Post AwwfkHLK6nmB9fc2nQ by elysegrasso@historians.social
(DIR) More posts by elysegrasso@historians.social
(DIR) Post #Aww9n9WKS58vEI5Rs8 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:07:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
When you were a kid did you ever wish you went to a boarding school? Did you go to a boarding school and wish you didn't?Pick the one that fits best.
(DIR) Post #Aww9vS1HYXJQv8WQTo by grumpasaurus@infosec.exchange
2025-08-07T20:09:01Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird their cafeterias were so yummy.There are a bunch around red hook and rhinebeck near where i grew up
(DIR) Post #Aww9xW3rV5Qo2CiIGu by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-08-07T20:09:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird idk, "boarding school" was another name given to the death camps Indigenous children were sent to by the thousands. "residential school" is a more common name for the death camps in canada.
(DIR) Post #Aww9yKlB0JmvH1MajA by darkling@mstdn.social
2025-08-07T20:09:31Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I went to a school that had boarders (about 20% of the pupils), but as a day pupil. And I'm *really* glad that I wasn't a boarder. It seemed like it had the potential to be hell on Earth.
(DIR) Post #AwwA3INPIDmbKUbxRI by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:10:28Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@burnitdown I was thinking of the kind that parents want to send their kids to and pay for. Not some scheme by the state that two thirds of the way to child prison.
(DIR) Post #AwwAKcYBXYYYovujLc by shovemedia@triangletoot.party
2025-08-07T20:13:33Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird went and it was fine, but I had fucked up dreams about it well into my 30s
(DIR) Post #AwwAMYlSaSTder31hQ by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:13:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@shovemedia So maybe it was not fine?
(DIR) Post #AwwAOXvefGiTe5lPAO by llewelly@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:14:12Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I definitely didn't want to live with my parents, and to that sole respect, a boarding school seemed like it might be the lesser of the evils. But I was familiar with them only through fiction, and had no idea how that related to real life. But it was also clear that boarding schools were only an option for wealthy families, not like mine.
(DIR) Post #AwwAPfcbY54RnHOBBw by Rycaut@mastodon.social
2025-08-07T20:14:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I was actually asked to join the first class at the Illinois Math and Science Academy which is a free public boarding school in Illinois that is (obviously) focused on Math and Science. It was an honor but I was also 13 and wasn't ready to live away from my family. (I skipped half of 2nd grade and half of 3rd grade plus have a summer birthday - so yes, I eventually graduated high school at 16) I did consider it for a while but it was probably a good decision not to go
(DIR) Post #AwwAQZHyZxqORWAUoS by shovemedia@triangletoot.party
2025-08-07T20:14:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird vs living with my parents it was Disney World
(DIR) Post #AwwAVb1nXaHvHgzyue by LinuxAndYarn@mastodon.social
2025-08-07T20:15:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I never wanted to go to a boarding school, but was intrigued by summer camp.
(DIR) Post #AwwAYQjSHEBwDlloky by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:16:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@anarchademic I didn't, and always wanted to so badly. But my parents hated the idea.I probably wouldn't have liked it as much as I thought. But I mostly assumed it'd be easier to sneak staying up late reading at such a school. And maybe it'd be haunted like in some of the books I read.
(DIR) Post #AwwAgar4WYwNvvE2sa by GreenSkyOverMe@ohai.social
2025-08-07T20:17:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Did you know in Denmark almost everyone spends 10th grade at boarding school?
(DIR) Post #AwwAmPOA4JJa6nTYR6 by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:18:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@GreenSkyOverMe I didn't know that. Do people get to live in a different part of the country or something? We often send year 11 student away to other schools for a year.
(DIR) Post #AwwAr2wovmZLxOtmnw by rustoleumlove@mastodon.online
2025-08-07T20:19:16Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird my home life was not great and although i was bullied i liked school. so yeah, i kinda fantasized about getting away from my parents in any way possible, incl boarding school.my mom discouraged me from going away to college as well. like, firmly. that definitely stymied any ambition i had
(DIR) Post #AwwAwSytZBsG98SBge by billseitz@toolsforthought.social
2025-08-07T20:20:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird i met lots of boarding school kids in college, and generally didn't like them much
(DIR) Post #AwwB4HhzMVWrV9H2Aa by GreenSkyOverMe@ohai.social
2025-08-07T20:21:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird The country is so tiny it wouldn’t really matter … I think they don’t choose one far away usually, but I‘m nit certain. Who is “we” in your context? Are the schools in other states in the US? That’s so interesting, I never heard of that, not even when I spent a high school year in the US!
