Casualties of Privilege: Essays on Prep Schools' Hidden Culture. - book reviews

Adolescence,  Summer, 1999  

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CROSIER, Louis M. (Ed.). Gilsum, NH: Avocus Publishing, 1991. 153pp. $14.95 (p).

Casualties of Privilege combines the perspectives of seventeen graduates of prestigious New England prep schools. Each writer tells a personal story. Together the essays form a composite picture of the issues students encounter during their years at boarding school. There is little doubt that prep school students emerge from residential schools with an excellent academic foundation. But a child's intellect should not be a residential school's primary concern. Different from public or day schools, boarding schools must provide their students with the emotional and moral education ordinarily provided by the family. Since these adolescents do not go home at night, who else is going to do it? Despite the lip service school catalogues pay to students' emotional development, it is in this area that prep schools prove weakest. Changes need to be made to create a healthier environment. Thus, the final chapter seeks to lay the foundation from which prep schools can move toward tackling issues raised in the essays.

COPYRIGHT 1999 Libra Publishers, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group