After the death of Sylvester, the Dowen’s college student who suffered bullying that sadly led to the end of his life, a debate has come up around us; Boarding school or day school?
One person spoke the mind of some and have put up the point that if he was a day student, his parents or guardian would have noticed the bullying earlier and Sylvester would most likely still be with us, but that had not been the case.
People have also argued that boarding school is better than day school. They believe the training and discipline gotten from a boarding house is needed, and as such, have decided not to put away the boarding school because of some tragic experiences.
Today, I’m taking the stand that day school is indeed better than boarding school, and I’m going to make a lot of points as to why I believe that, so hold on tight and keep reading.
First off, for the most obvious one, boarding school takes your child away from you for a very long period of time. You can never really know what is happening with your child because believe it or not, the school cares about the school more than they would care about your child except in very rare occasions, and that is on probability.
Take a moment to think about it, secondary school takes a total of 6 years from your child’s life, taking away most, if not all of their teenage/adolescence age, which is a crucial part of their growing up.
You are exposing your child to people you don’t even know, trusting them to train your baby? You won’t have an idea of who your child is becoming during these period cause you can’t even know who he/she is relating with, unlike the day school that allows you be a part of their daily routine.
Another point: Parenting is hard! What makes you think a few hostel masters/mistresses can handle a large amount of kids?
You as a parent find it hard to do your job diligently. Parenting involves a lot, but somehow, you believe that your child would be taken care of and brought up extremely well, even better than you do by someone who has about 1000+ children on their hands, not forgetting the fact that they may also have their own families to look after too? How?
Boarding school also has a way of continuing a cycle of wickedness and brutality. You hear boarders say things like, “we suffered and now, it’s our time to suffer them.” Lol, what do you expect when a child has gone through a brutal lifestyle and have finally prevailed? The lifestyle becomes embedded in them, and you see children that were brought into the school as sweethearts become monsters when they finally get to the top of the hierarchy as seniors and prefects.
Also, from research, I have realized that there are two main reasons why most wards are sent off to boarding school, and they are:
- To attain some kind of discipline that guardians and parents believe they would not be able to give because of their softness.
- Because they are too busy with work and feel like they need some time off from parenting.
In all honesty, these aren’t enough reasons.
If you’re looking to discipline/punish a child that has done wrong, there are a lot of programs available for that. For example, Church camps, School camps, Para-military organizations like Boys Brigade, Girls Brigade, Girl’s scout, Royal Rangers, These ways, they don’t have to stay out of your sight for a long while, and they can even be attending from home in some cases. There are even some light after-school jobs that you can get your child to attend, a sense of discipline would surely be gotten from such experience, and you would achieve all this in a healthy way.
Secondly, I do not believe a parent can ever be too busy for their children. Having a child is a full time job and as such, and people should be certain they want to take it up before they go for it.
If a parent is saying they are too busy to do their job as a parent then maybe, they should not have taken the job in the first place.
Yes, boarding school will give your children some sense of responsibility and discipline, but it is going to achieve that the hard way. Why not take up the job yourself and bring them up with love and in love?
