One of the advantages boarding schools have, in general, over traditional public and day schools is the ability to provide a residential environment that complements the work being done in classrooms during the school day. A structured boarding school like Oak Hill Academy has the added advantage of allowing students to bump up against their weaknesses and be coached through them. Your student may simply be ignoring or avoiding their weaknesses in their current environment—and that can look a lot like “laziness.”
Our human nature leads us to avoid what is uncomfortable. An immersive environment with structure and accountability, like that found at Oak Hill Academy, exposes uncomfortable weaknesses, but more importantly, provides constant coaching to address them. For our new students, what has been revealed is often poor study habits—frequently the reason applying families seek us out. At Oak Hill Academy, attending a class with fewer than 10 students (our average classroom size) means that a student cannot hide when a concept doesn’t “land” on them, or if they have not completed homework. Our small classes allow for relationships to be established between our teachers and students that are personal, prescriptive, and supportive—not just punitive. At Oak Hill, we see students who feel this relationship, and teachers who work to support students at their pain points. And we see these students begin to want to give more of themselves in the student/teacher transaction. A core philosophy at Oak Hill Academy is that when a student tastes success, they want more of it. These relationships are what enable us to push students beyond their comfort zones and into new expectations for themselves.