This article is an edited version of a speech delivered at the 2009 Mediterranean Association of International Schools (MAIS) Annual Conference in Florence, Italy. In the author's past speeches--in Seville and Rome--he had urged his listeners to use their distinctive power and influence as independent, international educators to advance…

Most nations now administer standardized tests--for adult job seekers and young students alike--but the Chinese remain the world's preeminent practitioners. The nation's national college entrance exam, known as the "Gaokao", lasts for nine hours across two days. The author has seen the intensity of China's work ethic firsthand as part-time…

Since its widespread emergence in the mid-1960s, the Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum has successfully established and maintained an identity as the gold standard of transcript currency for college preparatory schools. It is something that nearly all independent school parents and students believe they understand and clearly expect, and it is…

Presents photos featuring students from the Perkins School for the Blind (Massachusetts) reprinted from "School," a book by photographer Nicholas Nixon and psychiatrist Robert Coles. Coles says Nixon's focused, confined scenes paradoxically open viewers' minds to previously unimagined or unrecognized possibilities. Photos are accompanied by…

The author discusses the importance of the main elements of teaching: order, interest, spirit, and discipline; he offers some tips on incorporating these elements into the classroom. (KC)

The author suggests that schools should try to adopt a systematic approach to personnel and institutional evaluation, presents the findings of a questionnaire on evaluation and professional development, and describes some key factors which will determine the success of any evaluation system. (KC)

The author believes too much time is spent teaching students to compete for good grades and to prepare for entrance into a good college, and not enough time spent educating for good character, thoughtfulness, and cooperation. He suggests that individuation of learning fosters independence, cooperation, and mutual respect. (KC)

Doctors, nurses, and counselors from residential schools got together to share ideas on counseling and the school infirmary. From this meeting, the Independent School Health Society was formed, dedicated to achieving good health within a school by teamwork among those involved in health care and health education. (KC)

The author discusses the nature of a good trustee, and the difficult task of maintaining equity and excellence in the private school. (KC)

The author suggests that the librarian should be more than a dispenser of books and films, and should actively advocate humanist values and thus help young people with their problems. Included is a list of materials designed to help librarians keep up with issues, problems, and opinions among minority youth. (KC)

The author summarizes some of Piaget's beliefs, and states that the curriculum in today's schools must be changed in order to put into practice some of these beliefs, and to prepare students to reason together and work cooperatively to solve common world problems. (KC)

An educator discusses how little shared philosophical basis his school and its teachers had with the community, how teachers can help to develop the heart as well as the head of both students and their parents. (Author/RK)

Defines "open education" and "alternative education" in an attempt to clarify the educational philosophy associated with each term. As a result, alternative education will become more realistic to parents, thereby surviving the tide of educational change. (RK)

This is another brief account of the seventeen NAIS member schools founded before 1776; in this case, the focus is on the Friends Select School, founded in Philadelphia in 1689, and on the Hopkins Grammar School, founded in New Haven in 1660. (Editor/RK)

The educational process is presented as moving through a three-stage cycle: the romance stage, the stage of precision, and the stage of generalization. (MD)