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With all the classroom activities underway, we managed to obtain some fascinating images of the children. We were especially impressed by the degree of concentration on their work. Even with a photographer in the room, the children were normally all business. Concentration, however, was not the only images of the children that were observeable.
As we visited the different prep schoos one observation that was repeated over and over again were busy classrooms with the children seriously persuing their assigned studies. Often this included desk work, sometimes using work borks, other times working from black board assignments.
We also noticed very orderly classrooms. The children were well behaved and the teachers firmly in control of their classes. We almost never noticed any kind of disruptive behavior. Just the oposite the children seem absorbed in the classroom work. The children were also exceedingly polite and respectful toward the teachers, normlly using sir and miss when speaking with them. This of course allowed the teachers to focus on the subject manner ind not waist valuable class time on discipline problems.
One of the most important elements in the prep school program is the relationships whoch develop between teachers and pupils. A variety of factors are involved here. First, the classess tend to be small. Thus the teachers have the opportunity to get to know the children better than ca teacher with a large class. Second, prep schools have better discipline standards than state schools. Most children easily accept the standards that are expected. Those that don't are asked to leave. Thus the teachers do not have to wasr time on discipline problems. This helps to build positive relations between the children and the teachers. Third, boarding school teachers spend much more time with the children than teachers in the state sector. And many of the contacts are outside the classroom. This helps build a stronger relationship than that between pupils and teachers in the state system. Of course not all prep schools are boarding schools and there are day children at many boarding schools. But the boarding factor tends to be important. One element that we are unable to answer from our brief visits is the relative abilities of teachers in the private and state sectors. Our basic thought is that there are not aot of difference in the teachers and that the closer relationships comes from the prep school program.
We do not mean to suggest that prep school children are not normal kids. They certainly are. It is just that for the most part their home environment and the prep school program have tought them to generally behave themselves and to respect others. Thus prep schools do not have serrious discipline problems. Before world Wwar II, corporal punishmnt was widely used to discipline the children. This is no longer the case. The schools have developed a variety of more humane ways of disciplining the children. And the staff has found that they can achieve their goals without resort to force. To an extent the homes the children come from make the descipline a relatively easy matter. Even so, the children come from a wide range of homes with parently possessing varied parenting skills. Thus the children if not properly supervised can get up to many of the same behaviors noted at any other schools. It is the prep school program that makes the real difference difference in the atmpsphere and behavior at these schools.
