The Making of Them: The British Attitude to Children and the Boarding School System

Sending one's children to boarding school has often been perceived as a mark of privilege and the best preparation for high office or worldly success, particularly in Britain. Despite some amelioration of this widely perceived notion in recent years, it is still prevalent.

Although there are distinct benefits to those graduating from our public school system, the psychological costs - and their physical, relational, and social concomitants - are rarely acknowledged. Nick Duffell argues from his research and specialised psychotherapy practice that this silence about one's own personal suffering is part of the legacy of what he calls being a “boarding school survivor.”

Therefore, adults who had been sent Away - particularly at an early age - to board. ing school from their family homes often learnt (or “were conditioned”) both to endure unacceptably brutal interpersonal practices such as humiliation, sexual violation, and bullying and to keep silent about them.