Hello folks. I do hope you had a good Easter and enjoyed the scorching weather, I certainly did! OK, today I am going to make some comparisons between these two institutions (there we go, one similarity already!). Obviously there are differences, but some of the similarities are shocking!
1. Both, if kept in for too long may end up with the inmate (I shall use this for both cases as I felt like an inmate at both mine!) becoming institutionalised. I certainly was so when I first left boarding school. I remember waiting for bells to tell me what to do next, which leads me onto my next point:
2. Both have strict routines. At school there was a bell for every event, including getting up, going to bed and putting laundry out. The lot! I am not sure about prisons (never having been in one!), but I believe from my research that they employ a similar method! Strict routines are a double edged sword. They give structure, but take away the freedom to make choices.
3. Security. Obviously this varies from prison to prison, depending on the nature of those inhabiting it. I found that security varies from school to school too. My first boarding school had a roof alarm consisting of IR beams going across it, the existence of which I found about when I went onto said roof to retrieve my pillow (which oddly did not set it off, but my presence did!). I was gated. Not that it makes much difference when you are in the middle of a park and never go anywhere without a housemistress!
4. Almost everything you eat with is plastic. Plates, cups and some cutlery were all plastic at school. As it is in prison. I can understand it there as other materials could become weapons but in school? We were ballet students FFS!
5. You can't just leave. At school you had to ask permission and sign out, even then we were only allowed out once a week. Unless you are a high security prisoner you may actually be allowed out more than the average boarder. Brilliant!
6. Dorm furniture. Basic bunkbed, with bedside table and two draws and half a wardrobe. Does this sound familiar to that shown in the series Bad Girls? It should, it is pretty much identical. Oh, and don't forget you may only put things up on the tiny notice boards. We don't want the rooms looking homely now do we?!
That is all I wish to cover right now, but you get the idea. So, if anyone can come up with 3 or more differences between prison and boarding school I would love to hear them. This post may also enlighten anyone who may be interested in my fascination with institutional play within the scene. I guess a kinky youngster growing up in such an environment could not help but be affected by it all.
4 comments:
1)Prisoners eat better thanI did in boarding school. At the school I attended, we ate a small breakfast while the teachers ate a huge meal of eggs and bacon.
2) Prisoners are allowed to talk more often. In boarding school, we were kept in silence for long periods.
3) In school, there was much more corporal punishment for minor infractions.
Some time ago I had an acquaintance who had spent time both in boarding school and detained at Her Majesties pleasure. In a conversation that had started when we where talking about Stephen Fry's comparison between the two institutions he did point out his findings on the three main differences.
1/ Prison was not such a harsh financial burden on his parents as boarding school was.
2/ When he was very bad at boarding school, they made him leave earlier than expected. When he was very bad in prison, they made him stay longer than originally planed.
3/ (And he would have agreed with Joeyred here) The food was better in prison
Prefectdt
I had a very nice Easter, Leia, and I hope you did too.
As to Prison vs. Boarding School, well it's been said that in the Second World War - and this may owe more to movies than historical reality - British Officers coped very well with the German POW camps, because there wasn't that much difference between them and the typical British Boys Public School!
Btw Leia, at your ballet boarding school, was there much strip-searching? ;-)
I heard a story about a certain girl at boarding school running a business smuggling sweets into school, because the diet was so strict. You're not going to admit that here, are you? It might reduce your punishment.
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