Boarding school - good idea or bad idea?

[Mich the Tester]

I must suggest that. Especially the night when she had sex with 2 girls.

EO, are you back yet?

[DS23]

I say we judge the OP question by looking at the members of the congregation that boarded

Mich
Owlhoot

are there any more ?

yup. from age 12 to 16. it was both horrible and brilliant.

[EternalOptimist]

I must suggest that. Especially the night when she had sex with 2 girls.

the filthy lesbo-nymphomaniac-carpet-munching-orgiastic, nubile perverts.

who never invited me

[wurzel]

Besides the usual biscuit joke (which unfortunately contains some truth and is truly terrifying if you are threatened with it), if you really want to know and you're considering sending your kids to boarding school, PM me. There are people here who believe they know better while having no experience of the matter, and I can't be bothered debating it with them.

Personally I'd say many kids go when they're too young and don't get enough time off to be with their families. The right age is difficult to say, but for me I'd say no less than 14 (which is admittedly a bit arbitrary) and maximum 2 weeks between home visits.

Didn't see any of the things that people normally bring up when discussing public schools during my 2 years at one.

The one I went to was incredibly homophobic. The constant abuse that the one "known" homosexual received from the rest of the school population was unbelievably cruel.

Poor sod went off the rails in the end and went on a rampage through the middle of Taunton.

[Mich the Tester]

Didn't see any of the things that people normally bring up when discussing public schools during my 2 years at one.

The one I went to was incredibly homophobic. The constant abuse that the one "known" homosexual received from the rest of the school population was unbelievably cruel.

Poor sod went off the rails in the end and went on a rampage through the middle of Taunton.

Yep, I knew one who was thought to be gay and in hindsight probably was; he killed himself during the night; suffocated AND hanged himself (perhaps to make sure) with a plastic bag and a noose hanging from a beam in a barn. A farmer found him hanging there with the plastic bag over his head and a stool lying on the ground next to him. Poor guy. His father sent him there to 'man up', which is unfathomably stupid, but probably something to do with the fact that he went to the same boarding school himself.

I know of two other people who were there in my year and who've killed themselves since (one of them a gay man who couldn't bring himself to come out and had even married and had kids), plus one who's died due to heroine and speed use, and one who's in prison for murdering his girlfriend.

Sorry to put a dampener on proceedings.

I can't say with certainty that this is all due to boarding school, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless. Yes, there's a downside.

[MarillionFan]

Mich has just overtaken Churchill in the odds for 'CUKKER most likely to go postal'

[OwlHoot]

All very sad, but couldn't the same sort of thing just as likely happen at a day school?

[Mich the Tester]

All very sad, but couldn't the same sort of thing just as likely happen at a day school?

Maybe, but at least the kid has one escape; he goes home in the evenings.

As for the soggy biscuit, described by one poster as an 'urban myth';

No, it didn't happen to me but very nearly did. I was threatened with it by a prefect who then tried to force me into it along with another prefect, but was luckily physically strong enough to fight back. It's not a happy memory at all. In fact it's absolutely bloody terrifying to be threatened with that every night when you're 13 years old. It hardly needs to be said that I didn't sleep much as I was on my guard all the time.

There were several other very scary incidents that I'd rather not get into; it all gets a bit maudlin. But I've dealt with it reasonably well and can get on with life. I wish I could say the same for several others.

As for the kid who killed himself; there were quite a few people at the time saying 'he was a wimp, he couldn't hack it around here'. FFS, he's dead and as far as I know he didn't do anything to hurt anybody. He should now be 40 years old and enjoying life as a succesful musician, which he was almost certain to become. Sorry, but this still makes me angry.

Anyway, make up your own mind about boarding school. Maybe I was unlucky. If you send your kids there then I hope they have a better time of it and that you listen very very carefully to what they tell you (and beware of what they don't tell you).

As for MF's point about 'going postal'; unlikely; I think if anything the experiences gave me a certain immunity (if I can use the comparison to biological immunity) to the trials and tribulations of life.

[MarillionFan]

Note to self. Don't sit next to Mich at a CUK do.

[EternalOptimist]

I've been doing a little google research, to find out a little more.
I liked this quote from Eustace Penwright-Shaw

'It cost my father £28k to send me to public school, and the contacts I made have secured me three directorships, rotarians, masons and friends in the police. I have made millions through my contacts. The only downside was that my nipsy was the size of a five pence piece when I first entered the school, and the size of a fifty pence piece after the school had entered me.
So for the paltry sum of £28,000.45 , I was made a millionaire.
pip pip, anyone for rugger'

-Eustace Penwright-Shaw 2003