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Just out of curiosity, does anyone know anything about the geographic distribution of private high schools? I know the New England boarding school stereotype, and I'm one of those Northeasterners who still asks people where they went to high school (as I said to a friend from out West who thought I was being odd: our schools are older than your states). But how many boarding and/or day schools are there in, say, the south, or the midwest? Are there more in places like Florida that have people from all over? Or fewer?
it is my understanding that after the schools in the South desegregated, many many private schools popped up to serve families that wanted out of the public school system. That was, of course, a long time ago.
When I lived in the south in a town that was about 50/50 Caucasian/African American, our town had a city school system and a county school system and the demographic voluntary segregation was quite obvious. There were also many private schools that had student bodies that were primarily one race or the other.
What I have seen elsewhere (outside of the South, where I lived as a parent, and the Northeast, where I attended both private and public schools) is that many private schools are Christian. In the large southwestern city near my home, there are also lower grades Montessori schools and upper grades non-religiously affiliated schools, and, of course, Catholic schools run by the Archdiocese.
Most of the private schools in this area (region, I'd say) are what we call "segregation schools". Most of these didn't last very long, and the ones that did survive it wasn't always because of quality instruction.
Which is not to say that some of them can be very good. I don't know of any boarding schools at all until you get to Swannee (at the University of the South) in Tennesee.
There are two very exclusive private schools here in Columbia, SC. I know from teachers who work there that there are great students, not-so-great, and gangs. They get a lot of graduates that go on to the best colleges, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that these children were more likely to have been raised by their parents and inherited smart genes if such things exist.
So no, we don't have anything in the tradition of the New England boarding schools.
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