By John Stiles Ph.D., Ruam Rudee International School

When one thinks of an "international" school, the vision may likely be of students from a variety of countries, spending the day together in classes taught by-in general-professional educators from somewhere else. This interesting scenario exists mainly because curricula used in international schools have traditionally been developed in Europe or North America. Japanese international schools are increasing in number as corporations from Japan open schools for their executives in the North America, Europe and Asia, essentially reversing the original blueprint in which American corporations demanded U.S.-based curricula for their children, joined quickly by British and other European nationals as well as Australians, Swiss and Canadians among others, who opened schools for their compatriots. Since the early years of "American schools," the international scene has become muddled. So much so, that the school names no longer give an accurate picture of the students or curricula within. Read more »

By by Chika Wilms, Bangkok Patana School in Thailand.

Welcome to another cyberspace musing by this mind-wanderer. I've been teaching in international schools for the past 18 years. Prior to teaching, I was a student in three different international schools. So, I've already spent nearly a quarter of a century in international schools. Well, that gives me something to muse about... Read more »

By Robb Sloan, Taipei American School in Taiwan.

When I received a suggested theme for this month's issue I thought, "What commercialism?" I have no ads in my classroom. I see no infomercials running on the flat screen televisions we seem to have everywhere in our building. Further
thought led me to admit that when I show a Youtube clip there might be ads on the webpage and I recall a few years ago our coaching shirts had a kiwi on the sleeve that represented a company that helped pay for our shirts. I don't know of any of the free email services that our students use that don't have ads on their pages. At a recent school event I noticed the tents that are set out had a company name on them. I assume the company donated the tents for our use. By golly we are contributing to commercialism in education to some degree. Read more »

Mick Purcell was Teacher of the Year at LBJ High School in 1999 - 2000, but his campaign to remove the vending machines was a terrible failure, and he's still bitter.

When I was very young, my father insisted that I learn the three Rs: Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic. It appalled me that he didn't know how to spell Writing or Arithmetic, but I suppose that was part of his grand plan: I was learning the three Rs.

Later, in high school, I moved beyond the basics, and like most teenagers with half a brain, I was attracted to idealism and socialism. I imagined a happy, peaceful, society in which everybody contributed according to his abilities and took according to his needs. Of course, as I learned more, my idealism was shattered. The world is a competitive place, and many people believe in Social Darwinism and other ugly ideas. It is more complicated than I once thought, but still I hold out belief that we can find some meaning in this life and live peaceably with others. Maybe that's why I became a teacher. Read more »