A Concept Proposal: The Village Academy A School of the Future for Intercultural and International Learning and Peacebuilding       This page is Under Construction at any given time. It describes a model international and -cultural school of the near future, as well as some of the people and activities that continue to inspire both that model, and the vision of a human future that such schools help make possible.       Geotrees also continually researches the past and present visionary, leadership and peacebuilding schools of the Baltimore / Washington region, and posts their descriptions and links on its Visionary Schools page. Updates are posted in quick succession as they occur.       Questions? Comments? Please email guest AT geotrees. com. We look forward to hearing from you!

. I.   ONE MORNING AT THE ACADEMY   Back . THE DAY BEGINS   Back       The last moments before dawn linger over one of the world's great crossroads cities, and the early light of day finds its way through the trees surrounding the playing fields of the Village Academy.  One small group of students slides through its falun gong exercises; another, nearby, practices in the more martial arts.  Yet a third jogs gracefully past the trees and buildings ringing the field.       In the first floor of a nearby building, lights come on in the kitchen as a trio of students on semester abroad from the Middle East campus of the Academy organize a national breakfast for their fellow students, gathered from around the world.  And, since close to 100 other boarding and day students (and several parents) have signed up for the meal, they supervise several other students in preparing it.  Close at hand are their notes, slides and tapes for an informal, in-meal presentation on the agriculture and geography of their home region.       Upstairs, about a dozen students and staff enter the meditation hall for an interlude of contemplation led by a Russian Orthodox retreat master, in residence for the semester.       The Village Academy, a leadership international school, is stirring into life.       In the dining hall, a group of boarding students and breakfast visitors, youth and adult, are clearing and washing the breakfast dishes.  This task is rotated among different teams throughout each week.        Today there is a special excitement in the air:  The school is preparing to host a public weekend seminar, with workshops, on "Communications, Technology, and the Human Factor."  Beginning Friday evening, the weekend will focus on three main themes: The impact of communications technology on personal and public life; the impact of informed human intention on communications technology; and a practical workshop on Sunday afternoon: "Communications, Knowledge, and Understanding," going live on line with people in Jerusalem, Beirut, Hong Kong, London, and Los Angeles.  C-SPAN will record the plenary sessions for later broadcast, while streaming the entire proceedings live.       Most of the speakers have arrived and will be in residence at the school for the coming week.  They include diplomatic, educational, technical, religious, NGO, and government people.  Their counterparts at the link sites will facilitate participating high school groups at the sites.       Three of these resource people will talk with Academy classes and visiting focus groups today.  In the morning Peter Chesney Jr., special effects master for Stephen King, will talk with middle school students about image, reality, inducing desired responses, and guarding oneself against the manipulations in the environment.  Clips of his work will be shown, and later in the week he'll host a class for visiting film students from throughout the city.  In the afternoon Desmond Crisis, free-form communications wizard and activist from San Francisco's Otaku Patrol Group, will speak to the whole school on street level communications technology and community service.  And Joanne Shenandoah, Native American musician and storyteller, will host an evening's campfire session of traditional legends, tales and song out on the soccer field.       Joanne is taking a small group of eager listeners through the history and traditions of the tipi, as they help her get hers organized and up by the bocci court.  Peter is working with a group of student volunteers to set up the equipment for his presentation, while discussing recent advances in digital imagery.  Desmond, in the kitchen helping to prep vegetables for lunch, is engaged in an animated chat with several members of the history club.       Up on the second floor, members of a trade delegation from the Matsushita Corp. nod approvingly as a group of students rehearses the opening presentations for a debate on Japanese-US trade - in Japanese.  In a few weeks these students will travel to a Japanese animation convention in Virginia Beach, where they will facilitate a workshop on the human roots and consequences of the atomic bombings, using the autobiographical Japanese film "Barefoot Gen" as the lead discussion point.  Another class, dressed in classical garb and role-playing Greek and Roman leaders, is sharing a Socratic interview with history students from several of the city's high schools. With the help of a grant from the Greek government, in the summer they will travel to Athens to participate in an international competition.       The Village Academy, its faculty and students, are beginning another day of reaching out to global humankind. . WELCOME, AND INTRODUCTION   Back       Welcome to a concept proposal for a middle- and high school program of international and intercultural learning, and to the school organized to support such learning.  In addition to fulltime academic students, this school hosts evening and weekend programs for students from other schools, and the public at large.  Throughout this proposal we will call this school the Village Academy, or simply "The Academy."  Its programs are designed to help today's students become tomorrow's global citizens and leaders.       The Academy features intensive international and -cultural studies, innovative learning resources and techniques, a cooperative school culture, and values development in an environment rich in students and faculty from around the world.  Its six-year mission is to prepare our young people to boldly go forth into an era of unique complexity, with knowledge and skills fit for the enterprise of exerting influence for understanding, democracy, and peace.  We hope that many, if not most, of our graduates will assume positions of responsibility at important foci of international life.  We propose educating people to become an active, positive force for such transformation, personal and public, throughout their lives.       Who will our graduates be, as they become adults and move out into the life of the world?  What will they have gained at the Academy, to prepare them for the transformations to come?  Ten categories suggest themselves: Successful graduates will possess a core of broad liberal studies, as the basis for their specialized studies. They will be knowledgeable in world history, and in those histories and cultures that exert influence within their regions, or beyond. They will speak at least one foreign language, and have concentrated in a modern civilization of their choice.  They will know the basics of how to behave in that civilization. They will also be especially sensitive to the historical contexts of current events.  