Is boarding school bad for you? Stefanie Marsh, in a trenchant and fairly one-sided article, looks at the work of psychotherapist Joy Schaverien. In her paper ‘Boarding School: The Trauma of the Privileged Child’, Schaverien claims to identify something called Boarding School Syndrome, an emotional dysfunction stemming primarily from the trauma of early separation from one’s parents, that manifests itself in intimacy problems in later life.
Eton College
In Schaverien’s words:
Parents bankrupt themselves to send their children to school when they are just babies really. This is a terrible burden for the child. But it is like sending a child into care. Nowadays there are duvets on the beds and they are allowed teddy bears but it doesn’t make up for the fact that children leave their mothers, their primary attachment figures, when they are essentially still babies.
Stefanie Marsh fills in some of the psychological details:
‘Attachment theory’, a core tenet of contemporary psychology, was formulated by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst John Bowlby, who, in the Second World War, observed the effects on children who had lost parents or been evacuated. During the 1980s, his theories were extrapolated and applied to adults – separation anxiety and grief in childhood, it is now commonly held, can create different ‘attachment styles’ in adult romantic relationship: secure-avoidant, anxious-preoccupied, dismissive-avoidant and fearful-avoidant.
Boarding school ‘survivors’, as they have been collectively termed by the psychotherapist Nick Duffell, are said to most frequently exhibit avoidant styles, viewing themselves as self-sufficient, invulnerable to attachment feelings and not needing close relationships. Often they suppress their feelings, cope with rejection by distancing themselves from partners or feel uncomfortable with emotional or physical closeness.
So this isn’t about identifying particular problems that can develop in the culture of a boarding school, it’s about the very fact of being separated from one’s parents at an ‘early’ age. I think the focus is more on those who board at ‘prep’ school, i.e. those who leave home not at 13, but sometime between the ages of 7 and 13. (David Cameron went to board at prep school at age 7; Stephen Fry at 7; Boris Johnson at 9; Price William at 8; Sienna Miller at 8…)
What do you think? What’s your own experience? Is there another side to this story?
[Times, Modern section, 23 June, pp. 4-5; subscription only]
I agree with Stephanie Marsh.
I am a new wife to a very damaged ex boarder and we are now going to therapy for his difficulty in bonding and being emotional.
Father,
she doesn’t seem to deal with children sent to State boarding schools – a useful control group at the very least, I would have thought – and seems to impose a single model of mother-son relationship as being “right”. She doesn’t compare children of that class who didn’t go to boarding school either.
I work with quite a few men (and a very few women) who went to public or private school as boarders and apart from a certain self-confdence which is common to most, there seems to be little to distinguish them from the rest of us.
Having worked with abused and neglected children, with the accompanying training as well as hands on experience, the important time is from birth to four years old. If a child has a loving mother/ family and is held, cared for and loved, then that child can handle and accept so many things in life. If that child has never known being held and loved then that is where the attachment disorder has its roots.
That being said, I did not go to boarding school, but know some fine people who did. I think that a strong and loving home sets a child up for success, and the child who is not held close and loved from birth has a long road alone.
It is the rare individual who can rise up from adversity, but those who are loved can travel many paths.
It is interesting that the wealth that God wanted for Jesus was the wealth of two parents who loved one another and who were essentially very present to him throughout his childhood; Mary was a housewife and Joseph was a (self employed?) carpenter. Jesus’ later heroic, generous and self-sacrificing love was founded on the security of knowing himself profoundly loved; including the congruence of Mary and Joseph’s teaching on the loving nature of God and Jesus’ experience of the loving nature of his parents.
The other day I saw a little boy (aged about 7 and a boarder), his eyes filled with tears, essentially being told to ‘pull himself together’ for the important business of Mass. A god who requires little boys to be separated from the tender embrace of their mothers and, to boot, to suppress those natural tears in order that he may be worshipped is not the Father I know, but a monster and an adult projection.
