Boarding School: For All the Right Reasons

by Brian R. Wright, Headmaster, Williston Northampton School

The proof of the pudding, as my grandmother used to say, is in the eating. While there can be as many paths to success and happiness as there are individuals, the crucial task before parents and educators is finding which of those paths is the right one for a particular student. Each stage of a child's development brings new challenges and opportunities, but it is often not until long after a young person has left our care that we see the true impact of our day-to-day efforts. As educators, it is most rewarding to see a student who has successfully navigated the triumphs and challenges of adolescence emerge as a healthy and productive adult. But an even greater reward comes from seeing it again. And again. And again. That is what keeps many teachers in a classroom instead of a boardroom. For them, the bottom line is as fluid as the students before them, each one an individual with untapped potential.

There are many good schools to choose from with outstanding facilities and strong curricular options. But, ultimately, it is the human factor, the personal dimension that defines the culture of a community. Those who teach adolescents need to be attuned to their unbridled energy, limitless potential, moments of doubt and the dichotomy that exists between their being children in some respects, and young adults in others. Perhaps most important, those who take on this charge need to, quite simply, genuinely like teenagers. One can gauge much about a school's total educational experience in the nuances found in the interactions between adults and students, and the peer to peer relationships that are fostered by the community's norms.

People Make Programs

At its best, teaching can be viewed as a lifelong journey. Those who successfully heed its call are themselves continually learning, both within their disciplines and from the students they teach. Their real work can be found not only in what they do, but most important, in the way they do it. Transferring knowledge is rarely a stagnant process; optimally, it is an interactive one that offers students the tools to find solutions themselves. It is a process that requires the ability to hold a particular vision, not only of the capabilities and the character of an individual student, but for the impact he or she can have in the world. As teachers assess the developmental and intellectual abilities of their students they must have the foresight to know how to challenge without pushing too hard, to offer support without becoming a crutch, and to provide structure without stifling creativity.

Truly good teachers are visionary by nature. They possess the ability to anticipate a challenge or success, see a need and respond to it, and look past a problem to its solution. They recognize that they change lives, one student at a time, one day at a time, but they also visualize the greater impact their efforts can have in the long-term on future generations. Student success begins and ends with the qualities and practices that comprise good teaching and the necessary vision that is a part of it.

In a residential community, those traits must be evident ten-fold. Boarding schools, by virtue of their 24/7 educational setting, provide unique challenges and opportunities to teachers who can extend the learning experience to students in multiple areas of their lives. Teachers who choose to spend their careers in boarding schools have committed themselves to finding the teachable moment in the most unexpected places and at the most unexpected times. As teachers, coaches, advisors, mentors, friends, confidants, parental figures, cheerleaders and sounding boards, these adults take on multiple roles that focus on more than a student's academic development. They gain immeasurable insight into their students through daily interactions on the playing fields, in the dorms, over a meal, and in the classroom. It is most often these close relationships with faculty that have the greatest impact on alumni's personal and professional lives.

Those of us who work in boarding schools have long sung the praises of the experience as one that can have a life-changing impact on an individual. We know that the myths surrounding who attends our schools and what goes on in our communities have been dispelled by the facts. We see it in the students who enrich our campuses, and in the alumni who take leadership roles in their professions and as contributors to our neighborhoods. Contrary to what some may believe, the majority of our students are drawn to attend by the promise of a strong educational experience, of committed faculty who are both knowledgeable and excited by their topics, by the breadth of the curriculum, by the personal interaction and by the high expectations that come from being surrounded by motivated peers and challenging coursework. Such classroom experiences form the cornerstone of a multi-dimensional educational journey that is all the more enriched by the opportunities that abound in a residential setting.