They will possess the personal and mental versatility to build on this foundation throughout life, adapting readily to novel situations and cultures. They will be open-minded, good listeners and observers. They will possess mindfulness - that is, they will cut through the mental and verbal clutter of others, and their own; they will pay attention to the world around them. They will be logical and analytic.  They will be able to focus and concentrate their attention, and their action. They will be able to act skillfully and appropriately to exert understanding, consensus, harmony, and order in the situations and world around them. And importantly, they will be principled, listening, empathic and compassionate.       The Academy's programs will be evolved to cultivate strength in all these areas.  Many of their basic elements can be incorporated into conventional schools, and probably will begin in such schools.  But we speak here of a model, purpose-built school organized around our program from the bottom up.       The Academy can be described as a magnet school that immerses an international faculty and student body in a comprehensive, rich bouillabaisse of academic, practical, and recreational activities both on and off campus, and whose own culture supports the formal program, and the informal growth of its students' internationalism in personal, nonacademic ways.  One or more Academy campuses can be located in crossroads cities around the world.       We opened with a glimpse of the kind of life possible within such a school, and throughout this proposal we'll look at the conditions that building the school will address - at current historical trends; at values and issues important to such education; at the school's building blocks - curriculum, faculty, students, stakeholders, and others; at some of the important problems involved; and at suggestions for pilot programs that can demonstrate the concept at low cost within the schools we now have. . II.   THE WORLD, THE CHALLENGE   Back       In the opening days of the twenty-first century, the whole of human history gathers, stirs uneasily and prepares to give birth to the future.  This exertion will affect everyone on the planet, ready or not, within the next generation.  Fundamental changes are already visible that demonstrate the need for such schools as the Village Academy.  A close look at today's world reveals four unique conditions of special concern. The world has grown larger and smaller, both at the same time.  The radius of our awareness expands to include more cultures and societies than a generation ago.  And as the time and distance dividing these cultures contract, societies considered marginal or invisible just a generation ago have become critical to world stability.  We find ourselves sitting at the table with peoples we have seen as abstractions, if at all.  And over the course of the century past, the response time granted for world events has steadily contracted from weeks or days into hours, or less. The world of the future will be complex, interdependent, and multipolar.  Events and trends in any one nation will have regional, often global consequences, which will often resonate far into the future.  We will soon learn that it is no longer possible for any one nation to long impose its will unilaterally on world affairs, or to arbitrate the terms of international life. People in many countries - including the U.S. - lack adequate knowledge of other societies; of their perceptions, histories, habits and behaviors.  We engage with peoples whose histories and cultures we know poorly, at best.  If this condition is allowed to persist, it will be difficult to live skillfully in the world of the future. Modern communications offers us a double-edged sword.  On one hand, we can now access virtually the entire mass of human knowledge, present and past.  But having gained that capability, we often use it unskillfully.  We delude ourselves that we understand more than we actually do; we don't understand the limits of our own knowledge.  And to act, assuming an understanding that we do not have, can have regrettable results.       The thread uniting these conditions is communication, and the lack of it.  The people of the world's cultural blocs must and can begin to communicate, to listen to and understand one another - especially those facing each other across the widest, deepest gulfs.  Schools like the Village Academy can help people develop the knowledge and skills that will make this possible.       Nations around the world will need people throughout society who can navigate in other cultures with levels of comfort and skill not commonly found.  They can be bridgebuilders between societies alien to one another; they may act as the tugboats, as it were, nudging the vast vessel of history into a straighter course.  Such people will occasionally appear spontaneously.  But design, intention, planning, and action will enable us to more reliably address the need.  Our schools need to begin preparing them, at this time, in specific ways.       The Village Academy will offer an intensive program of such education. . III.   ESTABLISHED MODELS   Back       International education is already fairly widespread.  Pre-college-level students whose families live and work overseas often attend international schools, the largest of which have students from fifty nations or more.  Some of these schools - especially those run by religious organizations - offer highly intentional education of real quality.  Student exchange and travel programs are also widely available.  The very success of these programs demonstrates the value of international cross-fertilization.  What does the Academy offer, then, and how is it different from existing international schools?       The Academy has several distinct features built around a core of solid conventional academics: an international student body and faculty, location in an international crossroads city, a full range of international studies, and a code of nonsectarian values, personal and civic.  Many international schools offer these assets to some extent.  But what sets the Academy apart are the final two, developed to a depth and intention not yet attempted.  Its perceptions, values and school culture are particularly distinctive. . IV.   PERCEPTIONS, VALUES, and the SCHOOL'S CULTURE   Back       The Academy is not value-neutral.  We articulate, and adhere to, a body of concrete principles fundamental to civilized life.  (We challenge, discuss, explore and debate these values, as well.)  As nonsectarian values, they are already shared by many cultures, and known to many faiths - they are accessible to all, and permeate our discussions of human history and affairs.  In a sense they suggest global humankind's search for shared principles, for a social contract, needed for coherent living, private and public. . OUR FUNDAMENTAL PERCEPTIONS AND VALUES. . .   Back Public Rights and Responsibilities People have innate rights that usually supercede those of institutions, or of the state.  These rights are balanced by responsibilities, which may include granting collective rights to institutions, or to the state. Personal Morality and Responsibility We value living responsibly, with attention to the consequences of our deeds for the community, for others, and for ourselves.  We are ready to defer our personal gratification for the long range wellbeing and integrity of the community. Democracy We value citizens' taking an active, responsible, and occasionally dissenting role in their civic life.  