A review by Madhuri of Piers Cross’s documentary
Boarding on Insanity
Are Our Leaders Traumatised?
Circle of Change Productions Ltd – A Ben Cole film
Presented by Piers Cross – piers-cross.com
Produced by Simon Hinkly
Co-Producer Shira MacLeod
Featuring: Gabor Maté, Joy Schaverien, Suzanne Zeedyk, Nick Duffell, Alex Renton, Martin Lloyd-Elliott
boardingoninsanity.com – facebook.com
Boarding On Insanity will be back available to stream from 19 April 2025.
There was one point made in this film that went on echoing in me afterwards for days: if the people who become world leaders have been conditioned that vulnerability is dangerous and unacceptable – as happens to children in boarding schools – how can they have any compassion for the most vulnerable members of society?
This is so true, and I could really relate to how intense the pressure must be in those places to disavow all your realest, deepest feelings. Just going to a normal school in California I felt pressured that way, and I got to go home every afternoon and listen to an emoting mother! Children sent away from their homes feel abandoned, bereaved, and isolated, and yet this is seen as necessary for them to make the alliances they’ll need lifelong, and to ‘toughen them up’ for the harshness of life. I’ve read so many memoirs and novels wherein children are sent away like this – sometimes the mothers grieve, sometimes they swan off to town and go shopping; but whatever the case, the effect on the child is the same. He is now at the mercy of all kinds of nasty humans, old and young.
Add to that the cruel fact that some of those kids and adults have really unsavoury agendas… and upper-class schooling becomes much more curse than blessing.
In this passionately-wrought documentary by Piers Cross (a refugee from the posh south, so now a local man, and friend since many years) we are treated to beautiful visuals: daffodil-strewn hillsides, gorgeous colours on the walls of a villa where survivors of boarding schools meet for a weekend of sharing; speakers thus have a background of Mediterranean richness, giving a sense of healing to the bleak scenes they describe. Piers speaks from his cosy moor-top house, which I know well; and towards the end survivors take a trek to Everest Base Camp, treating us to wonderful uplifted scenery full of light. Artistically, my friend Chintan, who knows theatre, gives the film 5 stars.
A lot of what we see onscreen is interviews with notable psychologists and other experts: an American developmental psychologist; the wonderful Dr Gabor Mate – what a gravid and unique presence! – trauma therapists, and many more. The developmental psychologist said that to her knowledge not a single boarding school she knew of had staff trained in anything that might help the children psychologically and emotionally. It’s as if that whole system is stuck in medieval times (where the tradition did originate) and has not even remotely caught up with the 21st century.
Piers himself suffered awful loneliness and heartache as a new boarder, and his only friend and confidant threw himself in front of a train. Piers asked to talk with somebody as he was so upset; he was sent to the priest, who was not the least bit interested in the child’s pain, but said, “Oho, you know what you need? A massage!” You can imagine the rest…
This film is a heroic project and a heroic achievement, and many people worked on it; it debuted in London to a packed house. The more people who see it, the better – including world ‘leaders’. There was a list of which ones had gone to boarding school. Yes – that one, and that one… pretty much any you’ve ever heard of, it seems. That explains a lot.
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