Introduction
International schools in Rome, Italy have been in existence longer than many people might think. Their student populations have fluctuated enormously since their beginning, and the goal of this paper is to show why that is so. Economics and changes in Italian society are directly responsible for the schools' growth and choice of curriculum, and even for the hiring of some of the specialist teachers the schools have on their staffs. Rome is now home to 16 international schools, more than most European cities have, and hundreds of teachers work in them. It is important for Roman international school administrators and teachers to understand why schools have closed, why they have the clientele they have, and what they must do to change with the times. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on the subject of the schools' changing clientele and curriculum.
Ancient History
The wealthy and elite residents of Rome have seen to it that their children have enjoyed good education for thousands of years. In the period of the Roman Empire, children were tutored by pedagogues at home, with great emphasis on learning the languages important for success in that time: Latin, the language of national business, and Greek, the international language. When the student was ready, he was sent to Rhodes or Athens to polish his language and culture, (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981) and to make connections for the future. So it was in Imperial Rome.
In the Middle Ages, scholars of Italy were translating the Arabic academic works of the declining Muslim world (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1981) and those of Greece, which had been preserved by the Muslim "madrasah" schools, to be used in their own urban schools, under surveillance of the Roman Catholic Church, or in secular academies. This is when Europe became the important educational center.
In the Renaissance, when merchant ships were circling the globe in search of goods to import to Venice and Genoa, Roman youth attended urban schools run by the Roman Catholic Church. Bright students were encouraged to study for the clergy, and were joined by peers from the city-states of Europe. However, if a bright student wanted to study humanities or a science, Rome had little to offer.
What Rome could offer was its archaeology, its romantic streets, its climate, and cheap lodgings for 19th century poets, archaeologists and historians. The Enlightenment created an atmosphere in Italy, and Rome in particular, which traveller-writers like Goethe found irresistible. In their wake, foreigners from northern Europe came for total immersion in the arts, archaeology, romanticism, religion, atmosphere, and, one has to be honest, the glamour of being a foreigner.
The oldest foreign school in Rome is the Deutsche Schule Rom, a German curriculum school, which was founded in 1851. Recognized as a legal school by the Italian and German governments, and operating on tuition and German State grants, the Deutsch Schule follows the German national curriculum, and its qualified teachers come on five-year contracts, and then return to Germany. It prepares students both for the German national Abitur exams and the Italian Maturità, both required to get into the respective universities. German and Italian are its official languages, and the first required foreign language taught is English, beginning in Year 5. Its student body is almost exclusively German and Italian, and the school is not a member of the European Council of International Schools (ECIS) or the Mediterranean Association of International Schools (MAIS). For these reasons, it is not being considered in this paper as an international school. Nevertheless, it is the oldest foreign school in Rome, with 982 students, K-13, and the date of its founding mirrors what was happening in Europe at the time.
The only other foreign school of considerably long-standing is the Chateaubriand Lycée Rome, the French curriculum school, the largest school in Rome (1,300 students) which offers studies comparable to those of the German school, but in French. Chateaubriand's list of countries represented by the first students attending its classes in 1906 reflected the need to study the "lingua franca" which was a requirement for all educated and well-mannered gentry of the turn of the century: "trois Francais, trios Suisse, duex Romains, deux Americains, trios Russes, deux Brasiliene," but no Italians, the reason given that it was not a legally recognized school by the Italian ministry of education. (http://www.france-italia.it/chateaubriand/histo.html) An interesting fact is that their teacher was the head of the Institute International d'Agriculture, the seed of what is now the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, a major feeder to Rome's present international schools. Today there are three French schools in Rome, but neither they nor the German school are part of the Rome International School Association (RISA), and although foreign, they do not follow an international curriculum.
Modern History
Today, most Roman students speak Italian at home. But perhaps their parents are among the thousands of immigrants from the Philippines, now working as housekeepers or baby-sitters in Italian homes, and speak Tagalog. Their parents could be owners of one of the hundreds of Chinese restaurants in the city, and speak Chinese at home. If their parents work in diplomatic circles, they might speak Spanish, French, Arabic, Urdu, or a myriad of other languages, but the one thing they all have in common is that they are among the 1 billion people in the world who study English, the international language of the First World countries ("World Empire," 2001). Once it was a good thing to know, but now it is imperative for success in the world workplace.