And we value governments, institutions, and individual officials being accountable to their citizens. Security We value the right to live life confidently and unafraid - in our persons, our families, homes, communities and nations. Respect for Life and the Biosphere We value and protect human life, with special attention and care to those lives rendered vulnerable by age, illness, physical condition, biological status, calamities natural and manmade, and political and economic circumstance.  Likewise, we value the ecology, and the various creatures that it contains and nurtures. Justice and Equity We value personal, economic, and political justice for all, even while we discuss what exactly justice is in various circumstances.  We practice justice and equity in our daily lives.  And we take special care of justice and equity for the vulnerable. Peace We look forward to a world at peace with itself, and are consciously preparing to help build that world.  We recognize the need for individuals to start with building peace within themselves. The Family We value the intact, two-parent family as the optimal (if not the sole) context for raising children, as an inalienable right of children, and as the fundamental bridge connecting individual and society.  We welcome families of all kinds, and their children, into the Academy community, and we strive for a warm and nurturing tone for Academy life. Sufficiency There is enough for all humankind, without strip-mining the planet.  We should each have enough, especially our children, even at the expense of luxury for the few. Learning We value knowledge, literacy, intellectual rigor and integrity, and education. Open Information We value free access to truthful, clear, and complete information important to peoples' lives.  Institutional concentrations of information that impact the public should be open to question, and accountable to the public. Sovereignty We value self-determination and integrity for nations, cultures, and individuals.  We also affirm that each state derives its mandate to govern from its sovereign people, and is responsible for their safety and security. . . . . AND THE THEMES THEY SUGGEST   Back       The values mentioned above suggest certain borderless themes or threads for study and discussion which we find running horizontally, as it were, throughout personal and civic life.  For this reason we weave them horizontally throughout the vertical coursework and culture of the Academy's life: Value and Wealth "What is the nature of value, and of wealth? - including money and productive power, industrial and agricultural?  How are they concentrated, or distributed, and to what ends?" The Nature and Distribution of Power "What constitutes power per se in a given society, from personal relationships to strategic international relations?  What forms does it take?  How is it owned, concentrated, distributed and exercised, and to what ends?" Sufficiency vs. Luxury "How much of what we have, and pursue, do we actually need?  Do those people, and nations, at the bottom pay a price to support those at the top?  What are the social, economic, political, ecological, and personal consequences of the pursuits of sufficiency, and of luxury?" The Role of Law "What is the relationship between law on one hand, and the arbitrary power of various ruling individuals or groups on the other, in public and personal life?  How are these relationships established and maintained?  What is the accountability?" Intentionality and Will "How do we deal with a given situation consciously, intentionally?"  We cannot take the future for granted.  What are the connections between events and informed, intentional, sustained exertions of will?" Balancing Rights and Responsibilities "What are the balances between personal rights and responsibilities in our various cultures, or in any given situation?  What about the relationships of individual and group?  Are these balances changing?  Do they need to change?" Cultural Integrity "How do we learn about or live in other cultures while maintaining our own?  May cultures intervene in one another's affairs where genocide, slavery or socially routine mutilation are practiced?  What are our responsibilities to the integrity of such cultures?" Information "What is the quantity, quality, and variety of information in any given society?  How well are people educated to assess it and to use it?  How well can people create and share information of their own, independently of mass concentrations and control?  And how free are they to do so?" These themes and questions are becoming more important in daily life, and thus are central to the activities of the Academy. . THE SCHOOL'S BASIC CULTURE   Back       While the school's values suggest themes for our coursework, they also help shape its basic culture - that is, that sea of perceptions, attitudes and behaviors which shape the school's larger social and personal life.  And the feedback from the Academy's cultural life becomes fuel for discussion and study in its own right.       The basis of our shared culture is simple.  An Academy campus is a stable, secure place where students and staff come from around the world, a sanctuary where they know they will be respected, listened to, challenged, nurtured and supported at all times.  They can expect to find intellectual openness, reciprocity, effort and excellence; forebearance in the face of error; and confidence in each member's potential for excellence. The Academy embraces all national identities, and has none of its own.  There is no one dominant national culture in Academy life.  We may support this goal by limiting the proportion of students from any one country. Academy members treat one another with respect and welcome at all times.  The ostracism, hazing, scapegoating, and similar behaviors commonplace in certain cultures are forbidden. Respectful disagreement, and conflict management and resolution, are essential to survival and success in the Academy, as they are in the rest of the world.  There are many differences of perception and opinion, important differences, within this community, and those who come here and remain here will learn to "disagree agreeably."  It may often be more important to learn how someone else has arrived at a conclusion; what their underlying values, perceptions and logic are; than it is to argue with that conclusion.  We discuss disagreement before it becomes conflict. The Academy has a moral and ethical architecture, and affirmation of human excellence, which support and protect its members. The Academy prizes personal and group honor.  It has an honor code embracing academic and intellectual integrity, respect for others and their cultures, and personal conduct in the Academy community. Student life is egalitarian.  There are no privileges based on national origin, age, class year, grades, social class, or nature of enrollment.  There is a school uniform. Openness and flexibility are important.  We prize independent and original thought.  We cultivate multiple points of view, and to engage participants in dialog. We offer and share new bodies of knowledge and skill, and ask students to find original syntheses, solutions, and proposals of their own.  And, where possible, we help them try them out in the real world. We are free to articulate, examine, and challenge basic perceptions, assumptions, and values - those of others, and our own.  