Those who study at a boarding school or go overseas for educational purposes have appeared to account for a growing proportion of students in many countries. There are a number of motivators behind parents？ decisions to send students to boarding schools or foreign countries. These motivators might be reasonable, but this trend should not be welcomed.
Today, parents are interested in putting their children in an institution remote from the neighborhood, so as to protect their children from the risk of drug use, joining gangs and street violence. Under the supervision of staff in school, children are required and expected to discipline themselves and concentrate on their schoolwork. In addition, parents are motivated by the idea that their children might improve their abilities to cope with daily problems independently in a boarding school, where they cannot turn to parents for help, even in handling seemingly trivial tasks, such as laundry. Such challenges prepare them well for adulthood, in which they are overwhelmed with various problems.
Parents？ initiatives should be appreciated, but it turns out that boarding schools do not offer an answer to their worries. Children might not have those behavior problems commonly found among those from day schools, but the cost of this benefit is children？s zero social life. Many students, especially those in early teens, suffer homesickness and depression because of their protracted family detachment. Moreover, living apart from families may have a negative influence on the family relationship, because children are segregated from their parents and receive no love and care from family, thus resulting in the increasingly enlarged generation gap, hostility to parents and even anti-social minds.
Even a shallow review of the problems associated with boarding schools or overseas study can propel us to reassess these two brand-new preferences. Although the boarding school acts as a vacuum and cuts students？ potential exposure to social evils, it might meanwhile compromise students？ social skills and make them feeble in adults？ world.
