Figure 1.-- Homesickness is not unusual. Homesickness will affect most children to some degree. Once they settle in, home sickness usually passes very quickly. School staffs are adept at handliing such problems. The new children coonly get along with therir teachers and quickly make new friends. |
It is commonly thought that these schools are full of home sick children pineing away for their parents. Now most children, expecially the younger children, do experience home sickness to one degree or another. And their are some children for which boarding is just not suitable. At one schoolwe visited, a little girl who just began school was unconsolable. She was crying and demanding to go home. Eventually her parents and to come and get here. This is, however, very rare. Almost all childern afrer a few sniffles readily adjust to boarding. Age is a factor here, Preparatory schools generally want the children to be at least 8 years old to begin boarding. Notably this is the same age that that many American summer camps begin to accept children.
Homesickness is not unusual. Homesickness will affect most children to some degree. Once they settle in, home sickness usually passes very quickly. School staffs are adept at handliing such problems. The new children coonly get along with therir teachers and quickly make new friends. Usually matrin and the headmasters wife carefully look after the new children to ease their adjustment. Many children today thoroughly enjoy the experience, although this was not always the case. We found that quite commonnly attitudes toward boarding changed as the childten spent more time at the schools. One boy told us, "I remember when I first arrived that I hated the school and being away from my parents. Everything was so different. I even cried a bit. But that quickly changed. I liked my teacher. She was very nice. And I made some good friends. I think it was the friends and fun we had playing together that made all the difference. I really enjoy boarding now." Quite a few children made similar comments to us.
