When I was eight years old, I got shipped off to boarding school, where I remained, with time off for good behaviour and holidays, until I was nearly 18.
One of the byproducts of this is that, when asked what material goods make me happy, I answer with the following.
A fridge full of food
Fluffy towels and clean bed linen
Being warm enough
Nice carpet on the floor (UK only, not for hot countries).
All of the above were conspicuous by their absence at my school. For instance we had a drying room, a room full of hot pipes going back and forth across the walls with slatted shelves. Its purpose, to dry things out. Usually it was full of unwashed and muddy rugby kit (smelly bag of washing only taken away once a week, don'tchaknow). The smell was appalling but we loved it in there as it was a break from the unrelenting cold.
When questioned about non-material things, I always come up with "absence of physical persecution". There is nothing like being woken from a deep sleep by being dragged out of your bed to make you yearn for a room you don't have to share with 10 other boys.
So, as we can see, we are beginning to lurch slowly up Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
There were, of course, many positives about my boarding schools. I gained a reasonable education, met some fine people (some of whom are still my friends), had access to some very interesting and educational magazines not available in shops in the UK (thanks to all the boys who took school holidays with their families in Germany) and had the use of excellent sports facilities.
Oh, and I also feel that people who have been to boarding school should hold up much better if, for whatever reason, they get sent to prison.
4 comments:
that's all right then.
An utterly barbaric tradition, if you ask me.
Unknown to me when I selected it, but I chose the college at Uni that the most public school of all of them. Some of my public school friends had loved it, some hated it (as an aside, the girls seemed to turn out more normal than the boys after being cooped up with the same gender for 10 odd years - maybe Magicman can shed light on why?). However, most seem quite ill-equipped to deal with the real world of balancing a budget, cooking for themselves or managing their intake of alcohol to semi-conscious levels. In fact, the first year was a bit like watching the rebellion I and my day school friends went through when we were 15.
Within a year we were all the same, but the difference at the start was really quite noticable.
boarding schools seem to be really kill or cure. of my friends who went through the experience they seem to fall neatly into two camps - those who absolutely loved it and would send their own kids, and those who are still dealing with the psychological aftermath.
For my part, I used to completely idolise boarding school (I didn't go, mind) due to reading far too much Malory Towers as a kid.
Mallory Towers! Lovely stuff at the time, and how I longed for a tuck shop and the companionship of hearty sporty "gels"...
On re-reading now, of course, you'd find the most appalling, class-ridden, imperial tosh. But I suppose this illustrates that the influence of these books is actually quite limited, what?
Just orff to put on my tweed plus fours for a day of shootin'...
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