| rdfs:comment
| - Not to be confused with your usual Boarding School trope, the Boarding School of Horrors is a place where your nightmares come true. There are no midnight feasts or jolly hockey sticks here. Presided over by cane-wielding Sadist Teachers, you will be beaten or locked up for the slightest misdemeanor -- and that's if you're lucky. If summoned to the headmaster's office, don't expect to come out alive. Then there is the matter of your fellow students. At best, you'll have your head flushed down the toilet; at worst, you face years of unspeakable bullying. In a British school, you may be enslaved to the prefects thanks to the "fagging" system. And the Absurdly Powerful Student Council will only add to complications as they promote this form of cruelty as presumably girls or guys they like are
|
| abstract
| - Not to be confused with your usual Boarding School trope, the Boarding School of Horrors is a place where your nightmares come true. There are no midnight feasts or jolly hockey sticks here. Presided over by cane-wielding Sadist Teachers, you will be beaten or locked up for the slightest misdemeanor -- and that's if you're lucky. If summoned to the headmaster's office, don't expect to come out alive. Then there is the matter of your fellow students. At best, you'll have your head flushed down the toilet; at worst, you face years of unspeakable bullying. In a British school, you may be enslaved to the prefects thanks to the "fagging" system. And the Absurdly Powerful Student Council will only add to complications as they promote this form of cruelty as presumably girls or guys they like are sent to be lowly concubines within their ranks and is above the law with the Prefect acting as their muscle as they choose whom to beat up or torture. The food is inedible slop, there is no central heating, and creepy crawlies are everywhere. If you complain or write home to your parents, they won't believe you (assuming your mail even makes it out of the school, that is). The school might be a Military School, where you'll face the wrath of Drill Sergeant Nasty every day, and be subjected to horrific hazing rituals. In the worst cases you could be sexually abused or even murdered while staying at the Boarding School of Horrors. Had (has?) some elements of truth in television. Boarding schools were not a Victorian innovation, but the institution was embraced as a means of counteracting the softening, emasculating influence of mothers and preparing young men for the harsh rigours of the world of business and Empire. The move to purposefully harsh institutions as a solution to parental mollycoddling took place in the context of the early-mid Victorian love of childhood and doting parenthood, which it was later feared would render the new generation of the better sort of people - i.e. the middle and upper classes - too soft to maintain Anglo supremacy. Thus, boarding schools were intended to instil discipline and self-discipline, deference to authority, strict morals, a vague sense of the Christian religion, and teamwork. This was of course in addition to all the usual things one expects a public school (a school open to the paying public as opposed to a private school, which was more exclusive) to do. You are likely to find yourself in one of these places if sent Off to Boarding School by the Card-Carrying Villain, often doubling as a School for Scheming or Academy of Evil. Still, count yourself lucky. At least you're not in an Orphanage of Fear. If you're unlucky, your summer is only apt to be marginally better - but see Summer Campy for that. A sub-trope of this is the Day School of Horrors, of which the most notable exponent was probably the Overly Strict Catholic School (circa 1930-1960). It was bad enough when the nuns could make you stand in a trash can or beat you with a yardstick in front of the class for such minor infractions as improperly polished shoes or sneezing in church, all the while telling you that beating the tar out of your living body was good for your immortal soul. Got turned Up to Eleven when we all found out what the priests were up to behind closed doors... Examples of Boarding School of Horrors include:
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)