Finishing School

A finishing school is a school for young women 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.

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.

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.

Through much of their history US 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.

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