We accept such challenges from others. At the same time, we approach other cultures with respect.  Cultures are grown over long periods of time to solve basic human issues and needs.  We honor their integrity and sovereignty, while remaining free to examine, contrast and compare their basic perceptions and values. . V.   BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE ACADEMY   Back The Academy and its life are built on an eight-fold foundation: Curriculum and Themes of Study Our Students The Faculty Other Resource People Program Formats and Approaches Student Recruitment and Admissions Funding and Fund-Raising Alumni. . 1.   CURRICULUM AND THEMES OF STUDY   Back       Our curriculum is shaped by the kind of people that the Academy wants to graduate.  With a sound fundamental education, they are also educated in world history, economics, cultures, and philosophies, with a concentration in at least one cultural bloc (including fluency in its main language) not their own.  And they are trained in the basic skills of research and intellectual rigor.       To meet this goal, the program includes solid content in three basic areas:  Basic academics, enriched academics, and the international coursework.  We take an interdisciplinary approach across all subjects and activities, and study critical communication, as well.       Basic academics  includes a roundup of the usual subjects:  literature, mathematics, sciences, domestic civics, history, and languages.       Enriched academics includes studies often associated with the schools of an earlier era, and increasingly rare in our time:  economics and business; geography; art, architecture and music; rhetoric and logic; debate, and comparative religion.  We survey the great intellectual, scientific, and social issues and problems of the modern era.  Since it is important for them to learn how to think, and not just what to think, our students also learn analytical and critical thinking.       Finally, the international curriculum includes study of the globe's major cultural blocs, with attention to the historical, social, political, philosophical and economic factors of these societies.  We also study the history and practice of diplomacy, negotiation, peacemaking, problem-solving and leadership, as well as the broad history of the state-as-institution; of values, morals and ethics worldwide; of government and democracy; the logic and psychology of tyranny; human rights and responsibilities, religion and philosophy, and of wealth, business and work. The Interdisciplinary Approach       While many of these are distinct areas of study, we also explore their interrelationships.  Many traditional subject boundaries become softened and blurred as we explore connections that leap time, distance, and cultural boundaries.  High among the gaps we wish our students to bridge are those between the elements of their own knowledge.  Much coursework is interdisciplinary, with an umbrella Communications seminar in high school integrating many threads.  (This course may act as the seminar in which seniors produce their graduation projects.)  And we support all these subjects with a wide range of program resources and formats that take full advantage of the riches of the host city, and of experiences of the Academy's staff, students, and resource people - including parents and alumni. Critical Communication       Our world is awash in propaganda, and our students need to navigate the foaming rapids of carefully contrived language and image that surround them.  For this reason, communication and its dynamics, from personal conversations and the written word to the global media, are an important theme underlying most subjects.  Our students are learning to listen, read, watch, write, and speak with discrimination and intelligence.  Rhetorical styles, semantics, levels of language, negotiation, listening skills, logic, mediation, persuasion, and problem-solving are included.  Current and historical uses of communication are discussed.  We also discuss the psychology and social dynamics involved. . 2.   OUR STUDENTS   Back In its mature form, the Academy will serve four general groups of students.  Distance learners may constitute a fifth group. Fulltime Regular Students       Our core students comprise the first group:  Full-time regular middle and high school people, attending school on a conventional schedule until graduation.  We anticipate a fairly high proportion of boarding students, living either on campus or in nearby homestays, as well as local day students.  We'll select our core students from among candidates who have already demonstrated intelligence, initiative, maturity, and openmindedness. Short-Term Students       We'll also welcome students into a second group:  Special or exchange students coming for shorter periods - a summer, a semester, a year.  Typically, they will focus their studies on overall survey work, or on one or two areas of concentration. Cooperative Students and Community Participants       People in two more groups, while not core students, are valued members of the Academy.  Young people living in the host city and attending its schools may take specific courses and events here on a part-time or cooperative basis, individually and in groups.  Finally, adult members of the general community are welcome at the talks, workshops, seminars, and other special programs designed for the public. Distance Learners       The students we've described will be in physical proximity to the campus and to its community, but members of a fifth group may live thousands of miles away:  the Academy's distance learners, students who participate from afar using modern communications technology.       There are at least two problems implicit in distance learning.  First, it complicates the task of creating and sustaining the in-person human connections and interactions so important to in-depth learning and originality.  Secondly, because modern communications technology can present rapid sequences of images of all kinds without a lot of substance or depth, we can come away from a bout with computer or television thinking that we have seen - and learned - more than we actually have, and that it is more real than it actually is.  Academy planners will have to address both issues.       Many organizations and programs make the grave mistake of thinking that technology can replace human interaction.  The Academy, however, believes that technology can best support and enrich the primacy of personal human interaction.  It must serve the learning and the learner, and not drive them.  We encourage distance learners to develop and sustain local in-person groups or "campuses" in their home communities.  Developing distance learning contents and programs to meet this goal is an interesting challenge which may, in time, give the Academy many of its regular students. .. 3.   OUR FACULTY   Back       Full-time, active duty faculty members are drawn from around the world, selected for high levels of international knowledge and skill in addition to their basic expertise as teachers.  They are chosen for their value as mature, principled role model human beings.  And they are innovators: independent and creative; leaders, yet skilled team players; pioneers and builders with "wings to match their roots," skilled at creating new educational opportunities and approaches.  