After the end of World War Two, in 1947, the parochial Marymount International School, aided and encouraged by the Italian government (Brophy & Martin, 1997), was founded for the Allies' offspring, children of employees of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN (FAO), and of embassies (Brophy et al, 1997). It was the only English curriculum school, but since some of its student families were not Roman Catholic, a faction broke off a year later and founded the American Overseas School of Rome. Due to the fact that American schools had curricula which varied from the national British curricula, St George's British International school was founded in 1956. Italian citizens did not send their children to these schools, in part because they were expensive, but also because they would not have been welcome in that English language environment. This was not only a colonialist attitude which prevailed for many years among both parents and administration, but both factions felt Italian students would bring down the level of English.
The school scene remained stationary until the economic boom of the '50s and 60's, when a sudden growth spurt occurred, changing the student body profile in terms of social background and nationality. Having lagged behind other industrialized countries during and immediately after the war, Italy went from a country of mixed economy (agricultural and industrial), to a primarily industrial one almost overnight (Calvani & Giardina, 1997). Metallurgy, chemistry, mechanics, and oil companies grew, thanks in part to the funding they received from the government (Calvani et al, 1997). To help spur this growth, many companies looked overseas to larger companies, for specialists who could help improve the then already growing businesses. Work visas were easy to get for the imported specialists, even if they came from outside the European Union, so Americans and British were hired frequently, while branches of large corporations were anchored on Italian shores: Proctor and Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Squibb, CBS, and banks such as American Express, Marine Midland, and so on. This period became known as the "Miracolo Economico," or, "Economic Miracle," a time of industrial growth and low salaries.
In the administrations of the multinational companies were the parents of international school children, and tuition was one of the perks of an already well-paid job. Their Italian co-workers could not afford the luxury of sending their children to the international schools. Italian schooling was free, however, and English was increasingly taking the place of French in the public schools. Meanwhile, parents working in multinational corporations or in State jobs saw first-hand that anyone who spoke English had a better chance for a more successful career. The only frustrating thing was that English was poorly taught in the public school system, a fact lamented by many Italians to this day, according to Loretta Nanini, Director of Admissions of Ambrit Rome International School, and parents found themselves doing just what parents did in the Roman Empire: they hired a private tutor to get that language learned.
In 1974 the number of schools had grown, and together they formed the Rome International School Association (RISA), with the purpose of "keeping up to date with the trends of education in their home countries," (Allen & Ricci, 2001). Still in existence today, RISA sponsors , an annual teachers' conference with presenters from local schools and abroad, sporting events, and music and art festivals.
Unemployment was going up as difficulties arose from the oil crisis of the 1970's, workers were assembling under three big Italian unions, haggling over national labor contract changes, and social unrest, aggravated by organized crime (the left-wing Red Brigades and the right-wing Mafia, both with a taste for terrorism) and earthquakes, (?) became household words, so the entire country was in a sort of muted chaos. While trains were being sabotaged and pedestrians(?) were being shot in the knees, it became more difficult to procure a work visa.. After all, something had to be done to protect Italian workers' rights when foreigners were being brought in to do jobs Italians could be trained to do. Two aspects of the national workers' contract had a direct effect on the foreigners working in Italy, and, consequentially, on the international schools: 1) the life-time contract, and 2) idoneità, which means, roughly, "qualification." That is to say, if an Italian is qualified to do the work, a foreigner cannot be hired. Lifetime contracts were, and still are, a worker's privilege after the renewal of a three month contract, for businesses above a minimum size. Big businesses did not offer the English school perk to Italian employees, but they did offer free English lessons, since the language had become too important to ignore. Italian tax laws became more stringent, visas were hard to get, and Italian employees managed with their newly acquired language skills. American businessmen began to leave, and with them, the families that had filled the international schools.
Schools had popped up all over the place, and not only were they full, they had begun expanding, building more classrooms. American Overseas had 650 students, K-12. Marymount, St. Stephen's and the now defunct Notre Dame, which were both day and boarding schools, had students from the Middle East and Asia, were proof that Rome had become a hub for the business world. But with the Economic Crisis and the desertion of international business families, classrooms dwindled. Some schools shut their doors forever, and only a few big schools remained, as visible in the following table.
