Croft School’s “Informative” Website

Now that we have found our bearings and delved into what makes up an “elite” school, it is time we start looking specifically into our School, the Croft School. Doing so has been challenging, as our primary source of information is the school’s website, which obviously only features the remarkable attributes of the school and gives absolutely nothing that could be even construed as being negative (naturally, though they are trying to attract only the most elite students…). However, as critical researchers we are actively seeking unbiased reports. So far, the information I have learned about the school from their website can be summed up in the following:

1. The Headmaster’s Message: “We want to form young people who will be useful to the country and are trustworthy.”

This short and concise message actually conveys a lot in terms of the values of the school and its student body. Their #1 purpose is to make their students useful to Chile. This is interesting because Croft School is a British school that typically sends its graduates on to prestigious English institutions like Oxford and Cambridge, so one might think that the goal of these students is not to be stedfast Chilean citizens when they plan on leaving the country following their time at the school. Hmm very interesting…

2.  Their work in Social Service, which falls under their emphasis on Pastoral Care.

The information on social service is included in the website’s tab on Pastoral care, but solely to say that the heads of each “Pastoral Team” are delegated the responsibility of its organization. This is particularly interesting to me because my research group is focusing on how eliteness plays into community service. We are under the impression that elite and wealthy people at Croft School often believe that everything should be done for them and therefore are not invested in giving back to their communities. The lack of information on how students at Croft School volunteer their time may be proving our assumptions correct.

3. Admissions information is given in only Spanish.

The Croft School’s website is set primarily in English because of its affiliation as an English school and their adherence that all students be bilingual at the school. Interestingly though, the only tab written in solely Spanish is their admissions information. There is an option to toggle between Spanish and English on the site, however even when in the English version, Admissions information is not given in English. This may give a clue as to the primary language of most families who are submitting their children’s applications for admission. The school is sending a message to applicants that Spanish is valued, even required, to get in, however once admitted to the school (all the information given on the website is in English), English will be the primary language spoken. Maybe this is me looking for something that isn’t there, or maybe it’s truly a subliminal message the school is sending to its parents and students… Only time (and more research) will tell.

Overall, their website gives some background information but not nearly enough detail as what we will need to construct our case studies, so we have therefore been exploring other venues. I have found trouble in this area because of a language barrier (no hablo español) but luckily each group has their own resident Spanish speaker (excelente) so as we find more sources, we should be able to use them for our research.