The whole concept of school as we know it is obsolete - as if it were ever a realistic idea.  But one particular type of school has now seen its day (and what a dysfunctional day it was!) and that is the boarding school.  I hasten to add that there are government-sponsored boarding schools and other small private schools, as well as the famous 'public schools'. 

Boarding schools were invented to inculcate the children of the rich and powerful while they were overseas seizing  an empire for the mother country.  The schools were into creating empire-builders in other words.  But now there is no empire and no excuses left for packing your children off to live in a school miles away from family and friends. As if the idea of school isn't bad enough, to be sent to live in one now seems like cruelty mixed with indifference. Yet parents will try to justify why they send their children to such places.  If they were at least honest and said "Because the name of the school will help them in their career", I would have a sliver of respect, but no, the usual answers trotted out are:

"Because he needs discipline" or "It's my old school and even though I went through purgatory it's changed and is much better" or "You get a first-rate education there away from the distractions of everyday life".  Wrong on both counts.

It is always amazes me how people sentimentalise their schooldays, especially ex-boarders.  It seems that no matter how much the father suffered at his boarding school, he will rationalise his decision to send his own children to the same place.

Boarding schools have been forced, over the last 50 years, to humanise their ethos, add girls to their population, ban corporal punishment, and seem as modern as you could get.  But this is all window-dressing.

Granted, deluded parents are still queueing up to send their children to these archaic institutions, but those on the inside know that the day will come when boarding schools become an extinct species.  The sooner the better, especially for children.