Casualties of Privilege: Essays on Prep Schools' Hidden Culture

by Louis M. Crosier (Editor)

Drinking, drugs, and sex; friendship, trust, and loyalty -- the other side of the prep school experience is presented with stark candor by recent graduates of the nation's most prestigious preparatory schools. These revealing, often startling essays set the stage for honest discussion of the boarding school's responsibility to the student's emotional and moral education.

Genres: Education

153 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1991

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting view into some of the hidden problems of boarding schools. Though the schools attended by the various writers seem to have been drastically different from mine, I could see in their broken systems some issues that my school could have addressed better as well.

The one thing this book needed was more context, though. I loved hearing about the experiences of different people from different schools, but I need more than just their word. There should have been some statistics about the school provided before each passage (number of students, number of dorm faculty, what is the faculty advising system like, etc) so that readers would have a way to critically look at the structure of a school that led to such a situation. Also, the end deconstruction of the problems with boarding schools should have been longer, more involved and used some data along with these anecdotes to push for the reforms suggested. Most of the reforms suggested are good, but this portion of the book is anemic at best.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated in many ways, but timeless in others. Teenagers still continue to push boundaries, and faculty members are still tired and not always the "in loco parentis" parents expect. Kids still slip through the cracks or are overlooked. Although new technologies enable parents to be more in touch with their kids than back n my prep school days, this collection of essays still provides a cautionary tale about boarding school life, even more than 20 years after publication.

However, I'd love to know more about the way these essays were written. They seem quite intellectual and informed by theory for unscripted essays written by non scholars and recent highschool and college graduates, even extremely well-educated ones.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been an administrator at a prep school in the late 90's, what I found most disturbing was the majority of the essays' authors had, on the whole, a negative experience as many felt they were left to fend for themselves, if not physically, at least emotionally. As an "official" school representative, the "company line" was to stress the positive and to view the illicit behavior as an aberrant instance and not the norm while the reverse seems to be true. I now understand the conflicted feelings that many alumni feel toward their alma mater but the fierce loyalty to classmates and friends.