The focus on sports comes as a culture shock to many new students, including public and day students whose schools have dropped physical education requirements and particularly those from other countries, where athletics are often not part of a school curriculum and not regarded as a useful student activity at all. Some schools have compromised by offering non sports activities such as yoga, dance, and rock climbing to substitute for competitive sports.
For many student athletes, a boarding school is a huge toy box of fantastic, well funded sports programs that offer an array of helmet sports – football, lacrosse, baseball, hockey – as well as track and field, crew, field hockey, equestrian, wrestling, fencing, golf, skiing and many more programs. With public high school sports increasingly reserved for those with experience and exceptional skill, boarding schools often offer students a chance to try new sports, working their way up from squads of absolute beginners known as “thirds” to junior varsity and varsity levels.
Small schools offer more chances for students to play at the varsity level. Large schools often have a wider range of sports offerings. Schools that do not field teams in a sport usually have a club for that sport or are willing to support one on student request. As larger schools tend to play sports at a higher level than the smaller schools, truly gifted athletes tend to enroll in the larger schools.
Rigorous sports activity promotes school spirit, intense camaraderie among teammates, and the potential for college athletic scholarships. Many advanced high school athletes take postgraduate (PG) years at boarding schools to continue their physical training, improve their skills, add playing time, and gain the attention of college sports scouts. This sometimes presents disappointment for student athletes who after working their way up for years towards a starting position on a team find themselves displaced by an incoming star athlete.
Boarding school sports have downsides. Injury can complicate life on a campus that requires a lot of walking and carrying. Team travel to and from rival schools can take up a lot of time. Students who repeat years, either upon entry to the school or as PGs, sometimes run afoul of college sports eligibility rules. Students in such circumstances need to work closely with school athletic departments to comply with NCAA rules.
Schools sometimes “find” their star athletes on campus. Many a lanky cross country runner (fall sport) has been invited to join a school’s crew squad (spring sport), and stick handling hockey players (winter) end up playing lacrosse in the spring. Truly exceptional prep athletes competing at the Olympic and international circuit level are given leeway by schools to travel to compete or train. Some will take a year’s absence to do this, returning to school afterwards.
ARTS
The arts, especially the performing arts, play a central role in boarding school communities. Theatre, music, and dance provide the campuses with entertainment and cultural enrichment critical to resident student populations who lack easy access to off campus events.
The arts are also central to school mandates for personal expression and exploration and community participation. In a number of schools, performing arts, particularly dance, can serve to satisfy athletic requirements.
Not incidentally, the arts also serve as excellent public relations tools for the schools. School choral groups, dance and theatre presentations, and orchestral and jazz/pop concerts help enliven school admission programs, revisit days, parent weekends, graduation exercises, alumni events, and assorted school celebrations. Student artists serve as goodwill ambassadors when schools invite nearby community residents to student performances and exhibitions.
The schools promote the arts with extraordinary faculty and with facilities of a quality that often surpasses those at colleges or even in some instances those found in the professional arena. Students bringing high levels of arts talent help raise the bar for others looking to explore arts fields. It is no coincidence that many well known artists and performers have prep school backgrounds.
ACTIVITIES
Extracurricular activities – clubs, community service, travel programs, and the like - are a critical aspect of campus culture. Students are expected to participate as a matter of community involvement, but there is also an aspect of self-interest, since a commitment to school publications, leadership, and public service helps students gain the attention of college admissions officers. At American prep schools, activities serve as leadership opportunities for those who serve in student government, as editors of school publications, and as officers of community outreach clubs. Specialty clubs also act as laboratories for students to explore potential career options: debate club, investment club, engineering and science clubs, etc. The range of clubs and opportunities is staggering; many schools offer well over a hundred different clubs.
STUDENT SUPPORT SYSTEMS
American boarding schools typically offer extensive support systems for their students. Advisors are available around the clock. On campus health facilities offer an array of medical services. Many schools provide educational counselors and tutors, time management and organizational specialists, as well as nutritionists, physical therapists and trainers. Psychological and emotional health support, once nonexistent on boarding campuses, is now a central concern. Staff psychologists and counselors are on call for students experiencing depression, anxiety, or other personal issues, and faculty, staff, and student assistants are trained to identify students who may need help. Many schools require assemblies and student workshops to address issues of both misbehavior and wellness.
MISBEHAVIOR
Misbehavior on a boarding school campus, especially anything of a sexual or criminal nature, can be cause for parental concern. With a resident population of teenagers, the potential for trouble is always present. However, there is no data that suggests that boarding schools experience student misbehavior at comparable or higher rates than day or public schools. The close adult supervision tends to work to suppress bad behavior, but incidents do occur. Such events bear close attention if systemic administrative failures have resulted – failure to discover ongoing problems, failure to expose them once discovered, and/or failure to appropriately punish offenders – which speak to a collapse of leadership that will likely be evident in other less critical areas of that school’s life. Rules regarding misbehavior vary widely, but all schools have detailed specific procedures regarding various types of infraction as well as their severity. All is revealed in the school’s student manual. Students may ignore much of their school’s manual without much consequence, but understanding the school’s rules about misbehavior is essential Minor infractions typically involve behavior that does not involve aggression towards others or damage of property. Such offenses are usually punished by detention, loss of privileges and other short term restrictions. Major transgressions, involving threat or harm to others, property damage, or serious ethical lapses may be met with harsher punishments – longterm restriction of privileges, probation, suspension, or dismissal.
Some schools are “one strike”, meaning that the commission of one major offense is cause for expulsion. Others are “two strike” allowing a student to remain at school after a major offense, often with restrictions and on probation. The “two strike” provision does not apply to truly egregious misbehavior.
Cheating— including plagiarism – the claiming of written work by others as one’s own – has become common in all sorts of high schools, as students pull down texts from the Internet. Educators now use plagiarism detection software to identify these abuses, and punishments can be severe, including expulsion. Cheating likewise is often an expellable offense.
Sexual misconduct is one area subject to much scrutiny. Some schools have specific rules of conduct to ensure sexual encounters are clearly consensual. Despite these rules, sexual misconduct does occur, though this is rare, as it is at other types of high schools. To add more uncertainty, sexual misconduct laws vary widely from state to state.
Bullying, harassment,