Swiss Educator Visits MCS

We received a visit from Switzerland today! Nathaniel is the principal at Inter Community School Zürich, an independent, non-profit, English medium, international school running the IB continuum programs for 800 students. They have 50 nationalities and 70 languages spoken at their school!

About to launch a new strategic plan that is looking at inclusion and belonging and how to create more opportunities for that within his community, Nathaniel planned with today’s visit to explore how we do that here at Manhattan Country School (in addition to discussing sustainability, student agency, artificial intelligence, and other topics.)

An accreditor with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Nathaniel visits schools and meets with educators around the world. He called the practice inspiring.

“You’re getting a bit of a chance, a bit of a glimpse, to see some ideas and have it spark some new innovation back where you are,” he said.

Public schools in Switzerland are strong but use a very one-size-fits-all model for education, according to Nathaniel.

“The reality about education is we pretend that there is an exact science to the outcomes of learning, but it is much more nuanced, it's much more like an art,” he said. “What independent schools do is they provide alternative pathways of education for students to really shine … they provide this opportunity to create something that's quite niche, that's quite specific, has very specific goals and a mission that it's trying to actualize. But it also then supports kids and families that want to also be aligned to that kind of mission. And I think it does create a deeper sense of community, a deeper sense of connection. And that's certainly something I think the world could use right now.”