Using Boarding Schools as a Negative Reinforcement: The Cons
Mind
8-10
“So that’s how you behave.
You truly deserve a lesson.
I’m sending you to a boarding school.
They’ll teach you manners there.”
- The words of a parent
The above-mentioned scenario is more or less the same in every case of sending one’s child to the boarding school as negative reinforcement.
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Parents often use boarding schools as a threat to scare their children. Boarding schools shouldn’t be used as negative reinforcement. This is because using boarding schools as negative reinforcement, i.e., some kind of punishment forced upon a student, adds never-ending wounds to the student’s mind. No matter how good the boarding school is, the connotation of a punishment attached to it makes it unbearable for the student to ever regard it as an institution for their betterment.
They treat it as a jail enforced upon them. They start hating the institution, and their hatred eventually hampers their education and growth. Such children are often found to be suffering from mental health issues, like depression, anxiety, etc. Although the parents who send their child to the boarding school as a punishment do that for the child’s betterment and their intention is to improve the child, they unintentionally end up becoming the enemies of the child. In this article, we are going to talk about the harms of using boarding schools as negative reinforcement. This is something which every parent must be aware of, and must avoid doing.
Also Read | Boarding Schools vs Day Schools: Make an Informed Decision
Harms of Using Boarding Schools as a Negative Reinforcement
There are a plethora of harms of using boarding schools as negative reinforcement. Discussed below are some of the main harms of imposing boarding schools as a punishment upon children:
Everlasting Homesickness
One of the main harms of using boarding schools as a negative reinforcement is everlasting homesickness. When a child is forcefully sent to a boarding school or when a child is sent to a boarding school as a punishment, then in a lot of cases, on reaching the boarding school, the child fails to think of anything else other than the child’s family. The child feels so homesick that they spend all their days missing their family members and their home rather than focusing on their studies or adjusting to the new environment.
Mental Health Issues
Mental health issues are one of the most commonly found harms of sending one’s children to a boarding school in order to punish them. The parents generally think that the child will adjust to the boarding school in some time and will start improving as per their expectations, but that barely does happen in case of being forcefully sent to a boarding school. As per a survey, the children who are sent to a boarding school by their parents as punishment are much more likely to suffer from mental health issues than the other students. Such students gravely suffer from mental health issues, like depression and anxiety.
Lack of Concentration in Studies
Using boarding schools as a negative reinforcement makes the children lose interest in their studies. Furthermore, they fail to concentrate on their studies. Those living in a boarding school against their will find it to be extremely hard to accept the institution as their place of education.
Self-Harm
Sending the child to a boarding school as a negative reinforcement can have such drastic effects on the child that it can make the child indulge in self-harming activities. In some of the cases of being sent to a boarding school as a punishment, the children even try to kill themselves.
We hope the parents reading this article would ponder over the dark side of using boarding schools as negative reinforcement, and would avoid inflicting such pain upon their children. It’s always okay to send your child to a boarding school for your child’s growth and education, but the act of sending your child to the boarding school shouldn’t seem to be a punishment to the child; it should rather be an adventure or a journey full of learnings and experiences.
Check Out: Preparing a Child for Boarding School: Here's All You Need to Know
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