For Teachers

Perhaps you are thinking about teaching in a boarding school in the future, or maybe you just started teaching in a boarding school during the current academic year If you come from a public school, you will find several differences between teaching in a public school and teaching in a boarding school. If you are a new teacher, we will raise several points and issues for you to consider.

Students who want to be there

Teachers want to teach. We love our subject. We want to share it with our students. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to teach when you are more concerned about maintaining order in your classroom than you are with actually teaching. Maintaining order is an ever-present issue when you have a large class of 30 or 40 students. On the other hand, teaching a small class of 12-15 students allows you to engage your students more or less constantly. It is very difficult for students not to be engaged when the size of the class is small. There really is no place for them to hide.

This video illustrates teaching at Lawrenceville School using Harkness tables.

Students attend boarding school for many reasons. Most of all, their parents want them to get a first-rate education in a well-supervised environment. Parents often have demanding careers that do not permit them to be available when their high school-age children are not

Boarding schools must never forget that they are businesses. Private schools must continually attract new students to stay in business. Public schools have a steady supply of students. That supply is more or less guaranteed by the fact that public schools must take every child living within their jurisdiction. Private schools do not have a built-in supply of new students. They have to go out and find those students the old-fashioned way, by selling the school and its attributes to every family they can.

In several ways, boarding schools are a tougher product to sell than private day schools. As much as a boarding school makes great sense regarding the complete package it offers, many parents find it difficult to send their children off to a residential school in 9th or 10th grade. Parents may be aware of a couple of boarding schools that family and friends attended. On the other hand, most parents do not know much about individual boarding school programs.

I have written this article with boarding schools that do not have a full-time marketing department in mind. These schools have talented admissions and administrative staff who have to wear many hats, often all at once. So, I hope that my suggestions and advice will help them stay on brand. You see, a boarding school has to market its story and make its case to a customer base which consists of families with children in 6th through 9th grades. Reaching these families is

Small class sizes work. In fact, small class sizes are one of the main reasons why you send your child to boarding school. Here are some reasons why small class sizes are so important.

1. There's nowhere to hide in a small class.

Imagine your child is in a large high school class of 30-35 students. She's not good at math. Most of the students in her class don't understand math and could care less about it. So your daughter hangs out in the back of the class, keeps quiet and tries to pay attention. The distractions and cutting up going on around her mitigate against any meaningful learning. Your daughter falls further and further behind in math. Sadly, public school class sizes are increasing as school districts struggle with budget deficits. Class sizes of 30-35 students are common.

Contrast that learning environment with 12-14 students seated around a Harkness Table in a boarding school. A Harkness Table is an oval table. The teacher sits at the table with his students. Immediately students are placed in a situation where they have no choice but to engage and interact with each other and with their teacher. A Harkness table creates a climate for learning.

This video discusses teaching in large versus small classes.

Implicit in the small teaching groups is a climate of tolerance. The views of each individual are expressed. Critical thinking skills are practiced

One of the most important considerations in choosing a boarding school for your son or daughter is what goes on in the classroom and in the larger school community. In other words, what are they teaching, and how are they teaching it?

You must never assume that, just because a school enjoys a solid reputation, has been there forever, and looks wonderful on the surface, it will provide the kind of teaching you want and expect for your child. Doing your due diligence with respect to the curriculum and how it is taught has to be one of the most important parts of your school evaluation process.

This video compares what is taught in private schools with what is taught in public schools.

Here's how to proceed.

• Observe
• Question
• Research

Observe

When you visit the school for your admissions interview, try to do so while the school is in session. Summer visits are often more convenient for all of us, but you won't be able to observe any classes. Summer sessions do not usually offer a typical classroom experience. So you cannot judge the teaching or what is being taught by what you see during the summer. The teaching staff is frequently not the same as the faculty who teach during the year. Because it is summer, the whole atmosphere is much more relaxed.

When you visit the school and observe a class, is the class size small?