Preparing for Power

Preparing for Power

There are great differences between children attending public schools and those attending prep/boarding schools. Cookson and Persell have greatly analyzed activities taking place in boarding school in their work entitled “Cultural Capital and Curricula in America’s Elite Boarding Schools”. The work mainly focuses on the positive aspects of a prep school especially when compared to a public school. However, the socializing in a prep school is found as an interesting occurrence. It is through learning these concepts and socializing ideas from a prep school and public school’s perspective that people know the kind of people to expect in a society.

Goals of Socialization in Prep Schools

Cookson and Persell (1985) explain cultural capital is significant in shaping people’s social competence. In this book, the authors notes the diverse strategies/techniques used to shape the students as far as socializing is concerned. The authors depict various main goals of socialization, as brought forth in the prep schools. They include equipping the students with a cultural background of the society they are in and societies they are likely to encounter, establishing the norms and the skills of particular people in the society and especially those of the upper class, and ensuring that students that their perfection is more than that of their counterparts in the public schools.

From a prep school perspective, knowing and doing the best enables one to be more socially competent. This is why the schools make sure that the students are equipped with higher skills and knowledge as compared to their counterparts in the public schools or other learning institutions. An individual is as competent as his/her background. If he/she was not equipped competently in his/her school years, they will have a hard time coping with others when they get out into the real world. Additionally, the students might be so equipped that they fail to fit in with the others who are in their age or in their position.

It was identified that one of prep schools’ main goals is to make sure that the students have a competent cultural background. This is done with the aim of creating a cultural capital. The schools develop a career that brings forth a trained and disciplined mind. This is done by enlightening the students on the “precise and articulate communication, the ability to compute accurately and to reason quantitatively; [to] grasp scientific approaches to problem solving; to understand the cultural, social, scientific and political background of western civilization; and the ability to carefully and logically and to think imaginatively and sensibly. Considerable emphasis is also put on language, mathematics, science, history and the arts,” (573).

How Goals are Achieved

In order to establish the above agenda, the courses are categorized in accordance to the subject matter. The students are encouraged to read as widely and as deeply as is possible. By doing this, the teachers feel that they will not only be able to solve the problems in the given settings, but they will also be able to solve problems outside the setting, faced in the outside world. In other words, they do not read to pass their exams. The assessment of original works in such subjects as history is popular in these prep schools. In subjects such English, a collection of “The Canterbury Tales”, for example, might be used as compared to other forms of literature. In total, a prep school student may undertake “four years of English, three years of math, three years in one foreign language, two years of history or social science, two years of laboratory science and one year of art,” (574) for his/her diploma.

Additionally, music classes are also encompassed with the inclusion of music history and the practical. Some “hands-on” skills are also included as part of the curricula. Opportunities to work and study off-campus are generously offered. Self and group tutoring is also encouraged. The students are also asked to tutor other groups that are off the campus such as the retarded children in the designated institutions. Manual labor is greatly encouraged by the school’s administration. For example, the students at Putney School grow their own food and clean up their own places (574). In other schools, the students have one cook where the other duties are done by the students in turn. In another school, the students fix the broken pipes.

Travel, which includes extensive field trips are part of the school activities. Like in other learning institutions, sports are a significant part of the prep school curricula. This includes all sorts of sports from soccer to football, tennis, swimming, skiing, amongst other activities. The sports are so important that the schools hold competitions with college first year students in order to gauge their ability. For those who are not interested in sports, other extra curricula activities are at their disposal. Joining the journalism club, taking part in writing the yearbook or organizing student’s function is also encouraged. Leadership is also highly nurtured. Students join and lead the student’ body. One out of three students is likely to join the body in a prep school as compared to one out of five in a public school. These bodies play a role in the overall school administration.

School adaptation and Success

Social adaptation is ones ability to cope in a social setting without feeling frustrated or out of place. On the other hand, social success refers to ones feeling of satisfaction and competency in a social setting. In my opinion, these experiences prepare the individuals for social adaptations. Additionally, they also prepare the individuals for social success. In normal circumstances, no one is ever sure of the social setting they will end up in. One might end up in section of New York where he/she would have to live among intellectuals or he/she might end up in a secluded village in a developing country doing volunteer work.

The deep and wider learning enables the students to find the university education much easier as compared to the students who only read to pass the exams. Additionally the hands on activities, the sports and the leadership skills enable the individuals to any social settings. Sice the students are not provided with many luxury facilities, they are able to fit in almost any setting. It is easier to drop to a lower level than to climb to a higher level. This means that it is easier for one to adjust being surrounded by swimming pool, than for another to get used to carrying a jerry can from a nearby stream or to cut firewood for the evening meal.

Advantages and Disadvantages of High School Experiences

One of the main advantages of the high school I attended was that it encouraged oe to do deep and wider reading. The practical work was more important than the theory work. Due to this, I found it easier to fit in the college society. I even used t help most of my classmates. Additionally, the arts courses offered such as music theatre enabled some of my friends to get scholarships. The leadership skills enabled me to be a good leader as I was given a few responsibilities even outside the school setting. The main disadvantage was that it did not offer any hands-on skills. This gave me a hard time when it came to doing manual voluntary work or when I had no help around me, yet I needed to do something that required manual work.

Although prep schools might seem as though they overwork their students, their sociological preparations for the students are competent. It is significant to understand that the society needs an all-round individual. There are cases where you will be required to wash dishes with the hands instead of using a dishwasher or do a research by using the books in the library instead of “googling” it.

 

 

 

Reference

Cookson, P. W., & Persell, C. H. (1985). Preparing for power: America’s elite boarding schools. New York: Basic Books.

 

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