Green Bay, WI
Green Bay, WI
I still remember the silence in the car after we dropped him off. It wasn’t the peaceful kind of silence you get on a Sunday morning with coffee. It was heavy. Thick with doubt. Had we made a mistake? Sending your eleven-year-old away feels like tearing off a piece of yourself, even if you know it’s for their own good. We had spent months researching options, scrolling through glossy brochures that promised "excellence" and "global citizenship." But when it came down to it, we chose a Swiss boarding school not because of the rankings, but because of a feeling. A sense that maybe, just maybe, this place could offer something we couldn’t: space to breathe.
People often ask me if he gets lonely. Honestly? Sometimes. But not in the way I feared. In our old life, he was surrounded by people yet constantly plugged into screens, isolated in his own digital bubble. Here, isolation is physically impossible. You share a room. You eat together. You hike together. The loneliness of the modern urban child is replaced by the friction of real human interaction. And that friction is where growth happens.
La Garenne isn’t a factory. It doesn’t churn out identical graduates. With class sizes averaging just 8–12 students, teachers actually know who struggles with math and who needs a push in literature. They know who misses home on Tuesdays. This individual attention is rare, even in expensive day schools back home. I’ve seen the change in his confidence. It’s not loud or boastful. It’s quiet. Steady. He knows he’s seen.
| Aspect | Traditional Day School | Boarding at La Garenne |
|---|---|---|
| Class Size | 20–30+ students | 8–12 students |
| After-School Time | Often unstructured or screen-heavy | Supervised sports, arts, hiking |
| Social Circle | Limited to local neighborhood | Peers from 30+ countries |
| Parental Role | Daily logistics and homework policing | Emotional support and quality time |
Academics are strong here—Swiss Matura, IB, American diploma—but that’s not what keeps me up at night wondering if we did the right thing. It’s the rest of it. The stuff that doesn’t fit on a transcript. Last month, he called to tell me about a mountain hike. Not a walk in the park, but a proper trek. He was tired, muddy, and exhilarated. He talked about helping a younger student carry their pack. That’s leadership. That’s empathy. You can’t teach that in a lecture hall.
The environment plays a huge role. Being in such an ecologically clean region of Switzerland changes your baseline stress levels. There’s no traffic noise. No smog. Just air that feels crisp enough to wake you up. It sounds cliché, but nature regulates emotions. When he’s stressed about exams, he doesn’t scroll TikTok. He goes for a ride. Or plays piano. The school encourages this balance, ensuring that emotional well-being isn’t an afterthought but a core part of the curriculum.
Is it perfect? No. There are hard days. Days when he sounds tired on the phone. Days when I worry he’s eating too much chocolate or staying up too late talking to friends. But then I visit. I see him navigating a disagreement with his roommate with a maturity that shocks me. I see him leading a group in a debate. I see a young man forming his own values, not just echoing ours.
Choosing a boarding school isn’t about abandoning your child. It’s about trusting them. It’s about recognizing that they need a village, not just a house. La Garenne has become that village. It’s small, intimate, and fiercely protective of its students’ individuality. We didn’t send him away to lose him. We sent him there to find himself. And honestly? I think he’s doing just fine.