People tend to assume that private schools--and boarding schools in particular--are all about rich kids, and that as such they are cushy little bastions of white privilege bent on perpetuating the sorts of social and economic elitism that presumably underwrites their existence. I won't deny that such schools and such attitudes exist--but I will say that it's wrong to stereotype independent schools and the kids who attend them in such narrowly rigid ways. Today's Los Angeles Times explains:

At first, Dedra Waggener couldn't imagine sending her only child away to learn. She believed boarding schools were for kids who were rich or bad. "My son," she said firmly, "is neither."

Waggener's opinion of boarding schools changed when she visited the Thacher School, a 350-acre campus in the Los Padres National Forest near Ojai. Here, every freshman receives a horse, and students learn Chinese and political philosophy in classes of no more than 11.

School directors offered a full scholarship to her son, Christopher Thomas, 13, who grew up in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles. Waggener accepted the deal: Thomas would receive a top education ó which typically costs $32,750 annually ó free, and Thacher would add a smart, determined minority student from a low-income family to its increasingly diverse enrollment.

I have to admit that my entire first reaction to reading this article was "There's a boarding school that comes with a free pony?! How cool is that?"

This fall we allowed our only child (14 years old) to attend a boarding school in our state. I was apprehensive to say the least, because I love spending time with him. We even homeschooled for six years. But now, after a few months have gone by, I think it is one of the best decisions we've ever made. He is thriving and growing in ways none of us could ever have imagined. And, by the way, he is white and his roommate is black and from the inner city. What a world has opened up for both of them! The only regret my husband and I have about the school is that we can't go there!

Here are a collection of my random thoughts and apercus.

1. I attended boarding school 1966-1969. It was the best educational decision my parents ever made. It was also at a school which was advanced in recruiting and funding students from diverse backgrounds.

2. Thatcher's horse program is not a frill or piece of recent new-age nonsense. The horse program has been part of the school since its founding. It is an essential component of a well-thought-out educational philosophy, as are some other aspects of other independent school programs (Athenian's wilderness trip comes to mind--part and parcel of the school since 1971 or 1972.

2. I have served on 1 boarding school board of directors and been the spouse of another member, the sibling of two more.

For schools that do not have robust endowments, the burden of funding meaningful scholarships--that is, amounts that make the cost of boarding within the reach of non-wealthy parents--falls first on the fundraising department (development or advancement) and secondly on the full-fare-paying families. Is this really an advancement in equity for low income students?

How many dollars out of the budget to allocate to scholarships? What are the trade-offs? If we don't allocate those dollars to scholarships, what else can we do? Are we paying faculty enough? Is our depreciation fund reasonable (that is, are we robbing the future to fund current scholarship students)? Are we funding scholarships at a high-enough level? Should the admissions department be funding 2 kids at 100% (very needy families) or 20 kids at 20% (middle-class families for whom the full-fare is out of reach, but 80% is doable). Are East Asian kids, whose parents in their countries of origin are upper class and have been part of boarding school culture for 3 generations, really minorities? (Well, they ARE dark skinned, after all.) Well, it looks better on our stats if we say so. What about those 3 upper-class kids from Latin America we were able to recruit? Well, they ARE Hispanic....

3. Is boarding school life in the best interest of the minority child? That is to say, does the kid have the academic basics to succeed at the school, and will the environment be supportive or inimical?

4. There are a number of programs, such as Prep for Prep, that prepare intellectually-gifted lower-income children to succeed in academically-demanding environments. Without the boarding preps, in particular, to send on to, these programs lose some meaning....but is it better to send a kid to a boarding program or an equally rigorous day program?

There is a decent movie from HBO titled "Long Way from Home", following three adolescent minority girls through their first year at a boarding school. It's a very thought-provoking and disturbing movie, and well worth a look.