are few opportunities to compete at the highest levels, life can seem agonizing. You may have the fastest serve in town (among 11-year-olds, anyway) but before you can really test your mettle against elite competition, you have to wait two or three years for a spot on your high school’s varsity tennis...
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Parenting advice columnist Melinda Wenner Moyer writes in Slate: “I’ve avoided talking about race with my kids mainly because I’ve thought that racial bias is learned by direct instruction and imitation—and that if I don’t talk about race or act in explicitly racist ways, my kids won’t pick up prejudices. My sources told me that this notion is pretty common; research suggests that nonwhite parents...
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