We wish our teachers to span as great a range of experience, and of generations, as possible.  These people will be of high value personally and professionally, and they will be compensated accordingly. . 4.   OTHER RESOURCE PEOPLE   Back       The world is full of people with interesting and important work, experience, ideas, and questions, particularly in crossroads cities.  We plan to bring them into the Academy, engage them with staff and students, stand back and "let the sparks fly."  We seek leadership people and exemplars from the worlds of government, diplomacy, journalism, literature, the arts, business, science, technology, advocacy, medicine - indeed, from any interesting and important aspect of human activity.       Many of our students' parents themselves have leadership or international careers, and they too are an important resource for the school.  The students themselves are excellent sources of knowledge in many classes and activities - each has grown up in a given culture, absorbing and internalizing bodies of knowledge and skill of great value to their peers.  Young people are "experts" on their home societies, with knowledge of value to share.  Another valuable group will emerge as the school begins graduating students: adult alumni who've been able to take the Academy education into the world.  Their value as sources of knowledge, as models, and as links of human continuity will be great. . 5.   PROGRAM APPROACHES AND FORMATS   Back       The adventure of wholistic learning is a basic preoccupation at the Academy.  Every element of life in the host city and beyond is rich with learning experiences, blurring the boundaries between school, classroom, and the world at large.  Similarly, the boundaries between subjects, learning tools, and techniques have also become indistinct.  Since the city harbors all aspects of human life, the city itself is a natural place in which to examine them.  We'll continually develop program styles and activities that use the host city itself as a learning base.       Programs, of varying levels of formality, will begin on campus and often overlap and extend beyond the school.  We start with the familiar resources of high school learning and life - classrooms, library, clubs, labs, sports, academically strong field trips, excursions, and other activities.  There are additional possibilities: Independent research, study, and creative projects on and off campus. Field trips and excursions, formal and recreational, of varying length. A fairly structured "international juku" or evening school two or three nights a week, giving domestic and foreign youth from throughout the city a chance to study one anothers' languages and cultures, and develop international friendships. A coffeehouse/cafe, modeled on those of the '60s and '70s, providing space for informal, but wholesome and mentored, peer social/artistic interactions.  The cafe is operated in close conjunction with the juku, and is less formally structured. Summer and vacation institutes or "mini-mesters" of varying length. Focus and discussion groups, on campus and in the community. Arts on and off campus: graphics, film, drama, music, electronic and more, with regular performances for the public. On and off campus social and community events, festivals, field days. Visits to other schools and to universities. Internships and mentoring: employment, academic, social service. Talks and presentations from outside resource people. Symposia and debates. Workshops, conferences, classes and seminars for students and the public, either on campus or at rented facilities. Recording and licensing, for later broadcast, of any of the above programs, in part or in whole. Cooperative projects with other schools, companies, NGOs, etc.       The line between activities for the students and those for the community is often indistinct.  Indeed, the non-regular programs can draw freely from both populations, since they are not targeted to any particular age group.       One of the richest resources is the very variety of our faculty and of the students themselves.  The cultural background and life experience of each person has value for many of the courses, and we constantly seek creative and original ways to involve this knowledge. . Communications Technology in Perspective       We have already discussed the role of communications technology in distance learning, and its place relative to human contact.  The internet and other technologies have rapidly become powerful learning tools, and they are indispensable to the Academy, as well.  In addition to training our students in their technical use, we will continually develop ways of using them intelligently, as means to learning rather than ends.       As of mid-1999, many educational resources are available on the internet.  They vary widely in quality.  We choose carefully, and select those of genuine substance and value.  Our students and staff themselves have many opportunities to create interesting and original contents, techniques, and forms for net-based and distance learning.  In time, the Academy will likely become a provider to others.       It is often tempting to use the internet as a substitute for many things: - personal contact within the community; for carefully wrought lesson plans and materials; for trips to the library; for original research and writing; for the genuine personal and social life required to digest these experiences.  The Academy recognizes the net as a tool for a job, and will consciously foster in-person social and academic life among its students, including its distance students, and its faculty. . 6.   STUDENT RECRUITMENT AND ADMISSIONS   Back       This school is a leadership school.  The students we seek will have already demonstrated intelligence, personal quality and integrity, independence in personal and academic life, maturity, and a willingness to learn - and live - with open minds.  Some students of strong promise but irregular academics may be admitted on a provisional basis, but those with persistent academic or behavioral problems will not benefit from the Village Academy.       Many students can be recruited locally from host cities with large international populations, such as Tokyo or Washington, DC, or those with large domestic intercultural populations, such as New York or Los Angeles.  An ideal host city will have both.       Students of maturity can also be recruited from throughout the host country, and from around the world, to board at the Academy.  The boarding student experience at the Academy can be especially rich.       Eventually, there will be Academy campuses in major cities around the world, so that many students can attend while at, or close to, home.  Some students may live and study at two or more campuses during their careers.  The issues involved in sustaining a magnet school for local students are different from those of one making a national or global appeal, and the proportion of day to boarding students should be carefully planned.  These issues will have to be considered in depth when planning the ratio of local to remotely recruited students. . 7.   FUNDING AND FUND-RAISING   Back       It is likely that tuition and boarding fees alone will not suffice to support such a school.  Per-student costs for a school such as this are high, especially for boarding students.  And yet, we would not want to exclude any qualified candidate on the basis of cost, to restrict admission to those classes wealthy enough to buy an Academy education, or to locate an Academy campus in low-cost cities simply to cut costs.  