An education that is truly priceless

For reasons other than good planning, I was cast off to a faraway school one autumn morning. The year was 1962; I was 13 years old.

The South China Union College (now the Hong Kong Adventist College) in Clear Water Bay was run by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, one of only a few boarding schools in Hong Kong. Not long after my dad was told the school offered part-time jobs for students who could not afford the steep fees, I found myself doing clerical work at the teacher's office.

Life was hard, so I thought at the time. Month-end statements showed a substantial debit figure at the beginning, this would gradually be replaced by a small credit balance a few years later. That sense of accomplishment built impetus and instilled confidence.

Unbeknown to me at a tender age, my boarding school experience comes as a real blessing; it brings warm, fuzzy memories, not to mention I count these rambunctious kids of the '60s among my best buddies to this day.

In 1996, it was our son's turn to do the unthinkable when he was dropped off at the Shawnigan Lake School on the Canadian west coast. Not knowing how he would take life away from home, my wife gingerly approached the subject at the Christmas dinner that same year. "Loving it," my son said. "Wish you had sent me there in my 8th grade."

This pretty much sums up the Leung clan's experience in two generations regarding boarding schools.

Boarding schools prepare us for life. Parents will continue to hear horror stories about drugs or any other undesirable activities lurking in the dorm corridors, but I remain a diehard and true champion for boarding schools, as I believe the positives far outweigh the negatives.

To have your children spend their precocious years in an environment that instils courage and altruistic values, while nurturing independence and comradeship, is priceless.

Philip S. K. Leung, Pok Fu Lam 2 May, 2015http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1783337/letters-editor-may-3-2015

Article mentioned: Many young people flourish in boarding schools - 21 April, 2015http://www.scmp.com/comment/letters/article/1772938/many-young-people-flourish-boarding-schools