Creating a Community

High school offers a time for growth and change, struggle and triumph, a time when friendships are heartfelt and best friends seem to know you better than anyone else. It can also be a time when adolescent ideals make everything seem both possible and overwhelming. At its best, a boarding community works to provide a healthy balance at this critical time, one that guides young people to grow intellectually, but also encourages them to explore new interests and cultivate myriad talents. At our school, adult advisors and student proctors work to help students find ways to connect with others on campus, to stretch and take risks in areas they might not have tried without community support. It is not uncommon, for example, for the football team's quarterback to sing in the a cappella group and be a member of Arete, or for a student named a National Merit Scholar to perform in a dance concert or volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.

It is this cultivation of all aspects of the individual that enables students to hone a broad range of necessary life skills. Given the athletic commitments, the homework expectations and the extracurricular opportunities, boarding school students often find themselves in situations where they can exercise their developing independence within the support of a structured environment. Community guidelines such as limited TV access and nightly study halls ensure that they will build strong and focused study habits. Clear behavioral expectations establish a safe and comfortable community. Opportunities to try out a variety of leadership roles and wrestle with moral issues give students repeated chances to make positive choices - to really think through a problem and take the initiative to find solutions, building character as they internalize values.

In Bowling Alone, a book about the loss of community in society, Robert Putnam describes the value of social capital - connections among individuals, social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them - as closely related to what some have called "civic virtue." Boarding schools are able to incorporate this commitment to community as a shared experience and a characteristic of the student's total experience. By establishing community norms and providing natural opportunities to work together and problem solve, students are able to respond to real human needs instead of media narcissism. This enables our young people to broaden their understanding of world events as they put their values into practice.

Each day that we teach students to value and support one another, we help create the context for true human leadership - not of one student above all others, but of each student's ability to define himself or herself both in terms of individual goals and in terms of the impact those goals have on the rest of the community. It is important that each community member learn that his or her reactions and decisions have an impact on everyone else, whether for good or ill - perhaps summed up in the everyday maxim: If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.

Students in a boarding environment are encouraged to extend their sense of community to provide service to others. In our school, service becomes a part of the educational experience, often taking the form of blood drives, food and clothing donations, book collections, and numerous grassroots fundraising activities that seem to spring up as frequent events. We have had many students engaged in community service drives and programs such as involvement with social service agencies off-campus, working with disabled people on horseback, creating engineering designs to make life easier for physically challenged individuals, or spending time with developmentally disabled adults. They've worked with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, hosted Battles of the Bands to raise money for AIDS victims, fundraised for the Heifer Project and been involved in many other programs.

Communities are about the people who reside within. Each individual brings his or her rich background, infused with different experiences, talents and skills. In boarding schools, learning from and with a diverse group of people prepares students well for life beyond high school. While many public and private day students meet fellow classmates from similar cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and geographic locations, our students live and grow with others from across the country and around the globe. Experiencing a diverse community first-hand is of inestimable value for preparing our students for a pluralistic society.

Where the Journey Leads

Success differs for each individual, but the ultimate goal of most good schools is not just to find the best college, but to graduate citizens with strong character who retain a broad base of knowledge, combine it with a thirst for lifelong learning, and make positive choices for themselves and their communities. While many types of schools seek to provide a holistic approach in achieving this goal, a boarding community presents teachers and students with hundreds of genuine opportunities for real-life lessons on any given day.

Recently, The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) conducted a study* of private, public and boarding secondary school students and alumni to see how the different respondents gauged their educational experiences. The results revealed that:

• The major reason most students apply to boarding school is because of a desire for high quality academics.
• Boarding school students/alumni report higher satisfaction with their academic experience.
• Boarding school students manage their time more productively than non-boarders.
• Boarding school students show marked advantage in key areas of personal development (self-discipline, maturity, independence, and the ability to think critically).
• Boarding school students are better prepared for college.
• Boarding school alumni advance quickly in their careers and are more philanthropic.

In short, the findings support what those of us in boarding schools see on our own campuses: boarding schools play a strong and positive role in shaping students' views of the world and the ways they can take responsibility for their own futures.

Choosing a school is a personal decision that can have a crucial impact on an adolescent at one of the most formative times in his or her life. For many families the right match is the one found in the rich opportunities and life-changing possibilities of boarding school education.