Few students at Staples have had the opportunity to experience both a public school environment and a boarding school environment. According to those interviewed, boarding school is drastically different from Staples in a variety of ways.
Grant Heller ’14 attended Canterbury School in New Milford. According to Heller, the structure of boarding school is what differentiated the most. “Boarding school is almost like a tease of college because you’re away from home and living in a dorm with all of your friends,” said Heller.
Students who have never attended boarding school would most likely believe boarding school equals freedom. However, according to those interviewed boarding school took away freedom. Andres Refvik ’14 who attended Canterbury school noted that at his boarding school students were required to wear uniforms, had a set bedtime and on weekends students had to stay on campus. “Boarding school took away a lot of my freedoms and that is why I came back to Staples,” said Refvik.
Boarding school sports programs are also very different from a public school’s sport program. According to those interviewed, boarding school sports are very similar to college. Coaches can recruit students to play for their team.
Meg Fay ’15 played ice hockey, field hockey and lacrosse at Williston Northampton School. According to Fay, all of the seasons were very intense. Boarding school sports also tends to have a closer team. At boarding school, “The team basically lived together; we had team workouts most days, practice everyday, team dinners most nights and team study halls,” said Fay.
Boarding school is obviously tremendously different from Staples. “I think both schools are good in different ways. Boarding school is definitely a smaller, tight-knit community but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better,” said Fay.
