Boarding Schools and Bad Leaders (FB May 25th 2015)

The Guardian article currently doing the rounds, the one about boarding schools producing bad leaders, is clearly an emotionally exaggerated piece rather than a factual one.

It is simply not appropriate to describe going to boarding school as having to "survive the loss of [one's] family".

Being away from home for a small and finite number of weeks is a bit scary to begin with but, as traumatic experiences go, it is not in the same league as being orphaned and I think it an insulting analogy to anyone who has suffered the latter.

It is nonsense also to suggest, a little further down the same (first) paragraph, that communal living hinders the formation of relationships. If anything, the enforced sharing of living space tends one to learn how better to get along, form friendships and collaborate with people whose company one might not otherwise choose.

I also take issue with the author stating later in the article, " Bullying is inevitable and endemic in 24/7 institutions full of abandoned and frightened kids."

In reality, bullies' reigns of terror are usually quite tame and short-lived in boarding schools, because any inflicted physical injury will be promptly discovered and even bullies have to sleep sometime and they are then as vulnerable as anyone else. In today's world, bullies are also at considerable risk of expulsion from school with no money back for their parents and their place being re-sold. Litigation aside, failing to eliminate bullying is bad for business.

Simply sending children to boarding school is not the same as "abandoning" them. That's emotional rubbish again, as is the sweeping description of boarding pupils as "frightened kids". I attended two boarding schools, one of which I enjoyed and one I didn't, but at neither did I feel abandoned or would describe myself as being frightened.

At a guess, the author has issues arising from his own upbringing, education and early career. He graduated in Sanskrit from Oxford, taught in India, became a carpenter, retrained in psycho-spiritual stuff and for the last twenty years or so has been generating income as a therapist and writer, while apparently seeking a blameable entity to excuse his own self-perceived inadequacies in the area of relationships and gender.

But while I can only guess at the article's author's exact motive, reference to history confirms that David Cameron stood for election in 1997, has been an MP since 2001, the leader of the Conservative Party since 2005 and in 2015 has just commenced his second term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I am sure most would concede this record to represent success in leadership, even if it has not been in their preferred direction.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to offer your children the opportunity to experience boarding school and they are up for it go for it. Certainly don't let anyone put you off because someone who went to boarding school became Prime Minister. Twice. That would be daft.