American Overseas' (AOSR) student population was down to 260 by 1994, according to Roy Zimmerman, an AOSR teacher of thirty years. Adding to their troubles, they had been mismanaged and were struggling to find a solution to a 2 million dollar debt. Teachers decided to go on half pay, which lasted for two years, and the board of trustees fired the entire administration. But one school's misfortune is another school's luck, in the form of a boarding school scheme. Things had gotten so desolate on the school scene that the only remaining boarding school was St. Stephen's, and their beds were full. Military employees of the NATO bases in Mediterranean, who had no local high schools on the island bases, wanted to board their children in Rome at American Overseas instead of sending them back to the U.S. to high school. This turned out to be the solution that was responsible for keeping the school open. AOSR began a boarding program, and the U.S. State Department paid tax dollars that amounted to $15,000 per student plus the $12,000 tuition, which played a big role in getting things back in order, along with the Euro communism stance on being in favour of keeping NATO's military bases in Italy (Calvani et al, 1997). Ronald Grosso, of the U.S. military, formerly based in Rome, Italy, told the writer that this happened ironically when military was being cut back all over the world. The Cold War was over and peace was being enjoyed, so military appropriations were diverted to other departments. Military personnel were re-stationed or asked to take early retirement. Department of Defence schools (DoDDS) all over Europe were losing students, except in Italy, where cut-backs did not happen. The reason for this is that the Italian peninsula is simply too strategic a place for the U.S. to leave. In fact, Mr. Grosso says that the DoDDS are now growing; another demonstration that what happens in one place in the world, Afghanistan, in this case, can influence schools somewhere else.
Other schools, however, not strictly American because their curricula were also partly British or non-accredited (the beginning of the idea of "international schools"), couldn't expect a grant from the U.S. State Department or take the risk of investing in boarding program. What to do?
Some administrators thought allowing non-English speaking Italians to apply to the schools would be a solution, and others felt the non-native English speakers would bring down the quality of school English. Italians were assiduously knocking on the doors of all international schools in Rome in the 1980's. Headmistress Joan Bafaloukas Bulgarini stated in an interview that Italians were finally beginning to trickle in to the schools, mainly because the families were full-fee payers. That change in student type meant that the need to improve their English required more ESL (English as a second language) specialists. Many of the parents didn't speak any English at all, but they knew that was the key to the education they wanted for their only child.
Impact on School Curriculum
There was a direct impact on the curricula of the various schools in Rome during the 1970's, precisely because of the growing diversity of the student body, and because the United States had no national curriculum. The schools were considered good by parents and teachers, alike, and students who graduated were accepted to top universities in America. However, many students had no intentions of going to the United States' universities: they were exorbitantly expensive, and besides, the students had no connection with the country, except for the language they had been schooled in. FAO employee, Robert Weisell says that the FAO families were exceptions, in that many were non-American, but since the UN paid U.S. university fees, non-American employees opted to send their children to U.S. universities anyway. (Weisell notes that this has caused a great deal of resentment among FAO budget officials, as they attempt to cut costs, nowadays. But it is difficult to cut Asian or African employees' tuition perks if the American employees keep theirs.) This was just the beginning of the tidal wave of educational globalization, long before anyone considered sending students to university interviews with portfolios and personal statements. A meaningful assessment of the international high school student, who might have spent the past four years in three different countries, was very difficult.
The problem pointed up the need for an internationally recognized diploma, and the newly created International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) was created. St. Stephen's School of Rome, in 1975, was the first international school in Italy to include the rigorous IB course of study in its curriculum (http://wwwststephens.it/history.htm ). This reflected the dynamics of the student body, which was a veritable mix of every First and Second World country of the time. Non-United States students followed the IB, took the exams, which were, and still are, graded by an IB board of scholars in Geneva, and presented their highly regarded diplomas to universities back in their home countries. Gradually, as the IB gained respect and more people were familiar with it, even American students began graduating with the IB diploma. Because the other high schools were more (but not much more) homogeneous, they were more reluctant to include the IB, opting for the Advanced Placement (AP) certificates, which were more attractive to Americans. The AP's were designed to help students test out of first-year courses, with the added advantage of saving their parents a good deal of money on their expensive university tuition. Today, 4 international high schools in Rome offer the IB, joining 1,274 other schools in 110 countries around the world (http://www.ibo.org).
