Boarding schools: Building a village!
Dear Parents,
Sometimes when I think about placing my future offspring in a boarding school, I wonder whether I am sacrificing a strong parent-child relationship for strong grades at Ordinary Level and A level. As a form one in an oversized fading blue skirt and a blazer (I was told I would grow into), being a form one student in 2009 at ST Dominics Chishawasha was a dream come true. I grew up reading Harry Potter books so I had an overly romanticized view of what boarding school would be like, living with my friends. The first year was obviously tough but I wouldn’t change the experience for anything in the world. The cold showers, frequent bread, eggs, and beans meals, and formative relationships I built with other students shaped who I became.
I remember complaining that we lived in a prison. A prison where we interacted with the world on extra-curricular outings, 5–6 times a semester depending on how involved you were in student organizations. A prison where we saw the boys at our brother school 2–3 times a semester at closely observed gigs and functions. A prison where we saw our families once a month during visiting Sunday when cars swarmed the sports field laden with groceries and news from the outside because we weren’t allowed phones. Even though many of us missed our families, the truth is that we spent 20mins truly engaged with our visitors and the rest of the afternoon was spent eating pizza or home-cooked meals, responding to texts from friends at home and showing off our handsome siblings to our friends.My boarding school was not a prison, but a safe and conducive space for me to learn how to be independent, how to budget my resources, how to apply myself in my schooling and to be involved in extra-curricular. I made friends but most importantly I made a family. I had Youth Against Aids sisters, LEO cousins,
grandmothers, in-laws, brothers, and fathers at my brother school. Sending a child to boarding school is not sending them to prison. It is sending them to space conducive space for their growth and protection. It is introducing them to the world in the right doses, opening academic and social doors but most importantly preparing them to be self-sufficient citizens. Sending a child to the right boarding school can make the difference between that child becoming academically successful or having a teenage pregnancy. Had I listened to my family who wanted to send me to a nearby private day school, I could have been another coloured pregnant teen, I wouldn’t have applied myself to my books and I wouldn’t be a student at Yale.
My boarding school teachers instilled a love for learning in me. When other teachers were on strike, my teachers still came to school. My Business studies teacher, the late Mr Mutangara even taught a Sunday afternoon class for students who were planning on writing the ZIMSEC June exam. His dedication pushed me to push myself harder. He was the sort of teacher to infuse his teaching with personal anecdotes that taught lifelong lessons. He was the teacher who told me I was a star, who was disappointed when I got a 96% instead of 100% in exam papers written by the older upper-six students when I was in lower-six. He was also a friend and often even a parent. When I decided to take a weird combination of subjects, History, Literature and Business studies and my teachers, family and friends questioned this decision,
Mr Mutangara was supportive. He saw the vision I had for my life even when my family was against me. He was very supportive of my idea to take a gap year and intern at Education USA rather than go to the University of Zimbabwe law school, which was the conventional path. Boarding school surrounded me with teachers and staff who genuinely cared about my well being. People who identified my strengths and weaknesses and helped me work on weaknesses that weren’t even academic.
My hope is that more students actively choose to go to boarding schools and that they value the challenges and formative experiences and interactions they have there.
Yours,
Michaellah
Michaellah Mapotaringa is a 2nd year Political science and African studies student at Yale University. She currently serves as the President of the Yale African Students Association. In 2018 she served as a Yale Young African Fellow and mentor. Prior to her studies at Yale, she was the head Intern at Education USA, a branch of the US Embassy in Zimbabwe. She is passionate about topics related to the development of Africa with a special focus on foreign policy, education and the empowerment of women. She is currently working on a project which is rebuilding the Liberian educational system which was ravaged by years of civil war and the Ebola epidemic