(DIR) Post #AwwB5cQpna7m3yt0SG by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:21:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@hi_cial That's horrible!
(DIR) Post #AwwBC96HFdKB7VNo8m by futurebird@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T20:23:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@GreenSkyOverMe Just speaking about the somewhat atypical NYC school where I work. It's a school with high academic requirements and charming neurotic children. (I mean that, they are charming, but also too focused on grades sometimes.)
(DIR) Post #AwwBZEH4BFEJpMR888 by undead@masto.hackers.town
2025-08-07T20:27:24Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I went to a boarding school for a year. It was probably the best year of K-10 ed that I had. I was ready to drop out in the 6th grade, so this was the only way someone was keeping me in school. Turns out it was really good for me. Small class sizes. Self-determination in how you deal with your spare time. Personal hours with teachers. Went from not passing basic math to advanced Algebra in a year.The only thing better was going to a self-paced "continuation" high school.
(DIR) Post #AwwBdmcQQjsHVGbAZc by bloodripelives@federatedfandom.net
2025-08-07T20:28:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I didn’t and wished I did but not really in a concrete way, it was just a thing characters in books did so it seemed cool.
(DIR) Post #AwwCBkw5C4wm85zbbE by jimkennedy@mas.to
2025-08-07T20:34:22Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I went to boarding school and ran away. Actually, I ran away from boarding school twice and only got caught once. My parents changed me to a day school after three years. Definitely a formative experience for anyone; for some kids, it's a good formative experience, and for some, not so much.
(DIR) Post #AwwClSynQqdareI2D2 by Scofisticated@socel.net
2025-08-07T20:40:48Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I was more or less fine not going to boarding school. As I am now, i think I would worry about being more limited. Plus, i dont know how I'd do with a roommate back them. There were time I thought it would be interesting. But those were momentary.
(DIR) Post #AwwEChcRD9Mg2ZNo24 by JonnyT@mastodon.me.uk
2025-08-07T20:56:52Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Big, fat , 'not a hope in hell I'd ever want to go to a boarding school'. Watching British TV and films (eg If...) doesn't enamour you towards boarding schools. Nor do any of the people who get to the top of the Conservative Party.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If....?wprov=sfti1
(DIR) Post #AwwGBYm2oLwAE7SX0i by rgulick@social.coop
2025-08-07T21:19:07Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird The concept of 'boarding school' did not even exist in my head.
(DIR) Post #AwwHhvTa2YjHrCou3M by pdcawley@mendeddrum.org
2025-08-07T21:36:10Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird my parents talked to me about possibly going to one and I said no, no, no. I think they were relieved.
(DIR) Post #AwwIbgbwUmVVyEJtXU by burnitdown@beige.party
2025-08-07T21:46:15Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird but in the end, what really is the difference? paying to send your kids to child prison doesn't make it better, it's still a child prison.
(DIR) Post #AwwJ2ejtYwLFz4tr4C by ryanjyoder@techhub.social
2025-08-07T21:51:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Are boarding schools an East Coast thing? Because i honestly never met anyone in the US who went to one.
(DIR) Post #AwwJVjxjDpiaa6ErRo by rlstone4dems@mastodon.social
2025-08-07T21:56:23Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird i actually had a friend that went to a boarding school in Kentucky. Evidently, it was one for bad kids... But, he would always tell me stories of good friends he met there. We were both in Astoria, Queens at the time. So, it was pretty cool to know that he went so far away...
(DIR) Post #AwwKHqpiymlJn6R5cG by Nickiquote@mstdn.social
2025-08-07T22:05:04Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird No because I liked my parents and my brother. The level of abuse at boarding schools from staff and older pupils seems to have been very high, and they contribute a lot to the class distinction in the UK.This book suggests that posh boarding schools are responsible for an emotionally stunted political class as well. Certainly the people I know who went to them are all of a particular type and not in a good way. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/443436/sad-little-men-by-beard-richard/9781529114805
(DIR) Post #AwwMYhILta3z2WzFXk by Tattered@social.vivaldi.net
2025-08-07T22:30:30Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird We had/have a whole sub genre of comics/books/movies about the living hell of boarding schools here in the UK. It’s mostly true. An example of a “prank” from a school I worked in. One boy urinated in a balloon and placed it, with the neck folded over, in another boy’s pillow, so that the balloon would empty when head hit pillow.To be fair, the worse experiences may be among boys. There were fewer reports of disturbances from the girls’ dorms.