It is good to note that one of the requirements of the IB, the Community Service project, has been a driving force behind students' increased awareness of needs of local people less fortunate than they, and of people in Third World countries. Students are encouraged to "learn through community service" (Carroll & Hobson, 2000) and are involved in projects in host countries and abroad. St. Stephen's students organize benefit dinners to raise funds for building schools in Africa and Honduras, have a student help group for Down's Syndrome children, and other projects. This concept has trickled down from the high school to the lower school level, where Community Service is not a requirement, but has become a tradition among the students of some Roman schools, to help local and foreign schools or organizations in improving. Ambrit, for instance, helps support an orphanage in India and a hostel for parents and siblings of patients in the Rome paediatric hospital, Bambin Jesu. Ambrit's Primary Head, Pascal Salomon, encourages this because she feels every school should have a charity, and this one is especially appropriate because it involves children helping children.
The Italians
Times were hard in the 1980's, and administrators were faced with a dilemma. Italians were knocking on the doors of all international schools in Rome. Many of the parents didn't even speak English, but saw that innovations had been made in the field of education. It appeared to them that Italian schools, stuck in the old mold of Mussolini's school "reform" of 1929, were lacking materials and stagnant in the development of teaching methods. In fact, as public school Italian teachers lament, public schools which stray, albeit positively, from the 1929 curriculum, are legally labelled "sperimentale," or, experimental; wealthy parents saw English curriculum schools as an alternative. Accepting Italian students was tempting to admissions officials, because Italians offered to pay full fees and were not going to move away to another country, so the school could count on the income for some years. But the more Italian students a school accepted, the lower the English language level. In spite of this problem, more and more Italians were taken in, and, as discussed in the following chapter on curriculum, while the schools began to grow again, their curriculum and staff adjusted to the Italian student body, which had grown from 5% in the 1950's to 20% in the early 1990's, and finally 50% as reported by St. George's British School in their school prospectus, today (http://www.stgeorge.school.it).
Parents of young applicants to international schools are well educated, having taken advantage of the cheap, socialized educational system. They take a job while living at home with their parents, commonly even until they are thirty, because it would be impossible to live on one salary alone. But once they marry, with two salaries, it is possible to buy a house and have a baby. Only one, however. Looking at the walls of a first grade classroom, where children have proudly displayed "all about me" at the beginning of the year, it becomes apparent that most have no brothers or sisters. Italy is one of the seventeen negative population growth countries in the world, all of them located in Europe (http://www.orst.edu/instruction/bi301/zpgnatio.htm). Indeed, Italy is not only shrinking in population, but also has cheap divorce, the referendum for legalizing divorce was held on Mother's Day in 1974 (Galvani et al, 1997) and legalized abortion, proof, at the time, of a strong, left-wing, secular majority, some of whom can now afford a costly private school.
The cross-section of the Italian student body of 2002 is hardly a cross-section of Italian society. In fact, most school parents still appear to have more money than the average working Italian adult. Eight years ago, when Ambrit School made a risky move to a new site and needed a loan to refurbish its new building, it made an offer, instead, to block school fees for three years for families paying three years in advance. Headmaster Bernard Mullane, reported that of the 130 families, ten came forward within three days, and paid full tuition with personal checks, for their children for the next three years. Most were Italian, and some had three children in the school. And despite Italian salaries having hardly grown in the past thirty years, taking into consideration inflation, families of this generation have more material wealth than the preceding one.
This has saved many schools from the stranglehold of creditors, but simultaneously caused much rumble at school staff meetings. Once admissions officials allowed the Italians in, it seemed at first that no one was prepared for the problems that were cropping up more and more frequently: students had little or no English; some students had great difficulty adjusting to a new language, new friends, and a new teaching style; learning disabilities, dyslexia in particular, were magnified and language-appropriate screening-tests had to be found for students who needed them. One could say it opened a whole new can of worms, but at least things were looking better financially for the schools that had managed to make it as far as the 1990's.
Impact of Increase of Italian Students on Curriculum
Headmistress Joan Bafaloukas Bulgarini of the former International Academy in Rome stated in an interview that Italians were rather grudgingly allowed into the schools, mainly because the families were full-fee payers and the schools needed the money. The best situation for allowing Italian students into the school was accepting them into nursery or kindergarten classes, where they could get their English up to a sufficiently adequate level by the time they entered first grade. Admissions officials immediately saw that quotas had to be kept to leave spaces for potential English mother tongue applicants. This involved a bit of roulette, because no one was ever quite sure how many mother tongue applicants there would be, and until recently, a school always accepted a new mother-tongue student, even if it meant crowding too many students in a class. It was soon clear that Early Childhood, i.e., ages three to seven, would become the new feeders to the rest of the waning schools. Eithne Gallagher, member of the ECIS ESL committee and teacher of ESL at Marymount in Rome declares that Early Childhood departments must recognize the new influx of host country children: "The presence of very small children from host country language backgrounds in English-language international schools is a phenomenon that international schools have a moral and professional obligation to deal with in a way that will give the greatest benefit to the child while avoiding the ill effects that can come from not having a fully-developed mother tongue." (Gallagher, 2001). This means that the staff must be trained and the curriculum must be adjusted to deal with the problem.
