An International School on the Moon
International schools defy categorization. In fact, finding a definition of international school has proved the holy grail of international school educators and researchers. This is perhaps no surprise as there no agreed definition of international education either and title of ‘international school’ can be adopted by organizations without restriction. Having said that Cambridge and Thompson have (in my opinion) summed it up fairly nicely, and since they also regularly use much bigger words that me, so I will quote them here. According to them, international schools serve ‘the educational needs of globally mobile students’ and that ‘this culturally diverse constituency includes the children of diplomats and employees of multinational companies, parastatal bodies and non-governmental organizations’ (2004).
Big words aside for a moment, here is question for you though.
Could an international school exist on the moon?
This questions has been bandied about in international schools for some time and the crux of this question, I think, is whether or not an international school can be defined as an international entity without being reflected against a host country culture and a local society. I think it can, though I know others will disagree with me. I think a true international school could be picked and transplanted to any other viable location on the earth and, with the right tinkering, go on to provide its educational service to an international clientele. After all, if there is not an existing dominant influence on an international school the heart and soul of the school could be geographically moved.
And this really not an entirely hypothetical question. There are plenty of schools cropping up around the world in far flung and remote places. Consider oil workers in remote places. And I think in thse places, even if there aren’t locals around, one could still receive an international school education.
