"Prep schools have been long criticized for their exclusivity. They educate only the nation's elite. They are too expensive and white. They are bona fide country clubs."
During my lunch break on Thursday afternoon, I couldn't help but nab this from Barnes and Noble in the Prudential Center. As a 2004 graduate from a certain New England prep school, I was immediately interested (and connected) to the book. I think as a prep school student, I didn't ever fully realize what being one meant. I grew up in the world of private schools. I relentlessly broke dress code rules (no shoulders showing, no jeans, no skirts shorter than the length of your arm, etc). I didn't ever see the prestige in the ISL or ESL. I never equated the ongoings of the campus -- which, although tamer (I think), than what Jones and Miley found with Milton's class of 2005 (remember that pesky little sex scandal?) -- with the prestige, wealth, or social standing of the student body.More interestingly, as I finished reading the book (yes, I stayed in on a Friday night and Saturday to read my trashy social critique of the rise of sexuality in prep school students), I realize that the latest crop of prep school students are vastly different than even I, eight years ago. I look at siblings of friends, going to school with Juicy Couture accessories and Tahari pants and Theory blazers. They use Neiman Marcus credit cards and have only the finest. Unlike before, these students know their social standing. There isn't just a rise in sexuality within prep school students, but in elitism as well. Do we look at The Hills and Gossip Girl as the excuses for this? Books like Restless Virgins? Or has this always been the case, and my eyes are only open to it now so far set apart from the prep school haven I once saw as my second home?
-M
