Choosing a School

You've started the process of choosing a boarding school for your child. You've done a bit of reading about the reasons for sending your child to a private school. You've listened to the suggestions and recommendations of family and friends. You've explored dozens of school websites. None of this is challenging to do. However, the chances are that you will find the right school for your needs and requirements. Hopefully, you will. However, despite your reasonable efforts, here are five reasons you might be looking at the wrong schools.

1. They don't offer the kind of curriculum you require.

Think carefully about what the schools teach and how they teach it. Think about this well before creating the shortlist of schools you want to visit. The school's curriculum, how it's taught, and the quality of its faculty should be at the top of your checklist. That's how important an issue this is as you choose the right school for your child.

Listen to the Head of the Math Department at Nichols School in Buffalo, New York, explain the school's philosophy about teaching math specifically and teaching in general.

This part of the process is daunting because boarding schools are unique. They won't all offer the same courses, and they will certainly not approach teaching them the same way. By now, you have a pretty good idea of your educational goals. Are you

At some point in your evaluation of boarding schools, you will examine the academics. That bucket covers a lot of ground. Academics broadly include teaching style and philosophy, the number and depth of subjects offered, and curriculum. In another article, we'll look at the first two items in our academic bucket. But, first, let's discuss curriculum and specifically one of the most commonly used, the Advanced Placement or AP as it is known colloquially.

What is AP?

AP or Advanced Placement Program is a three-year sequence of high school coursework offered by the College Board in over 34 subject areas. AP courses provide college-bound high school seniors with a level academic playing field. It doesn't matter whether you are a high school student in Dubuque, Iowa, or Darien, Connecticut, because AP courses and their end-of-course examinations are the same regardless of where they are offered. The course content is the same. The teaching objectives are the same. The preparation for the final examinations is the same. College admissions professionals can compare student academic achievements with confidence because the standard is the same everywhere, and the final examinations are proctored and graded by the College Board. They know precisely what AP means when they see it on your transcript. They know exactly what your AP scores represent.

That is the intrinsic value of AP Courses and their examinations from a college admissions point of view. Admissions professionals want to know that an applicant's math courses at

The answer to that question is a firm recommendation: consider all that a military school offers your young person. Yes, these days military schools educate young women and young men. New Mexico Military Institute describes its mission: “To educate, train, and prepare young men and women to be leaders capable of critical thinking and sound analysis, leaders who possess uncompromising character, and leaders able to meet challenging physical demands.”

Discipline

Just about anything in life worth doing well requires lots of discipline. Discipline takes hard work, persistence, stamina, and time. In an era when instant gratification seems endemic, good old-fashioned discipline lays a solid foundation for success in adult life. Group discipline quickly grows into a pattern of self-discipline. After several years of training, your child will know what she must do to accomplish her objectives. Military schools serve up discipline as regularly as they serve breakfast.

Missouri Military Academy sums it up very well:

“Whether learning in the classroom, completing community service, performing on the athletic field, or interacting socially, we always expected our cadets to do the right thing–acting with respect, responsibility, honor, and generosity. A Missouri Military Academy diploma means a student has gone beyond the mastery of the subjects necessary to succeed in college and possesses the self-discipline and values that will help him succeed in all aspects of life.”

This video offers an overview of the Culver Academies.

First of all, let's understand what a therapeutic school is. A therapeutic school is a special school designed to help troubled children, typically teenagers, with various emotional and other problems. The problems have usually gotten to the stage where the parents can no longer manage their child effectively. They've done counseling. They've tried more approaches to discipline than they knew existed. As a result, they start looking for other solutions. Sending their child off to a therapeutic school sounds like it might be the right answer.

Therapeutic schools come in a variety of forms. They can be non-residential and residential. For the purposes of this article, we are going to focus on residential schools. Of course, which kind of therapeutic school that you decide is appropriate for your child depends on a variety of considerations. For a detailed description of the various types of therapeutic schools, see Therapeutic Program Descriptions on the Independent Education Consultants Association's website.

When to consider a therapeutic school

As a rule, parents probably should consider a therapeutic school for a child challenged by emotional, behavioral, substance abuse, or academic issues, or any other challenge that the local public school or private schools cannot handle effectively. In other words, he cannot receive the consistent treatment and individual attention he needs in a local school and the home setting. Whether to send the child away to a school with a highly structured environment where she will receive the treatment she needs

Curious about boarding schools for younger students, i.e., students in middle school, as opposed to high-school-aged children? Then, explore the possibilities which junior boarding schools offer. Junior boarding schools come in two flavors: schools that have no upper or high school and those which provide both an upper school and a residential component for students in the middle school years.

Wondering whether a junior boarding school right for your child? Honestly, it probably is. But you will never know until you explore the idea thoroughly. Tune out the negative things you have read about boarding schools. After all, the media tends to focus on sensational stories that hardly show boarding schools as they really are. Go and see for yourself. A quick call or an email is all it takes to make an appointment for a visit.

In this video, Kim Loughlin, Bement School admission director, explores the reasons that a family might consider a junior boarding school for their child.

The other consideration that keeps many parents from even considering a boarding school education is the cost. Most schools have very generous financial aid programs. The admissions staff at any boarding school will be only too happy to explain how financial aid works. Read Why Consider Boarding School for more information about other suggestions as to why a boarding school education might be the right solution for