How Schools Add Value

While researching the question of what boys need for their future as part of a project for Woodberry Forest School, I came across a fascinating sociological study, "What's going on with young people? The long and twisting path to adulthood," a 2010 article in a special issue of The Future of Children, a journal from a collaboration of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the Brookings Institution called futureofchildren.org.  The authors, Richard A. Settersten, Jr., and Barbara Ray, trace the history of a lengthening period of transition into adulthood in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, and make the following statements about what matters most:

"Young people who can build stronger and wider connections to adults other than parents (for example, teachers and adult mentors) also end up faring better than those who do not."

and

"The presence of meaningful relationships with adults significantly bolsters school achievement, success in jobs, emotional maturity, and satisfaction with life, and keeps in check problematic behaviors such as substance abuse."

I have always held that independent schools offer more opportunities for students to develop these types of relationships with adult teachers and mentors than other types of schools. It is perhaps the whole value proposition that comes from rich adult-to-student ratios. And it is entirely counter to what so many parents believe matters most; e.g., SAT and IB scores, GPA's and elite university admission.