Having been both a boarder and a day pupil at different stages of my schooling, I would never send a child of mine to boarding school unless there really was no other option. I don’t think there is necessarily a problem with boarding per se, it depends upon the age and temperament of the child, the ethos of the school itself and also the reasons why the child is being required to board, but I don’t think parents always stop to think about how dangerous it can be to hand over control of their child’s upbringing to a third party (I may be a control freak, but I wouldn’t trust anyone to care as much about my children’s welfare as I do!) With the best will in the world, if a child develops emotional problems these may not be picked up in an institutional environment in the same way they would at home (I found this to be particularly true of conditions such as self-harm and eating disorders which can easily slip under the radar). In the end, it seems to me quite obvious that a happy family is the best environment in which to nurture a child but in the world we live in boarding school may represent the best possible alternative in some cases.
I have some friends that have gone to boarding schools. Many of them loved them! You have to see for yourself. A site that has some good information on boarding schools in the US is Teen Boarding Schools
Angela, are you real? This post seems a little too pat. I’m guessing that you are connected to the website you link in your post.
B
I boarded from age 6 in the early 60’s, no teddies, no weekends at home just days out very occasionally; the memories haunt me still. For me there really was no love and I do recognize that sudden moment of knowing that I was alone – terrible emotions to try to cope with. And that you have swapped a parent for the company of other children pretty much all the time, so that it becomes almost impossible to be alone and feel secure. Small children trying to manage and survive emotionally in an institution where adults can become the ‘other’ as opposed to a consistent and loving presence.
:O( x
I boarded from 8 to 18 in the 1970s. I was not bullied or abused, and at the time would have told you I was perfectly happy living at school. But the long-term consequences of those 10 years have been brutal, particularly in the area of intimacy.
I can still, at the age of 49, induce a knot in my stomach by remembering the feeling of awakening in a dormitory room with 10 or 11 other boys, a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and realizing that I was not in the safe realm of my dreams. Those were some of the most joltingly lonely moments of my entire life.
Reading Duffel’s “The Making of Them” a couple of year’s ago was such a huge relief – allowing me to see that I was not a freak or losing my mind.
I still struggle to maintain my relationship with my American wife. I would never dream of sending my children away, and nor would my brothers.
I am returning to psychotherapy soon in the fervent hope that I can figure out a way to live the rest of my life without alienating those closest to me – and they do not include my family of birth for they were lost long ago
Andy thank you for sharing your experiences, my first husband experienced exactly those same struggles. He sadly could not manage to overcome the institutional way of life that made it difficult to maintain relationships.
However he has learnt to live in his separation with a kindness towards others, whereby he can retreat if it all gets to much, and this works for him. And his children love him in his kindness regardless. Big Hug x
P.S It is sadly ironic, and you hear it again and again, that the very same things hated as a child about living as a boarder, are the very same ways that many of those children as adults end up living by.
I was boarded as a missionary child at the age of six for three months (mid 70’s) at a time. I, too, vividly recall, to this day, the moment when I realized my parents were not coming back for me (eventually they did, but I could not comprehend “time” at that age). I was watching the days pass on a calendar, wondering which day they were coming back. An older girl showed me the date, after turning page after page on the calendar. Something died in me that day. I have not had any contact with my parents in about 10 years. I married a man with Asperger’s (and then divorced). I crave affection, but can’t tolerate it unless the person is somewhat a stranger, which doesn’t bode well for intimate relationships. My best friend lives 5 hours away, and my significant other lives over an hour away and I see him 3 times a year. I like it that way–I *need* it that way. I was in therapy for 13 years and have been on anti-anxiety/anti-depression medication for just about as long. I am a strong woman, but there is no doubt I am alone, and prefer it that way on most levels. I have accepted that this is something that will always be with me, but it still strikes me as sad sometimes.
I boarded from the age of 8. Look closely at a kid aged 8, ask yourself why you would desire to leave the child with strangers. Utterly appalling idea and not something I would ever consider with my own kids – ever.
The fact that Cameron and Johnson went to boarding school under the age of ten makes the case AGAINST boarding schools an undeniable conviction.
The men are like spoilt brats with no empathy for anyone outside of their class and ultra-elitist circles. They have no moral centre whatsoever. Also their educational knowledge of other cultures and history outside of ruling elite interests is zero. They have no People’s History empathy for the world at all.
So even in academic terms putting outside moral and political considerations they fail and the schools they attended fail too. Then there is Cameron’s idea and education of economics where in his regime is currently draining the British economy with austerity as his primary mechanism for growth. Of course it is not working other than to make all the social problems even more severe. So much for the value of the world’s most elite education. His hypocritical verbal attacks on Syria’s President Assad may well have little to do with the slaughter of the Syrian people and far more to do with the chances of Assad having bullied Cameron at Eton.
