”Parents who send their child away to boarding school at the Lower School level still have the image of bad parents in Germany – or 'raven parents' as they are called in German, though this expression doesn't exist in any other language. It's true that deciding in favour of boarding school for a child of that age needs very careful consideration, but the advantages of growing up in a community of people of one's own age clearly outweigh the disadvantages. It is a possible solution when a child has learning difficulties: because the child's education will be more individual, and this gives him or her the chance to improve. High fliers are also challenged and encouraged by special opportunities suitable to their capabilities, at an age when their thirst for knowledge is virtually unlimited. Parents see a form of education which is sustained by the great commitment and enthusiasm of the teachers and mentors. Character building is valued very highly at Salem and the staff devote their admirable powers of observation and close attention to chiselling away at this in all the varied aspects of boarding school life.
The work of the boarding school can succeed particularly well if a solid, trustworthy foundation has been laid in the parental home in the first decade of the child's life. And close cooperation with the parents is a prerequisite for the child's development in the world of the boarding school too. It is the children whose parents send them to boarding school early because they want to get on with their careers undisturbed who usually have problems along the way, since these children often really do feel abandoned and homeless. Parents remain the central figures, even in the life of boarding school children. This responsibility cannot be handed over to the boarding school, if education is to succeed.
From our own experience we can report that Salem’s Lower School – Hohenfels Castle – is a place of teaching and learning suitable for children, in which the teachers work in close cooperation with the parents. A varied and stimulating world is opened up to the children in a community which is not uniform but consists of a great many individual personalities, who nevertheless form a whole, just as Kurt Hahn wished. In the Middle School, Salem, and the Upper School, the College, the opportunities and activities are broadened and continued, that is, the boarders are prepared for the world at a distance from the world.
We ”raven parents” with our children have got to know the great opportunities which the Salem Res Publica offers in all its facets, even for the very young. In view of the current discussion in Germany about families and child care in the first years of life, the myth of ”bad parents” should finally be consigned to the past – especially as ravens are actually very solicitous parents!”
Patricia Conring, Chair of the parents association of Schule Schloss Salem
Doris Wernig, Head Girl of Hohenfels Castle Lower School