Teachers and administration feared that both American and Italian parents would complain because peer English in the classroom would suffer. Indeed, there was some complaining, not so much from English speakers, now fewer than fifty percent of the student body, but from Italian parents who expected English to be learned more quickly than the results they saw, and insisted that their children keep their Italian at a high level, so they could pass the oral and written national Italian curriculum exams of fifth and eighth grades, and the difficult high school college prep exam, the "Maturità."
English as a second language, and how to teach it, was in top demand on the international school market, and very much so in Rome, where small English language schools have appeared with the frequency and fragility of desert flowers over the past 30 years. At international school conferences all over Europe, workshops are offered to teachers to teach ESL and mainstream non-native tongue speakers into the classroom's core subjects. In-service days are integrated into Roman school calendars several days a year, costing the school administration up to a thousand dollars a day for presenter, as stated by Bernard Mullane, director of Ambrit Rome International School, where ESL and Italian have been given special attention.
Preparation for Italian State exams required scheduled lessons on a regular basis, so in the beginning, around the mid-1970's, schools offered tutoring after school hours to the students who planned to take the exams. Children went to school double time, since Italian classes lasted two hours after school, covering Italian language, history, and mathematics. It was gruelling, especially for children of nine and ten, and under some pressure, Roman international schools gradually gave in, hired Italian teachers as staff, and putting Italian partly into the weekly school schedule, and partly after school. Around 1990 non-Italian parents expressed their concern about differences in English and Italian studies (math and history in particular), and began voicing a desire for their non-Italian children to have the same thing. This was discussed at length, and finally, with the encouragement of the administration and a new "Curriculum Committee," Castelli International School became the first international school to incorporate the entire Italian program into the school week in 1992. Italian and English studies were integrated at the middle school level by creating a new curriculum, which roughly followed the Italian national curriculum. For the first time, students studying history in English were also studying the same period in Italian, literature in both languages was congruent to the history period they were studying, and specials such as music, art, computer, and field, trips were also cross-curricular. The schools have been joined by Marymount, which has designed a similar type of curriculum. The administration of Ambrit has carried this multi-culturalism one step further, in that new students who do not speak Italian are also gradually mainstreamed into the Italian classes starting in first grade, so that if they desire, they, too, can take the Italian exams with their classmates. The schools have included in their philosophy a belief that bilingualism is important both from a practical point of view, and in learning to respect other cultures, no matter where the student comes from.
Twenty years ago both administration and staff would not have believed that such changes could have taken place, because they knew then how much effort, investment in time, re-training of staff and the open-mindedness to change would be demanded of them in order to carry it out.
The IB program now prepares Italian high school students all over the world for their Maturità exams, in some of the 1,278 IB schools in 110 countries around the world (http://www.ibo.org). This can be interpreted to mean that Roman schools are not the only ones that have experienced ups and downs in the dynamics of international school growth and curriculum.
Lack of Funds, Safe Reserves
As we have seen, the withdrawal of multinational business employees had a direct impact on the student population of the international schools in Rome. However, a decision in business is not the only event that can cause a school to wax or wane, which is what schools in Rome seem to have done since their founding, fifty-six years ago. Changes in the UN organization contracts, UN decentralization, a rise or fall in personal investments, terrorism, war, and the Oil Crisis of 1973 are other examples.
