That British boarding schools are odd places is not news. But there are growing concerns about their effect on pupils, and value for money
when his chemistry master pulled a pistol, declared it loaded and waved it in the air was “probably”, says Justin Webb, a broadcaster, the worst moment of his boarding-school career. Winston Churchill would remember the floggings, done until pupils “bled freely” and screamed loudly. George Orwell was beaten so violently that his headmaster broke his riding crop on him and “reduced me to tears”.
That raises hard questions about value for money. Annual fees for Eton were a mere £861 a year in Mr Johnson’s era. Today, its fees are £15,432 “each half” . For this, Etonians enjoy one pool; two chapels; three “theatre spaces”; a composer-in-residence; a filmmaker-in-residence; a pet pianist; and a director of “inclusive education”, who notes that to promote diversity at Eton it is important “to enable people to talk about uncomfortable things”. Like, say, those fees.
Richard Beard, a writer who lacerates private schools in his book, “Sad Little Men”, echoes the theme. The architectural beauty and bells and whistles of boarding schools, he says, are like the label on a dog-food tin which “isn’t for the dog; it’s for the person buying it”. Their defenders argue that boarding schools have changed. To extrapolate from the experiences of children 40 years ago is “obtuse”, says Gavin Horgan, headmaster of Millfield School and chair of the Boarding School Association. “It’s a completely different environment.” Whereas once pupils were sent away for months, many young boarders are now weekly; they can video-call home each day.
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