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ISM believes that the Five Pillars of
Boarding are universal. |
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Residential Education: "The Five Pillars of Boarding"
By Chris Folland and Richard Dean Eaton
Rules. They are necessary. They are everywhere. Boarding is no exception. Rules
are part of life. It's 10.15 pm and music is blasting out of a boarding house;
it's 12.30pm and a student is shopping at a local market wearing clothes that
are inappropriate. Both students will be held accountable.
Why shouldn't music be played loudly after 10.15? Why shouldn't one be able to
wear the clothes they think define them as an individual? Of course, such issues
are not unique to boarding schools. In one form or another they are encountered
wherever societies have been formed. With many families relying on boarding
schools in Tanzania, we'd like to share our experience and what we have learned
at International School Moshi. We are a boarding school, but for the purpose of
explaining how we enforce and uphold rules, it might make more sense to refer to
our establishment as a 'residential education facility.' We overcome the
aforementioned problems by relating all rules and regulations to what we call
"The Five Pillars of Boarding." They are what we as a school believe to be the
essence of human decency.
The Five Pillars are: Respect, Communication, Environment, Community and
Responsibility. All of our rules and regulations ultimately refer back to these
ideas. These pillars apply to staff and students alike. We have regular House
and Boarding Council meetings as forums in which we as a staff and student body
can discuss how far we are actualising our pillars. We believe that our Five
Pillars are universal; they underlie all cultures, religions, and peoples. They
are the baseline of decency that sets us aside as human beings. It is a baseline
that we are determined to maintain. For us, "Boarding" at ISM is now more than
boarding. It's education for a lifetime.
Chris Folland is Residential Boarding Parent & Richard
Dean Eaton is Head of Boarding ISM.
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