ABSTRACT
A child whose emotional life is in conflict and turmoil is not a satisfactory pupil. This is true for the author and she is moved to a weekly boarding school in Sydney where she feels more like a country girl than a sophisticated city girl. After a year, she is moved back to full boarding in secondary school. By this stage she had become resistant to both teachers and her parents and this is explored by applying Rudolf Dreikurs’ (1972) notions of mistaken goals (attention seeking and power struggles) and also linked to recent attachment theory indicating that rejected children become difficult, leading to further rejection. The chapter includes Christopher Milne’s move into secondary boarding school at Stowe. Discussion is given as to what may have led A. A. Milne to send him to Stowe when he went to Westminster. It is concluded that it may have been motivated by a growing recognition that Christopher was a very different child to what was expected. The conclusion is that while both sets of parents may have hoped that their decisions were beneficial they were not, leading into the next chapter.