The United Nations use Rome as the headquarters for their branch called the Food and Agricultural Administration (FAO). Mussolini's imposing Foreign Ministry building has been recycled to house the headquarters of the FAO. Since its arrival in Rome, in 1952, employees have opted to send their children to international schools (http://www.fao.org/UNFAO/e/whist-e.htm). In fact, Ambrit's student body was, at one time, forty per cent FAO. Unfortunately, with the recent decentralization, fewer families are called to Rome, and are, instead, sent to other branches of the FAO in other countries. Robert Weisell has been on the FAO staff for the past twenty-nine years, and says that many families, who would have formerly been sent to Rome, are now being stationed in Zimbabwe, where children attend the Harare International School. Contracts are now different because these days money is tighter, according to Weisell: long-term contracts of a year or more automatically include the perk of 75% tuition paid for kindergarten through university, with a ceiling of $16,000 per year per child. Nowadays, three-month contracts are preferred and renewed if desired, which is often, Weisell says, but schooling is not in the package. FAO children are missed not only by Ambrit, but by other schools, partly because they paid full fees, and partly because they were schooled in English no matter where they lived.
It is the belief of school admissions officials of Ambrit, American Overseas, Marymount and St. Stephen's, that the U.S. stock market is where many American international school families have their nest eggs. Those in charge of admissions have observed that over the past four years there has been a rise in families from the United States, who come to Rome for a year or more, not to work, but to travel and enjoy the culture. These people appear to be independently wealthy, and are drawn to Europe by the appeal of total immersion in the language, a break from routine, and by Rome's low crime rate, the latter being a point made by many parents with whom this writer has spoken. They usually enrol their children in English language international schools. Sister. Anne Marie Hill of Marymount says that families from the United States enrol in the sister school, Istituto Marymount, a private Italian bilingual school. Their reason for choosing the school was that they wanted their children to be in a bilingual (Italian-English) school, and the Istituto Marymount was the best choice. Sr. Anne Marie, headmistress of both schools, also emphasized that, "Money was no object," in their decision. Don Levine, Director of Admissions of American Overseas, puts it smugly: "They have come for a cappuccino coffee break in life."
Surely there has never been a period in history when the wealthy have not been able to choose the best education for their children, but it appears that a desk at an international school is within reach of more people than ever before. One need not be a foreign bank president to be able to send a child to a Roman English school, several of which are considered to be models of the bilingual curriculum, according to the esteemed designer of bilingual curricula worldwide, Dr. Virginia Rojas (V.Rojas, personal communication, March 20, 2001). All it takes in Rome is one of the Italian parents' incomes to be able to do it. For those who have a higher income or subsidised education, it is just easier to do. Unfortunately, cash funds for tuition paid by individual families or companies or companies from Second and Third World countries are not as secure as tuition perks with a contract offered by a large organization. The money can disappear in a second, if fate will have it. Nothing is sadder than seeing, as this writer has, a child forced to leave schooldue to something completely out of the family's control. When Kenya was going through political unrest in 1998, a very wealthy African family fled, rented a villa on the Appian Way, and enrolled their five children in American Overseas, which amazed even the headmaster, Dr. Larry Dougherty, who commented on this extravagance. One month later, they were gone with no forwarding address. Their money had been frozen by the political party in power.
The Oil Crisis of 1973-74 is another example of unexpected negative impact. In Saudi Arabia and several other countries in the Middle East foreign children were allowed to attend local schools from kindergarten through eighth grade. High school aged children were not allowed to attend school locally, so had to leave the country (this "rule" is now only enforced in Saudi Arabia). Parents working for oil companies in the Middle East boarded their children in Rome, the closest city with international boarding schools. Marymount, St. Stephen's, The Forum School and Notre Dame lost the majority of their boarding students when the Oil Crisis hit in 1973, because oil company employees were sent back to America. Notre Dame and the Forum School closed, and Marymount became co-ed and stopped boarding, absorbing former Notre Dame students.
In the late 1980's when Somalia was having a political and drought crisis, employees for Somali Airlines saw their jobs disappear overnight. One father whisked his family to Egypt, hoping to find a job there.
When the World Trade Center was attacked, all international schools closed to examine the need for increased security (Israeli embassy children are enrolled in American Overseas or St. George's), several families left Ambrit and American Overseas for Italian schools, saying they had lost a great deal of money in the stock market because of the attack. Several students had their Manhattan homes damaged in the incident, and many students expressed fear, especially those who routinely travel alone by air from Rome to meet other family member on holiday in Venezuela, Australia, Britain and the U.S. One might wonder why children are jetting around the world by themselves. They are on their way to see a divorced mother or father, just another sign of the times. Admissions officials of both schools also noted that several families cancelled their reservations for the 2002-2003 school year immediately after the World Trade Center incident, the reason given being fear of travelling and living in a foreign country during a time when more terrorist attacks were a strong potential.
