<p>I read that article in the Times when it came out, and one thought is that that divide might be more obvious in a day school setting, where kids are returning every night to their neighborhoods and old friends. At prep school, everyone lives in the nice or not-so-nice dorm rooms with limited space for the extra stuff that would differentiate one kid from another, and life at school and away from school is more separate. </p>
<p>What I would tentatively postulate is that there’s sometimes a difference in attitude between a kid who has options should prep school not work out and one who doesn’t. Knowing that prep school is a gift and–should he or she succeed–a doorway into that world of privilege puts pressure on a kid that can manifest in ways that other more privileged kids don’t really get. So a kid might be judged, at times, as overly intense or competitive or serious or stressed or angry when he or she is just swimming hard against the tide–as he or she probably has done for a long time to get to prep school in the first place. I don’t think this makes a huge difference in a kid’s day-to-day life at boarding school, but I think it can pop up from time to time–and it’s why I am glad my kid is at a school where about half the kids are on FA.</p>