I read the comments here with great interest, and I particular emphasised with those from Andy Forbes. I was a boarding school in the 1970s (from the age of 7) and there was a culture of control and abuse. I continue to pay the price through lack of ability to form strong intimate relationships, lack of self esteem and so on. Andy’s comments on how he felt on seeing where he was on waking each day in that dorm brought tears to my eyes as I felt the same sense of utter aloneness. I have sought therapy several times over the last few years and I am now seeing someone with my wife to try and save my marriage. Both my brothers were at the same school, and the burden of the loneliness, abuse and pressure was tragically too much for my eldest brother to bear and he is no longer with us.
I find great comfort in your words. I too spent more than 10 years in boarding school in the 70s. I at a girls school and my two brothers at a boys school. My younger brother the most gifted and academic of the three of us ended up deadicating his life to state education. He as your brother could not manage his burden and committed suicide in his twenties. I have a difficult time communicating with my remaining family. The words utter lonliness ring so true to me. I felt that bad people were sent away as a child.
My parents told me I was going to be snt away and to this day…..i’m nearly fifty I feel it was because I was essentially bad. Hearing that others feel this desperate is of great comfort. Thankyou.
P
Hi Philippa, I was in boarding school from 5 to 19 starting in ’71. It has taken me until now to face up to what happened to me. I sought relief in uber-achievement trying to be accepted and when that did not work, I would go through bouts of alcohol abuse. I left a trail of emotional destruction in my wake with many dear people hurt by my selfishness. The answer is to face it with the grace of God and to forgive those who sent you and to forgive yourself. I salute you. You have trodden the lonely path, but indeed, we are not alone.
I’m 59, i have reaad all these comments and can identify with all of them, but most particularly with B’s. I have never managed to overcome this, but i find it usefull to consider it the kind of damage that one picks up through life unintentionally,like my broken thumb 20 years ago that still does not work quite as it should and aches on a very regular basis.
I drove past the place some years ago to see how it felt, and was unexpectedly physically sick.
Unlike David, i cannot forgive, ever.
My experience was a boarding school for missionary children. I can not get past the idea that I was given away so that my parents could do god’s work. I can not reconcile the idea of a loving god with what I experienced as a child. I do not hate god, but I can not change how I feel (don’t feel) toward organized religion. When I tried to reach out to churches for help, they turned away, unable to see any negative in their “save the world” missionary programs. I can only hope that if there is a god and an eternal life, he will have mercy on my scarred soul, because I have nothing.
God is Love ~ what happened to you AK doesn’t sound much like Love ~ keep on turning towards the little specks of wonder and Love that happen upon us all each day ~ however small ~ for they are of God. It will not change the past but it might change the present which will have an effect upon the future.
You do have hope ~ and t’is said that ‘hope is the anchor of the soul’. x
hello everyone I am fascinated by this article and your comments. I am a writer working on the effects of boarding school, I would love to hear from you at my own blog sally fraser writes or at Boarding School Action, where you can find out more about the arguments surrounding boarding.
Since I wrote my above remarks I am now thinking more like Cameron and his mates bullied Assad than the other way around. One reason why Assad will never give in to the bastards. When Cameron backed the fundamentalist rebels in Libya and started another criminal imperialist war I wrote on the Downing Street website that his “no fly zone” was a deceit and that rebels he was backing would destroy Libya and then move on to Syria. But hey I did not have a boarding school education so what do I know ? Other than all of it and worse has since come true. The ISIS he now rants on about in Iraq is the same one he backed in Syria born out of his infantile boarding school ,neo colonialist mentality adventure in Libya. For all his faults Assad should never give in to these sods…and did you notice how when the wave of anti-Assad hysteria in our media took place it was the BBC and The Daily Telegraph who jointly got access to boarding school alumni President Assad…for their joint exclusive interview. The toffs had his phone number on their mobile list.
Jus, Philipa, David and Jim,
52 and “a knot in my stomach” sums up reading your comments. I haven’t tried re-visiting my old school, and curious about it but doubt I will. Unmarried and living on the otherside of the world. What you all say rings to true!
Thanks
Geo
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