Subsidies and scholarships will probably have to be substantial.  Where, then, should we turn?       The Academy has numerous natural stakeholders - that is, those with a concrete interest in such a school's success, and who will need people with such a global education in order to succeed in the times to come.  These stakeholders include those large entities that aspire to success and leadership in an international future, such as: International businesses National governments and their organizations The United Nations and its organizations Cities and communities deeply invested in international life Independent NGOs Religious denominations and bodies Foundations Global media organizations Universities actively involved in international life Professional societies.       Such organizations already need, today, the kind of people that the Academy will produce in the future.  Some are cultivating and recruiting them already.  If many of those people already know each other, have bonded through an experience such as the Academy, and continue to network globally with each other in adult life, their value to the stakeholders - and to the world - will be great.       It is in the stakeholders' interest to invest in the future, to help educate these people, and probably to help develop the Academy as a place where they can share their own international experience with new generations.  The Village Academy is designed to be such a place.  We anticipate a vigorous, sustained effort to elicit financial support from these people. . 8.   ALUMNI   Back       We will actively cultivate and support our alumni as people with value to the school and community.  The Academy will keep in contact with them via the internet, gatherings, local alumni groups, newsletters, holiday activities, etc., and nurture their value as program resources to the school and in their local (and larger) communities.  As enough alumni become available and move more deeply into adult life, the school will professionalize its alumni affairs activity.       We will actively encourage alumni networking throughout adult life.  We envision gatherings, reunions and conventions of varying size and formality where alumni can exchange stories about their experience; share suggestions and insights that may help resolve or advance situations in personal or public life; attend seminars and workshops for advancing their skills; and perhaps mentor the youth of that time.  The Academy education will reveal its full value in the challenges of adult life in the unfolding 21st century. . VI.   SOME IMPORTANT PROBLEMS   Back       The founders of the Academy must address several problems and begin to explore solutions beginning in the school's formative period, and into the foreseeable future. . 1.   CULTURAL RELATIVITY AND "THE PRIME DIRECTIVE"   Back       The Academy is committed to cultures respecting each others'sovereignty and integrity.  However, some societies harbor customs that are actively destructive or oppressive to their members or to others.  Customs which oppress women - including but not limited to female circumcision - are high on this list.  In other places such practices as slavery; as child's gender selection through infanticide or abortion; as euthanasia of the elderly or infirm; as child sweatshop labor; or as gross child abuse and mutilation still prevail, the stubborn legacies of centuries.  Nor are the "modern" and "developed" societies of the world exempt from abuses of their own.       How do we choose between respecting cultural sovereignty, and exerting influence in behalf of basic human security?  Individuals and organizations around the world face this important question, and it will become more acute.  We are not certain what the answers will be, but imagine that the active leadership roles can best be taken by informed citizens of those very cultures.  The Academy looks forward to helping educate such people, and then drawing on them as resource people as they mature.  Doing this, while avoiding any form of cultural chauvinism, will be a sensitive and demanding process. . 2.   THE ACADEMY'S INDEPENDENCE   Back       As mentioned before, the Academy will probably have a number of large and powerful stakeholders, and we expect that it may draw on them for a great deal of its material support - certainly, if we wish to eliminate cost as a barrier to desirable students' attending.  The Academy's value to these stakeholders, to its students and graduates, and to society as a whole will depend on its independence and integrity.  Nevertheless, we feel it unwise to take that independence for granted - present and prospective stakeholders, and others, may attempt to influence the Academy.  It will probably be necessary to decline such attempts by friend and opponent alike, and we should plan now to maintain its autonomy.       How can we maintain its independence and integrity?  Certain provisions may anticipate the need: The Academy's goals, values, and autonomy shall be made clear to all.  The Academy shall have a written charter, or "constitution," that defines its values, goals, and basic governing processes in concrete terms. As an institution, the Academy shall be independent and self-governing.  It shall not be the project or property of any other body, or group of bodies.  Its highest decision-making body shall include people of demonstrated integrity, quality, and personal strength.  They will be chosen for diverse, often contrasting, points of view; and for a shared commitment to robust values, including cooperation and consensus. No particular point of view shall have excessive representation within the board, and no one stakeholding entity shall be in a position to impose its will on the board.  No one stakeholder, or other party, shall be permitted to make critical or irreplaceable material contributions to the school. Proceedings and decisions of the board, its individual members, and large contributions shall be transparent to the public. Board members shall not be permitted to exercise any influence or authority over one another arising from relationships outside of their positions on the board itself.       It is important that the Academy and its people be free to examine a full range of viewpoints without prejudice.  Its independence is thus critical to its success. . 3.   SECURITY OF THE HOST CITY AND NATION   Back       Some of the most important crossroads cities on the planet, which would otherwise make excellent host cities, may lack the freedom, security or stability needed for an Academy campus.  Places where students and staff may face war, unusual personal danger, surveillance or physical interference from the state or from other parties, social instability, routine bigotry against certain groups, or other constraints are unacceptable for permanent Academy schools.  Yet, these cities are in countries that often have the most need for people with an Academy education, and which would benefit greatly from involvement in a growing network of personal contacts with Academy graduates, staff, and friends.       We can address this situation in at least two ways.  We can arrange excursions, field trips, or short periods of study to such countries for our students and faculty.  We can also recruit students and staff specifically from such countries.  