The International School Family of Today
An interview with Phil Allen, headmaster of St. Stephen's International School high school and of the now defunct Forum School high school of Rome produced one more observation parallel to those made by the directors of other schools, and that is that there are not only more Italian students, but also fewer American students enrolled in Roman international schools today. Fewer Americans are being sent to Italy to work, and many who do come, do so at their own expense. In contrast to this upper and upper-middle class type, Mr. Allen says there is also the occasional starving artist who has a child or children who need English education. Always on the lookout for native English speakers, schools often willingly give scholarships to such students. Bernard Mullane says that his school, Ambrit Rome International School, is seeing more European businesses stationing their employees in Rome, along with the ever-present rise in Italian families. The former know that English language education is important for the duration of their children's schooling because of the travelling nature of their jobs, and both see it as one of the keys to the future success of their children in the world work place.
Mr. Mullane also says a very new type of parent has appeared on the scene, beginning about ten years ago. Italian parents of nobility, themselves home-schooled by private tutors, are now sending their children to Ambrit; in one family's case, they are the first children in 700 years to be schooled outside of the home. After nursery through fifth grade, the students are sent to Italian schools, to prepare them for Italian university. However, Mr. Mullane has noted that even that pattern might be changing, since younger noble parents are expressing wishes to send their children to British universities, instead. If that is their desire, international schools that offer the IB are very appealing. Parents also see the schools as a positive influence on their children, because they are "characterized by a growing awareness of the need to broaden educational goals to include a knowledge of cultural and social contexts other than the ones into which we were born." (Peel, 1998)
Some interesting individuals turn up as students at the schools in Rome. Some have famous parents who are artists, photographers, clothing designers, jewellers, and bankers. Some have peculiar jobs, such as one student of the International Academy in the 1990's, whose father had worked as a mercenary in Uganda. Some have exotic jobs, and take their children with them to work: in one case, work lasted two months and consisted of filming a movie in New Zealand. One school had trouble hiding the fact that a Mafioso was sending a helicopter to pick his boy up from school on Fridays. Another school official had to chuckle when one of his students was asked to speak about the last empress of Austria at his fifth grade Italian state exams, and the child promptly said, "Oh, Auntie Sisi!" and told what he knew about his great, great aunt.
Students who attend international schools are perhaps more aware of things going on in the world today than their peers who go to school in their home country. This is due in part to living in a host country and being exposed to a different culture, and in part because their own classmates' presence is cause for a learning experience. A case in point is a high school boarding student at American Overseas named Dunja, who had been sent from Croatia during the war. Her parents wanted her to go to school in peace and safety. Students were interested in what was going on in her country and asked more about it. Another student came from Mozambique, and although he was 14 years old, he had never been inside a classroom. His only language was Swahili, and friendly classmates were eager to know more about his life. Students want to know more when they hear true stories like these, and learn quickly, just as the storyteller teaches, that the world is more than what they see immediately around them.
Conclusion
Rome has been the home of international and foreign schools at least since the middle of the 19th Century, and over the years, the types of schools founded there are a reflection of what was and is considered important in the education of children of parents who, until recently, were not usually Italian. Beginning with the foundation of the German School in the Age of Enlightenment, to the present day, schools have come, grown, and some have closed, depending primarily on the social and economic events happening in the Western World, and on the direction schools have taken. Over the past 25 years, as the Italian student population has risen, so have the schools made changes in their curricula.
The schools that have managed to survive the longest have been the most flexible, changing their criteria for admittance, changing their curriculum, and changing their priorities. More in-service days for staff development, more communication between schools to share problems and solutions, and a more open-minded attitude towards accepting students from the host country, Italy, have been the reasons for their success.
The evidence of the schools' cooperation with each other through RISA, the willingness to tolerate diversity, and to change with the needs of international school parents and students show that these schools compare to the growth of those parts of the world that enjoy democracy, and also exhibit tolerance, communication and the ability to change.
School officials who were interviewed for this paper were charismatic, dedicated, hard working individuals, strongly committed to their schools, to education, and to their students, and were eager to discuss the history of the international school scene in Rome. They, and the staff they hire, are looking ahead at how the world might change, so they can direct their schools to be ready for the future in technology, language, and academics, and prepare their present students for university and the global workplace.
Appendix
Rome English Language Curriculum International Schools
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