Boarding Schools

[rachelmanija]

This week iknowcommawrite, osprey-archer, and littlerhymes all posted on Malory Towers, one of Enid Blyton's boarding school series. (scioscribe also posted on Enid Blyton and naked tennis.)

Poll #21998

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 72

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The best part of boarding school is...

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Midnight feasts
33 (47.8%)

Sports
2 (2.9%)

An ocean swimming pool
18 (26.1%)

Pranks
7 (10.1%)

Spanking and caning
4 (5.8%)

Getting a good education
8 (11.6%)

Everyone is a girl
28 (40.6%)

Everyone is a boy
9 (13.0%)

Magic
25 (36.2%)

Something else which I will explain in comments
6 (8.7%)

My favorite non-magical boarding school is...

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Malory Towers
17 (32.7%)

St. Clare's
6 (11.5%)

The Chalet School
12 (23.1%)

Rugby School
0 (0.0%)

Kingscote
8 (15.4%)

Another which I will name in comments
14 (26.9%)

My favorite magical boarding school is...

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Hogwarts
34 (57.6%)

Roke
11 (18.6%)

Brakebills
10 (16.9%)

Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children
6 (10.2%)

Vampire Academy
1 (1.7%)

Some other which I will name in comments
10 (16.9%)

The Worst Ever Boarding School is...

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The one in Jane Eyre
40 (70.2%)

The one in Skin Hunger
5 (8.8%)

The one in Prep
4 (7.0%)

Some other which I will name in comments
8 (14.0%)

Comments

[dorotheian]

I thought I was the only person in the world who mistakenly read Skin Hunger. O_O My mistake. It's a book that I have...actively tried to scrub from my memory.... I desperately wanted to have a conversation about it when I first read it, but it's not exactly a book you want to bring up in polite company or ask your friend to read in order to compare notes. Not worth inflicting that kind of trauma. ...This was before I did any online blogging, of course.

I am inclined to agree that my favorite magical school is the one in A College of Magics. Or maybe the school in Tamora Pierce's A Circle of Magic, though it ends up being more of a mentoring / tutoring situation? I guess I like the adult setting and the mindset of scholars which seems more similar to magical grad school than elementary, and in the process there is a lot of worldbuilding tidbits being leaked by passionate people arguing for one reason or another.

Not exactly a boarding school per se, and neither the worst nor the best, but Bloor's Academy in Charlie Bone left a very strong impression. It is Awful, yet tolerable, and a decent education may be had, aside from incessant scheming from the family that runs the school.

Brief glimpses into boarding schools for the blind or the deaf, such as the one mentioned in Beverly Butler's "Light a Single Candle" or its sequel, were very interesting and enlightening to me. If I remember correctly, the character in question did not like the school very much herself, but she saw the value in it and why her fellow students could appreciate it.

Oh! And I totally forgot, but I think my favorite non-magical boarding school would have to be the super spy girl's school Gallagher Academy in I'd Tell You I Love You But Then I'd Have to Kill You, and its rival boy spy school in later books.