At times a strong state security apparatus may be an asset to our people, rather than a liability to their work.  It is a goal of the Academy to cultivate amicable, cooperative relations with such states, with an eye to the future.       The Academy will have to resolve certain basic issues as its life unfolds.  Our addressing these issues should at all times remain principled, cooperative, inclusive of those involved, creative, and as proactive as possible.  Not only are these the approaches that will help us catalyze "win/win" solutions for all, but in doing so we will model the very attitudes and behaviors we wish to impart to our students. . VII.   AND NOW, WHERE TO BEGIN?   Back       The school that we describe here is certainly ambitious, perhaps visionary in scope and in scale.  To establish such a school and bring it to sustainability would require major commitments of capital and creativity over a period of ten years or more.  Where, then, is there a realistic place to begin?       Many existing schools, public and private, have goals similar to the Academy's and could host some of its program elements, for students and for the general public, fairly easiliy.  It is likely that such program components will first be developed in a number of schools, where they can demonstrate their value and undergo refinement.  They would also be available sooner, and to more students, and engage the attention of a fairly large and diverse body of educators.  A foundation or committee guiding this phase of development would be a natural precursor to the Academy.  This section looks at how pilot or prototype programs might be implemented. . 1.   BUILDING A PILOT PROGRAM   Back       As we shall see, there are a number of possible venues for pilot programs.  Working with them involves some common basic steps. Define your goals by academic level and time frame(s). Identify and contact potential hosts/partner schools, or interested colleagues. Meet with your partners to learn about the fundamental direction for their school, their students, and their parents.  Do they have a guiding philosophy, say, or specialized curriculum? Together with your partners, develop some program topics, themes, and learning goals.  These should connect with or complement classes and activities already at the school. Get supporting resource people.  Who, in your region, can come in and bring special value to the subject and the students?  Be alert to people of value from beyond the boundaries of conventional institutional life. With your partners, examine a wide range of organizations as possible resources.  What do you want to do?  What, and who, would you like to do it with?  Can you get students to reach out of the class to bring in resources of their own choosing? Implement the plans with your students, and perhaps interested colleagues. After the sessions, get together with your partners, and students, to assess the results. "Lessons Learned": Gather and document the results, plus any ideas and insights to improve future efforts.       These guidelines can apply to the school and its students, and to larger public programs presented in concert with the school.  This approach will enable you to integrate Academy-style activities into a wide range of existing environments with a minimum of exertion. . 2.   POSSIBLE "FIRST SCHOOLS"   Back       Given the great variety of learning environments available, are there any that would not make good partners for prototype or demonstration Academy programs?  Could such projects become valuable and longterm parts of the demonstration schools' programs in their own right?  Part of the value of the Academy program is its adaptability to many situations.       We mentioned previously that there are schools around the world, primarily international schools, that already teach many of the Academy's subjects, and share important aspects of its culture.  There are functional and respected international classes at middle and high school levels.  Other schools would welcome Academy-like supplements to their language and history classes.  And many universities, with diverse student bodies or locations in diverse communities, would make natural launching-pads for pilot Academy programs.       Prospective partner institutions should be carefully screened and selected to encourage maximum learning value through the depth, quality, and integrity of shared programs.  They should be open to and supporting of: Free examination of unfamiliar facts and points of view beyond prejudice Free, but respectful, impartial, and mentored discussion of the moral and ethical aspects of history and culture Moving some activities for certain courses outside their own campus Additional input to these courses, primarily of historical, cultural and social content, from non-school people Optional: holding presentations and workshops open to the general public, usually in the evenings. . 3.   POTENTIAL PILOT SUBJECTS AND COURSEWORK   Back       What subjects and topics would be good for pilot learning projects?  We suggest beginning with relatively brief activities, ranging in length from single-event presentations to a semester.  Longer activities may be implemented as the program - and its partners - gain experience and versatility.       We suggest a few potential topics below: Personal learning of foreign cultures, inviting natives of those cultures into the school to discuss the histories and societies of their homelands "The One Biggest Thing" - "If there was one thing that others should know about your country, what would it be?" "How to Behave" in different situations - e.g., socially, in rites de passage, across generations; or in business Coming-of-age customs from around the world History's impact on current events (e.g., the effects of colonialism) Difficult international relationships and their histories History of successful peacemaking and problem-solving Role-playing solutions to issues historical and current Comparative religion and concepts of human life, responsibility, and relationship.       An intercultural approach to learning has a great deal of room for recreational and purely fun activities, especially when intercultural groups of students are involved. Recreational and sports activities with other schools Pop cultures from overseas Films, food, music, art (adult level) from overseas Dance and ceremony - perhaps with costumes - from abroad Create art from another culture? . VIII.   IN CONCLUSION   Back       International school precursors to the Village Academy already exist around the world.  The author himself attended several of them, junior high to college, while in Japan from 1959 to 1966.  He remains in touch with two of them today.  It was his transforming experience at one of them, St. Joseph College of Yokohama, along with the experiences of other people at that and similar schools, that provoked the concept of the Village Academy.       International school graduates have long occupied positions of creativity, responsibility, and leadership around the world.  One SJC graduate, Charles Pederson, was a co-laureate for the Nobel prize in chemstry (1987).  Such schools typically use English and occasionally have International Baccalaureate or multilingual curricula; their graduates are welcomed at universities in the host country, Britain, the US, and around the world.  Their programs usually pay varying levels of attention to the host country's culture, and to world cultures generally.       