Boarding schools for girls can be either all-girls boarding schools or coeducational boarding schools. This article reviews boarding school basics, the pros and cons of boarding schools for girls, and how to find a boarding school for your daughter.
What Is a Boarding School for Girls?
Boarding schools come in many shapes and sizes, some of which may be surprising to you. While many people are well aware of private boarding schools, did you know that there are public boarding schools? Public boarding schools were first established in the nineteenth century to serve particular populations, including orphans from the Civil War and young people who were hard-of-hearing, deaf, had low-vision, or were blind. In the twentieth century, a spate of public boarding schools for gifted and talented students opened, many having a focus in science, math, and/or the arts. The charter schools known as SEED (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) are also public boarding schools.
Private boarding schools, too, are of many different types. There are stateside boarding schools and international boarding schools, college preparatory schools, military academies, sports-focused boarding schools, subject-area-focused boarding schools, and therapeutic boarding schools, and any of these may be all-girls or coeducational. There are also 5-day boarding schools and 7-day boarding schools, and one boarding school (Think GLOBAL) that holds classes in a different country every trimester, so that by the time students graduate high school, they have lived in 12 countries. Aside from therapeutic boarding schools, which aim to assist a student with problems or issues while keeping up academics, all of these types of boarding schools aim to provide an elite level of academics, qualifying their students for acceptance into the top colleges and universities.
Pros and Cons of Boarding Schools for Girls
Boarding schools for girls can provide a top-quality education for a girl who is academically gifted and ready to move out of her family home and accept the responsibilities and discipline of making her own way. Young women who lack discipline, are struggling academically, or are experiencing other social or emotional issues may be assisted by a therapeutic boarding school, or one of the other types of boarding schools only if it is well-equipped to support her. Shy, private girls who need time to themselves or who prefer to live at home are likely to find boarding school a challenge, if not an impediment.
Finding a Boarding School for Your Daughter
Your state’s student assistance corporation or the guidance office of your daughter’s current school may be able to provide catalogs and search materials to start you off. If you are doing an Internet search, try these sites:
-The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) lists boarding school networks, which often provide a searchable school directory, here: boardingschools.com/about-tabs/friends-in-education.aspx
-Boarding School Review has a search tool that lets you use some well-conceived filters to narrow your search here: boardingschoolreview.com/searchschools.php
-National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) provides a search for licensed and accredited therapeutic schools and programs here: hnatsap.org/search.asp