Boarding School - Psychological Issues of Boarding Schools

Psychological Issues of Boarding Schools

The aspect of boarding school life with its round the clock habitation of pupils with each other in the same environment, involved in studying, sleeping and socializing leads to pressures and stress in boarding school life. This is manifested in the form of hypercompetitiveness, use of recreational or illegal drugs, indulgence or experimentation with sexuality, and psychological depression that at times may manifest in suicide or its attempt. Studies shows that about 90% of boarding school pupils acknowledge that living in a total institution like boarding school has significant impact and changed their perception and interaction with social relationships. Boarding schools are less a form of schooling and more a form of child rearing. The change that the students experience is often not in the manner that the boarding school establishment defines itself or claims to inculcate, instead the changes that come about is chiefly due to the constant interaction of the pupils with the ever present boarding school student culture. This is shown in manifest level or covert level in the form of attaining credential in school and in an implicit level or inherent level in the pursuit of individual goals and hierarchical social class interest which is often social control and material comfort in the ethos of boarding schools.