Figure 1.--One of the key elements in the success of the preparatory schools is the relatively small class sizes affording a great deal of individual attention. Students requiring extra help are much more likely to get the help they need
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Figure 1.--One of the key elements in the success of the preparatory schools is the relatively small class sizes affording a great deal of individual attention. Students requiring extra help are much more likely to get the help they need |
The question arrises as to how successful prep schools have been in meeting their goals. Preparatory schools are ndeed remarakably successful academic institutions. Much of this success is due to the preservation of many of the characteristics of early prep schools, a commited staff, challenges, invidual attention, and academics. Modern schools have, however, incorporated many changes, not the least of which is the development of a much more friendly, secure atmosphere than was common only a generation ago. The results has been the development of highly effect schools.
A large part of a prep school's success is due to the many commited individuals, the headmasters and their wives, the masters and mistresses, and the matrons who have made a commitment to a quality educational program. Few of these individuals could not achieve higher salaries, shorter hours, and less demanding responsibilities in virtually any other vocation they might choose. Most have chosen to work in preparatory schools because of the personal reqards of participating invery successful schools. But it is notjust the Individuals. Manycommited educators also work in the state system with very different results. . It o is the phylosophy of the schools and structure and methods employed that enable the schools to achieve such impressive results.
Children need to be chalenged. Thorpe House tells parents, for example, that "We do not believe that anything worth while can be attained easily, so that a~ boy must be prepared for his years at Thorpe House to be sometimes hard and challenging. At the same time we feel that he will be able to look back on them as some of the happiest and mast fulfilling years of his life." A good prep school provides a variety of challenges. As another school tells parents, "All children should greet a new day feeling they will meet new situations, tests and experiences even if some of these must necesarilybe conventional. Challenge comes in many ways--some physical and some academic." The key for the successful school, however, is to ensure that the challenges provided are appropriate for the children involved. The children~ gain confidence as they master the challenges provided. As the school explains, "In the ~last analysis, a young child measures himself in terms of what he can do. It is later in his,life that he finds out who and what he is."
Schools of necesity focus on academics. We noticed in school after school, orderly business-like classrooms with children dilligently persuing their assignments. We almost never observed any disruptive behavior. The teachers were able to get the students down to work and were able to focus their efforts on the material at hand and the academic needs of their students. The young teenagers emerging from the modern prep, school have acquired very impressive academic skills, perhaps a year or two ahead of children with similar abilities in the state system. The real accomplishment of the prep schools is that can achieve these results with children of average abilities. Virtually any school can achieve impressive results with academically talented children. Prep school children come to their schools with a wide range of abilities. The academically talented are chalenged in scholarships, but even children of average ability can usually achieve striking results.
Young children must feel secure and that they belong. They must be happy because unless they are they can not do their best. This is especially important for 7-8 year old childrenaway from home for the first time at a boarding school. Most modern schools seek to create a family atmosphere. The school's small size make this possible, but it is the headmaster and his wife which determine the atmosphere at a school. Almost all schools are careful to ensure that new arrivals are helped to settle into the school routein. They are watched closely by the staff and assisted by other children their age selected to assist them. It usually does not take long for the new children to become absorbed in the academic and other challenges provided by the schools as well as a wide range of activities. A child should also know where he stands and that he has a valued place at the schoolmust kMost schools are also careful to ensure that their children have the free time needed by young children. Time to make friends, build huts in the woods, or just sit and think.
The low staff to pupil ratio permits the schools to offer individual attention to the children as part of an extensive program. The most obvious benefit here is in the academic program, but this is only part of the benefit. The students also get extensive sports coaching, espcially those children interested in sports. The house system, tutoring, and the small size of the schools all help to ensure that the needs of the children are met in areas beyond the academic program and sports coaching. The staff works with the children in small groups and individually as approprite. This can take place both in and outside the ckassroom. Here the house system is especially important, although it functions differently then in the public schools because mot of the children sleep in age-grouped dormitories rather than in house groups. Not only can academic problems be quickly identified and addressed, but also a range of other problems and difficulties and the appropriate guidance provided.
The schools seek to instill in the children that they are members of a community and have responsibilities to that community. Even the youngest, are expected to assume at least some responsibilities, not only for themselves, but also to the larger community. While these respsonsibilities vary from school to school, they learn to make their own beds, clean form rooms, clean their tables in the dining room, help serve the meals, and pick of litter. At many schools they help maintain the grounds. As they move up the school they are given increased responsibilities, helping new children adjust, working as a librarian or lab assistant, ringing the school bell or a host of other tasks. Senior children are encouraged to assume some obligations for the younger children. They may serve as dormitory captains or prefects. Each term one child is chosen as head boy or girl.
No school can succeed without discipline. This no longer means the stern, spartan approach of early prep schools. Discipline standards are high at modern schools. Good manners and politness are firmly, but hunanely insisted upon. As one school explains, the children learn quickly that a "disciplined life and loving mentors are not mutually exclusive within the Christian way of life." Most schools place a high priority on instilling self discipline in the children. A discipline that they can use to pursue their own personal goals as they mature.
