Short answers, pulled from the story.
The King's School in Canterbury is arguably the oldest boarding school in the world, tracing its foundation to a monastery school established around 597 AD. Winchester College, founded by Bishop William of Wykeham in 1382, and Oswestry School, founded by David Holbache in 1407, are the oldest boarding schools in continuous operation.
Boarding school syndrome was coined by psychotherapist Joy Schaverien in 2011 to describe lasting psychological problems observable in adults who were sent to boarding school at an early age. The pattern includes sudden loss of primary attachments, defensive emotional encapsulation, and difficulties with intimate relationships that persist into adult life.
There were around 100,000 boarding schools in rural areas of mainland China, with roughly 33 million children living in them. Some children in China are sent to boarding schools at the age of two, and the majority of schools are located in the less wealthy western regions of the country.
In the late 19th century, U.S. government-run boarding schools for Native American children imposed Victorian gender norms and separated boys and girls in nearly every activity. Boys were taught agriculture and livestock care while girls were taught domestic skills such as sewing, cooking, and cleaning. Many children resisted the imposed norms, and the system ran parallel to the Canadian Indian residential school system, which also forcibly assimilated indigenous children.
About one percent of British children attend boarding schools. At the turn of the 21st century, 0.5% of U.S. school children attended boarding schools, roughly half the British percentage. In 1998, there were 772 private-sector boarding schools in the United Kingdom with more than 100,000 children enrolled.
A boarding school house system divides students into residential groups, each overseen by a housemaster or housemistress who holds quasi-parental responsibility for between five and fifty students. Houses include dormitories or study-bedrooms, a dining room, a library, and common rooms, and often develop distinct characters through inter-house sport rivalry. In the U.K. and Commonwealth countries, domestic management of each house is handled by a housekeeper known as a matron.