A finishing school is a school for young people that focuses on teaching social graces and upper-class cultural rites as a preparation for entry into society. The name reflects that it follows on from ordinary school and is intended to complete the education, with classes primarily on deportment and etiquette, with academic subjects secondary. It may consist of an intensive course, or a one-year programme. In the United States it is sometimes called a charm school.
Graeme Donald claims that the educational ladies' salons of the late 1800s led to the formal, finishing institutions evidenced in Switzerland around that time. At their peak, thousands of wealthy young women were sent to the dozens of finishing schools available. A primary goal was to teach students to acquire husbands.
The 1960s marked the decline of the finishing school. This can be attributed to the shifting conceptions of women's role in society, as well as succession issues within the typically family-run schools and sometimes commercial pressures driven by the high value of the properties the schools occupied. The 1990s saw a revival of the finishing school, although the business model has been radically altered.
Video Finishing school
By country
Switzerland
Switzerland was known for its private finishing schools. Most resided in the French-speaking cantons near Lake Geneva. The country was favoured because of its reputation as a healthful environment, its multilinguality and cosmopolitan aura and the region's political stability.
Notable examples
The finishing schools that made Switzerland renowned for such institutions were Brilliantmont, founded in 1882, now an international secondary school, and Château Mont-Choisi, founded in 1885, which closed in 1995 or 1996. Both were in Lausanne.
- The Maharani of Jaipur studied at Brillantmont. In her memoir, she claimed the time to be a happy one, in which she wrote letters to her later husband and pursued skiing and other sports. Actress Gene Tierney also attended Brillantmont, speaking only French and holidaying with fellow students in Norway and England.
- Château Mont-Choisi was attended by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, as well as Princess Elena of Romania, Monique Lhuillier, actress Kitty Carlisle, Saudi scholar Mai Yamani and New York socialite Fabiola Beracasa-Beckman. It was one of the first Swiss finishing schools in the 19th century and in its early years a pioneer in secondary education. It was owned by an Italian family for 5 years prior to its close due to financial reasons after over 100 years of educating women.
- Institut Alpin Videmanette in Rougemont was attended by Diana, Princess of Wales, Tiggy Legge-Bourke and Tamara Mellon. Diana was sent to Alpin Videmanette by her father after failing all her O-Levels. She had met the Prince of Wales that year.
- Mon Fertile, in Tolochenaz, educated Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall and Ingrid Detter de Lupis Frankopan.
- Queen Anne-Marie of Greece attended Institut Le Mesnil after completing her High School education at the nearby Le Chatelard School also in Montreux. Le Chatelard today offers education in the American model of Junior High and High School up to the age of 17. They today include Savoir Vivre and Cordon Bleu courses along the lines of the traditional Finishing Schools but these are in supplement not in replacement of academic subjects.
- Institut Château Beau-Cedre was in Clarens and closed in 2002. The school had flourished through the 1990s but struggled when adopting a new business model. Queen Elizabeth briefly entertained the thought of sending Princess Anne to Château Beau-Cedre, but elected not to.
- Vieux Chalet in Château-d'OEx was a finishing school run by the parents of the current owner.
- Le Manoir, in Lausanne, educated British spy Vera Atkins and a sister of the first King of the Albanians. It had a private beach and students were taken skiing in St Moritz.
- The last remaining traditional Swiss finishing school is Institut Villa Pierrefeu, in Glion, which was founded in 1954.
- The Institute Surval Mont Fleuri that became Surval Montreux in 2012 was founded in the mid 20th Century as a finishing school admitting pupils from the age of 16 - 24. It developed an academic program following either the UK or US school systems that could be taken as a stand alone option or precursor to the finishing program. In later years it accepted student aged 13-19 for high School and 16-24 for finishing until the early 2010's when the curriculum changed to focus on High School teaching for an international audience. A Cultural Enrichment course was added for student aged 16-19 years old in a modernised revival of the traditional finishing certificate concentrating on languages, literary studies and business skills.
Great Britain
- In London there were a number of schools in the 20th century including Signets, the Monkey Club, St James and Lucie Clayton. The latter two merged in 2005 to become St James and Lucie Clayton College and where joined by a third secretarial college Queens to become the current Quest Professional college in London's Victoria. Quest Professional offers a number of business administration related courses for students aged 16-25 years old and is coeducational.
- The Campana school in Surrey closed in the 1990's.
- Eggleston Hall was located in County Durham and taught young ladies aged 16-20 from the 1960s until the late 1980s.
- Paddock Wood founded by a second world war French resistance leader and charity worker. It ran from the 1940s until 1982 after the founder stumbled upon a large clientele of diplomat's children wanting to perfect their English. Despite high student numbers in the late 1970's the Iranian Revolution and political turmoil in central and south America in the late 1970's and early 1980's saw the numbers of pupils fall dramatically in just a couple of years prior to it's close.
- Winkfield Place in Ascot specialised in culinary expertise and moved to a new location in Surrey the 1990s before closing in 1998. It was founded by women's educator Constance Spry as a flower arranging and domestic science school and had an international reputation. It taught girls across 3 terms of an academic year with the possibility of studying Cordon Bleu in a fourth term as with Harrow House below.
- Harrow House/Rannies was located in Eastbourne and became a specialist culinary school.
About a decade after these schools had closed a diverse group of public relations and image consultancy firms started to appear in London offering largely 1 or 2 day finishing courses and social skills at commercial rate fees far higher that those charged by the colleges that closed mostly by the millennium (Lucie Clayton had been the exception). They appeal often to new international money and corporate clientele. Some partner with 5 star hotels to offer their courses but none are taught by a body teaching staff in a school or college environment like their predecessors. The model is more business and commercial than before.
The old former finishing schools where stand-alone organisations lasting for 15-50 years (often run by families) with a curriculum based around the particular philosophy of their proprietor much like the older Private School model in the UK. Contrary to popular belief today, many did offer a small number of O-level and A level subjects and allowed pupils to do retakes or study languages and commercially applicable skills as well as traditional subjects including self presentation, etiquette and deportment. However many young women where gently pressured to attend these rather than university up until the late 1970s particularly in elite Catholic schools.
United States
Through much of their history, United States finishing schools emphasized the social graces and de-emphasized scholarship: society encouraged a polished young lady to hide her intellectual prowess for fear of frightening away suitors. For instance, Miss Porter's School in 1843 advertised itself as Miss Porter's Finishing School for Young Ladies--even though its founder was a noted scholar offering a rigorous curriculum that educated the illustrious classicist Edith Hamilton.
Today, with a new cultural climate and a different attitude to the role of women, the situation has reversed: Miss Porter's School downplays its origins as a finishing school, and emphasizes the rigor of its academics. Likewise, Finch College on Manhattan's Upper East Side was "one of the most famed of U.S. girls' finishing schools", but its last President chose to describe it as a liberal arts college, offering academics as rigorous as Barnard or Bryn Mawr. It closed in 1976.
The term finishing school is occasionally used, or misused, in American parlance to refer to certain small women's colleges, primarily on the East Coast, that were once known for preparing their female students for marriage. Since the 1960s, many of these schools have closed as a result of financial difficulties stemming from changing societal norms, making it easier for women to pursue academic and professional paths not open to previous generations.
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References
External links
- Institut Villa Pierrefeu
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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