How long can a typical high school student last without their cell phone, favorite fast food chain and coming home to a clean home and a made bed? Well, these boarding school students have no phones and have to care for themselves while away at school. Not to mention their school’s cost, just about the same as an in-state private university.
Midland Boarding School
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Midland Boarding School is located in Los Olivos, California and lies on 2,860 acres of land. It is a co-ed school that costs around $53,300 an academic year, but due to an extensive amount of funding more than half of the students receive a scholarship of around $32,000. That still leaves this high school costing roughly $21,000, more than some in-state tuitions at public universities.
The terms last six weeks, but this isn’t your ordinary boarding school. Throughout the six weeks, students and faculty do not have access to phones, live in log cabins and plant and harvest around half the food that they eat. With this not being a typical high schooler’s dream school, many of the graduates go on to attend Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and many more prestigious universities.
Live Your Education
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Midland was established in 1932 by founder Paul Squibb who felt if a student appreciates his material blessings, “he will live a more vivid and interesting life and will be a better citizen.” Since then the institution has stood by these morals and incorporated “Live Your Education,” among them. Each incoming freshman is required to bring three objects with them, an axe, a knife and a lighter. What they can’t bring, their cell phones which in today’s world seems nearly impossible for 15 and 16-year olds. Cell phones are confiscated at the start of their six-week terms and not given back until the term is completed.
The students also run the campus as there is no janitorial or maintenance staff. This means the students are planting and picking the food they eat, maintaining the landscape, cleaning windows and the list goes on. Students also have to live in spare wooden cabins on the campus during the terms. But whose ultimate decision is it to send these high schoolers completely out of their elements?
The Decision Makers
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Let’s be real a majority of these students aren’t running to their parents and asking to enroll them in this far from modern boarding school. The stereotypical students sent to a boarding school are misbehaved and hard to handle at home or in public schools, but these are not the students that attend this prestigious institution.
A video posted on the Midland’s website interviews parents who talk about why they sent their children off and the reasons are almost unanimous. Their children are bright, smart and have great futures ahead of them, so their parents wanted to reward and send them to Midland for an experience of a lifetime. To watch the full video click here.
The Students
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The initial arrival is a shock to most of the incoming freshman at Midland. Being in a new environment with new people to being completely shut out of the mobile world has sent some kids to try and veto the no cell phone policy. After their initial reactions, a majority of students ended up finding the phoneless life to be “liberating.”
16-year old, Jade Feldsher from Rancho Cucamonga had already been worried about how much devices and technology had taken over her life. “I thought that everybody was becoming a phone zombie, and I knew that I had become one too,” she said. “It sounds really cheesy, but I think I’m happy not to have it.”