(DIR) Post #AwwNFA9B0yCqgXwbIG by yomimono@wandering.shop
2025-08-07T22:38:14Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird By the time that option was available to me, I was old enough to be making my own decisions and aware of how much abuse takes place in environments where children are isolated from the people who (are supposed to) care for them. I had also been pretty ruthlessly bullied by my peers at school and home was a necessary respite. I didn’t think superior academics, which were the primary boarding school draw, could possibly be worth my safety.
(DIR) Post #AwwNm7DOw6V59GdK1A by catmisgivings@stranger.social
2025-08-07T22:44:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird when I was little I LOVED the Madeline booksMom did not want me to go to boarding school because ... (besides the cost lol) I guess because the whole point of having me was she wanted to do parenting? So she didn't see the point in sending me awayI did NOT understand this perspective at all as a child There are lots of ways to be a parent and my folks chose what worked for them. I didn't ever think I had to live in their house to be loved but that's what they wanted!
(DIR) Post #AwwONQZhv5gfuFrIPY by Smoljaguar@spacey.space
2025-08-07T22:50:56Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird my grandpa (english) had an awful time in one which put me off going, but obviously that was a different era and of the people I know who went I think they all enjoyed it
(DIR) Post #AwwOcqYhawvCpyjzZQ by JugglingWithEggs@mstdn.social
2025-08-07T22:53:43Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird Boarding school damaged my grandad, aunt and mother in law…thankfully my parents had no money and a bizarre faith in comprehensive schools (UK state secondary education) despite neither having been educated by them. My mum went to a Catholic convent and my dad a boy’s grammar school. Tbh they often said they just wanted us not to not think the opposite sex was alien. I look at what boarding school boys have coldly and selfishly done to UK as MPs and shudder.
(DIR) Post #AwwTRJmLd4BTl2RgTg by barrygoldman1@sauropods.win
2025-08-07T23:47:40Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird when i was a kid... i don't think i knew what a boarding school was.
(DIR) Post #AwwTu2I7j5FLv30C8G by justmichelle@beige.party
2025-08-07T23:52:50Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird My twin sister and I were scholarship students at a pissy boarding school in New Hampshire in the 80's. It definitely help to give me a leg up in my career. Three years of working in the dish room every morning before class helped me get a job as a dishwasher.
(DIR) Post #AwwbbBqMmnL3fzXl9k by MartyFouts@mastodon.online
2025-08-08T01:19:05Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I didn’t know what a boarding school was. Didn’t learn about them until I was in college.
(DIR) Post #AwwfkHLK6nmB9fc2nQ by elysegrasso@historians.social
2025-08-08T02:05:32Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird None of the above school sucked, so fine is a hell of an overstatement, but I was pretty sure boarding school would suck worse. Being locked in with the bullies would have been worse.
(DIR) Post #Awx5DF4s6khrNgpDWa by davidnjoku@mastodon.world
2025-08-08T06:50:55Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I went to one. On balance I think it was ok, even though there were stretches when I really hated it. I was younger than my classmates and not very mature, so that probably didn't help.
(DIR) Post #Awx668ysTcVcOqCUm8 by nazgul@infosec.exchange
2025-08-08T06:13:58Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I went to a boarding school (Phillips Exeter) for one year while my town was building a new high school.I'm glad I went for a year. I'm glad I didn't go for four. But also my grades dropped in public school, and I ended up skipping my junior year and going to college early.The boarding school education was very good. The elitist environment was not.
(DIR) Post #Awx9ocaA53beoKXXCS by Tattie@eldritch.cafe
2025-08-08T07:42:29Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I insistently refused to go to boarding school until my parents relented and allowed me to continue attending a regular school. I was the only one of six children who managed to escape that shithole.I was making backup plans to run away if they had attempted to send me there.
(DIR) Post #AwxEZWTH1E85HhwCv2 by violanders@mastodon.nu
2025-08-08T08:35:46Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebirdI went to a boarding school when I was 16. Those two years where among the best years of my life.
(DIR) Post #Ax3Qp37yFYhRJCu4P2 by nigelharpur@musicians.today
2025-08-11T08:21:17Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird a great poll question and fascinating results/insights.Not sure if I can precis my own UK experience... will try, edit, edit, bit more edit, lose some punctuation, edit, lose some of the 'small' words, edit, edit... "I'll be back".