<p>Around 40 years ago, boarding schools started going coed and I believe girls have integrated very well into the boarding school life. But, I sense a double standard where boys of the family go and the girls stay home. What do others find when it comes to sending their daughters off to boarding school?</p>
<p>I only have girls so I can’t comment- but in our case both were offered the opportunity- one went and one stayed based on their choice.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen that double standard in play in the last 30+ years. My observation is that if one child goes, they all eventually go unless the child’s preference was to stay home. That was certainly true in my household and with many of my female friends in households where the “legacy” ran on the male side of the family prior to conversion to coed.</p>
<p>In our household two children went to BS and one went to a country day school by personal choice.</p>
<p>In our family, it will be our daughter’s choice. She has the opportunity to attend one of 2 schools as a boarder or a third boarding school as a day student. We would like her to pick the day school, but not because she is a girl, because we would like her home and she’s the youngest. We are waiting for re-visit days to see if a clear front-runner on fit shines through.</p>
<p>Oh, it’s still there to some extent. There are an awful lot of old-fashioned fathers out there who wouldn’t think twice about their sons being off to a coed school, but would prefer to see their girls in a convent if at all possible. ;)</p>
<p>Also, my mother didn’t seem to have a problem with my son going away to school at 14, but for some reason, my more mature daughter was “too young” to go away at 14. Maybe it’s a generational thing. My mother would have never let me go.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. In all honesty, having the only girl be the youngest does put a different spin on things when it comes to boarding school. Plenty of time, not going to get worked up on this now.</p>
<p>I totally see this in my family. My dad attended a boys only boarding school and same with my cousin, albeit it is smaller than the school I want to attend, my dad is still against the concept. I’m to young ,they say, but my cousin and I are very similar personality wise, and it drives me crazy. I want to go on an exchange year or gap year to German/Austria/Switzerland in the future, I can only imagine what they say. I went to camp for a month and they thought I’d be homesick within two days! I loved it as a matter of fact, and will go for a month this summer.<br>
Neato, I totally agree with you though, it is largely a generational thing. I think my generation is way more open to leaving home at a younger age and meeting people from different cultures and bonding with them, not mocking them because of their beliefs. Also, facebook and twitter make it so much easier to communicate with friends throughout the world than it was 30 years ago.</p>