Boarding School: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Mostly, the boarding schools depicted were for the aspiring middle classes, so did not have particularly elaborate facilities. The biggest educational difference from other schools was the syllabus, which led to a few jokes about Latin, but the classrooms were typically much like any other, because that wasn't where the story was.

The story was in the fact that they were ''boarding'' schools; the children lived in the premises, sharing dorm rooms. The [[Boarding School]] genre revolves around the impact of this -- children, separated from their parents, growing up together. All the advantages of having a story about orphans sans the tragedy of dead parents.

 

 

Common elements in the [[Boarding School]] genre include

== Anime & Manga ==

* The deceptively gorgeous Ohtori Academy in ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]''. No wonder there's so much [[Scenery Porn]].

* Kinkan Academy in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' (translated as "Gold Crown Academy" for the dub).

* Mahora Academy in ''[[Negima]]'' (a [[Elaborate University High|big]] one, too).

* The setting for the anime adaptation of Enid Blyton's "St. Clare's" series, ''Ochame na Futago Clare Gakuin Monogatari'' It was adapted into German, Spanish, Italian, French and Arabic, but never into English.

* Cross Academy in [[Vampire Knight]]

* None of the main characters live in the dorms, but the fancier school in ''[[Aoi Hana]]'' is boarding-optional.

* Garderobe Academy in ''[[Mai-Otome]]''.

== Films -- Live Action ==

* ''[[Dead Poets Society]]''

* ''[[School Ties]]''

* ''[[Toy Soldiers]]'' takes place a boarding school full of kids who've been kicked out of other boarding schools. A ragtag group of misfits, if you will. And then the terrorists come...

* The ''[[St Trinian's]]'' series. This series is most notable for creating the "[[Sexy Schoolwoman|sexy female school uniform]]" trope. A new film recently came out. Too late for the EMP, then.

* The ''[[Young Sherlock Holmes]]'' movie.

* John Dugian's ''[[Flirting]]'' is set in one of these, or rather a pair of them (one for each gender) set across a lake from each other.

* ''[[Au Revoir Les Enfants]]''

* ''[[The Hairy Bird]]'', a.k.a ''All I Wanna Do''

* ''[[Class]]'', starring Rob Lowe & Andrew [[Mc Carthy]]

* ''[[Private School]]'', starring Phoebe Cates and Matthew Modine

* ''[[Tom Browns Schooldays]]'', the [[Trope Maker|genre-founder]].

* ''[[Stalky]]'' by [[Rudyard Kipling]]: ''Stalky'' in "Land and Sea Tales" and then whole ''Stalky & Co'' book; with little sequels ''A Deal in Cotton'' (in "Actions and Reactions") and ''The Honours of War'' (in "A Diversity of Creatures"). Only both the school and protagonist are... rather unusual.

* ''[[Billy Bunter]]''

* ''[[Jennings]]''

* Likewise, nearly every one of the over fifty novels of Angela Brazil, who had pretty much the exact same content but for girls of one or two generations earlier. They were the original source of most of the tropes that came to be regarded as boarding school cliches in later years, and suffered badly from [[Seinfield Is Unfunny]] as a result.

* Brazilian realism novel [[wikipedia:O Ateneu|O Ateneu]] by Raul Pompéia. In the very first page of the book Sérgio narrates his arrival to the boarding school: "Thou shalt meet the world, told me my father, at the doorsteps of the Ateneu. Have courage for the fight! I later experienced the truth of that warning, which undressed me, in one gesture, of the illusions of a child educated exotically in the greenhouse of tenderness which is the regime of domestic love, different from what is found outside, so different, that it makes the poem of the maternal love seem to be a sentimental artifice, with the only advantage of making the creature more sensitive to the rude impression of the first teaching, burning search for vitality under the influence of a harsh new weather."

* The beginning of ''[[Jane Eyre]]'', though this predates the genre proper. Subverted in that the school tries to pretend that it is for wealthy girls when it's really the exact opposite: Lowood is a textbook [[Boarding School of Horrors]] and the girls there are horribly mistreated by orders of the [[Holier Than Thou]] owner, despite the opposition of a more reasonable governess. {{spoiler|Until an epidemy unleashes there and several students die.}}

* The ''Dimsie'' books and the ''Springdale'' books by Dorita Fairlie Bruce.

* Garnet goes off to a boarding school towards the end of Jacqueline Wilson's ''Double Act''; when she writes home, she says it's nothing like what [[Enid Blyton]] portrayed.

* ''Les Disparus de Saint-Agil''

* The ''[[Bruno and Boots]]'' book series by [[Gordon Korman]], set at Macdonald Hall, which is near the fictional town of Chutney, Ontario, a relatively short distance from Toronto. Also featured in the series is Miss Scrimmage's Finishing School for Young Ladies.

* The story of Rachel Klein's novel ''[[The Moth Diaries]]'' unfolds in a boarding school.

* The [[Ciaphas Cain]] novel ''Cain's Last Stand'' features the titular now-retired commissar as a teacher at a Schola Progenium, a sort of state-run boarding school for orphans specifically devoted to educating future members of the Ecclesiarchy and the Commissariat. This being the [[Warhammer 40000]] universe and Cain being a '''Hero of the Imperium''', not much time is devoted to actually developing much beyond Cain's class and work associates before the action starts. However, from the innumerable references to Cain's own experiences in a similar body, its clear that the Scholae Progenia are essentially British boarding schools [[In Space]]!

* Coates Academy in the [[Gone]] series is a boarding school specifically for "difficult" kids.

* Parodied and subverted to hell and back in ''Tompkinson's Schooldays'', the first episode of ''[[Ripping Yarns]]''. Actually, Greybridge itself (the school in the story) probably counts as more of a Boarding School Of Horrors, but it's intended as a parody of this trope.

* Medenham Hall in ''[[Hex]]''. That is, until {{spoiler|Malachi burns it down...}}

* ''[[The Facts of Life]]''

* "[[The Worst Witch]]" is set in a boarding school for young witches.

* Main setting of ''[[Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis]]'' and its sequel.

* Main setting of ''[[Luminous Arc 3]]'', although the students are only shown in class twice and even then they're barely learning.

* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', Gekkoukan High seems to have both day students and student dorms. However, the main characters live in a boarding house some distance away from the actual campus.

* ''[[Nancy Drew|Warnings at Waverly Academy]]''.

 

== Web Comics ==

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* There was a ''[[Scooby Doo]]'' Halloween movie centered around a "finishing school for ghouls."

* ''[[Ultimate Book of Spells]]'': The [[Wizarding School]] is just one of the many reasons the cartoon is considered an [[Expy]] of [[Harry Potter]].