Most such schools have tacitly addressed, in microcosm, some of the issues outlined here.  They also have a special value for students from the US and other nations accustomed to weilding arbitrary power:  With students and staff from around the world, Americans - and westerners - often find themselves an ethnic and cultural minority.  This alone is a valuable change in perspective for Anglos, and for their peers.       The Academy is at once an extension of what is finest in the world's international schools, and uniquely pioneering in the level of intention, depth, and detail it offers.  Given the illustrious example of their predecessors, we can expect Academy grads to benefit the world in extraordinary ways. . IX.   POSTSCRIPT:   DEDICATIONS and INSPIRATIONS   Back       Over many years a number of people, institutions and works of art have inspired the Village Academy, as well as influenced the author's personal formation. Each of the following has made a contribution, large or small. Many have links on the GeoLinks resources catalog page. Others can be discovered by internet search. Here, in no particular order, from the famous to the obscure to the vanished and lost, are some of them. St. Joseph College of Yokohama, teachers and peers Brother Aloysius Soden, SM, of St. Joseph College St. Mary's School for Boys, Tokyo The international communities served by the preceding schools Colman McCarthy and the Center for Teaching Peace Koinoinia Foundation of Baltimore, 1950 - 1970 version Joseph Campbell R. Shlomo Yosef Zevin R. Menachem Goldberger, Baltimore Sangharakshita Robert Lansing's Gary Seven, in the Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth" Samuel P. Huntington SYDA Foundation ashram dharma Richard Wagner Alan D. Chesney, veteran Bill Moyers Sally Smith and Helen Levine of The Lab School, Washington, DC Isaac Asimov's Foundation series The Church of St. Michael the Archangel, Overlea, Maryland The Sphinx of Hilltop Avenue, Baltimore Tony Young's DC International Connection, or DCIC Mort Sahl Dorothy Day The History Channel Thomas Jefferson Thomas Cahill Bill Cosby Muktananda Sensei Mad Magazine The Lighthouse Stevensons Robert Louis Stevenson R. Martin Stevenson, risk-taker Andrew Ellicott, architect, community-builder, engineer Etz Chaim Institute of Baltimore International Christian University, Tokyo The original Shaolin temple St. Francis of Assisi Anne Frank Ayn Rand Gene Roddenberry D.T. Suzuki The Rat Pack Mikail Gorbachev Gilbert Shelton George Lakoff Paramahansa Yogananda and his Autobiography of a Yogi P.R. Sarkar and Ananda Marga Fr. John Main, OSB The Chofetz Chaim The Moody Blues Sally Oldfield and her Water Bearer Gary Larson Archbishop Desmond Tutu Ray Kurzweil Akira Toriyama's "Penguin Village" Gregory Tah-Kloma Norma "Global Nomads" McCaig Dr. Mark Komrad Salvador Dali The Dalai Lama The XIIIth Incarnate Salvador Dali Llama Sheikh Nasruddin Rimpoche Herschele Ostropolier Rimpoche The Baal Shem Tov Boys Town Beethoven George Gershwin Aaron Copland Antonin Dvor'ak Amar Chitra Katha Malcolm X Eleanor Roosevelt Stan Lee and Jack "King" Kirby Edwin O. Reischauer Frank Herbert's Dune Fujio Akatsuka John Sinclair William "Anjin-san" Adams, master navigator The AriZAL Steve Allen and Jane Meadows Dr. Laura Schlessinger Rufus Jones The Macintosh Computer The Internet Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam, community Arthur C. Clarke's The City and the Stars Nelson Mandela Pharaoh Akhenaton Hayao Miyazaki George Cassutto, history teacher, Hagerstown, Md. Vatican 17, from Clifford D. Simak's Project Pope Pope John Paul II Pablo Picasso George Hand, history teacher Gerry Enscoe, master samurai sensei Jerry Cornfield of Forestville/Great Falls, Virginia, mathematician, mentor, mensch Ben Shahn Victor Jara George Lucas Orlando Letelier His global nomad high school sweetheart THE AUTHOR'S EXPERIENCE: "INTERESTING TIMES"       The author has not lived in a consistent, stable cultural context since he was twelve years old.  Not surprisingly, he has often tried to contrive his own.  Forty-plus years later he's still at it.       He remembers a time before the Kennedy White House, a time before Elvis, a time when three Confederate veterans of the War Between the States were still alive.  He was born in 1947, a perfectly timed son of the generation that saved civilization during the dark years of 1933-45.  After a fairly conventional '50s childhood in rural Northern Virginia he and family were translated, in 1959, to recovering postwar Japan.  He remained until 1966.  "It was like growing up on LSD," he says, "like growing up on Mars."  He encountered peers, teachers and cultures from across the US and around the world at St. Mary's School for Boys, American School in Japan, and especially at St. Joseph College in Yokohama ("The best single thing that ever happened to me"), and at International Christian University in Tokyo.  He has watched as a mendicant ronin, dressed in robes with a basket on his head, played shakuhachi while making his way slowly through the autumn sunshine of an empty street deep in an ancient Japanese afternoon.  He has wandered Tokyo alone at age 13; has visited the DMZ in Korea and stood within yards of the unsmiling warriors of the north.       Returning home to attend Franklin & Marshall College he found the war, values betrayed, flower power, social activism, Marx Brothers reruns, Watergate, the gathering cultural tsunami of indiscriminate sensory overload, and the successive cascade of related issues waiting to devour history and perhaps civilization itself.  He has studied Christianity (C. and P.), Buddhism, Vedanta, and Judaism, with exposure to Sufism, Shinto, and Lakota.  He has met Edwin O. Reischauer, Colman McCarthy, Sally Smith, Timothy Leary, Pete Seeger, Barry Goldwater, Cesar Chavez, Fred Haise, and Mohammed Ali.  He has been special ed teacher, conference manager, and technical writer.  He has one son and several Macs, and is preoccupied with how different cultures learn to share fellowship without losing their own identity and integrity.  He admires, enjoys, and respects Japanese cartoons.  He is available for fulltime work in intercultural and peacebuilding educational outreach. To the TOP THIS IS A DRAFT. This is a first cut, or presentation of the concept.  We welcome your ideas, responses, comments, and any experience you may have had in international schools. We also welcome any similar essays or proposals of your own, and anticipate posting these on this page as they come in.  They may include grant proposals, university theses, curriculum plans, teaching materials, or similar work.  We look forward to them. And do you know of any web pages, mailing lists, organizations, conferences, workshops, etc. devoted to international and intercultural education?  Please include them, as well! Geotrees.Com welcomes your comments at guest AT geotrees. com. Back to the TOP Text copyright © 1995-2008 by Geotrees.Com and Charles Stevenson.  All rights reserved. Bell Rock Light by Robert Stevenson, engineer (1772-1850). Photo Copyright © The Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses operating as the Northern Lighthouse Board of Scotland. Dedicated with great respect and great love to the values, the vision, and the heritage of St. Joseph College / International School of Yokohama, Japan and to the teaching and the personal example of its defenders and loyal faculty. "For the History of the Future"