From the experimental nature of inquiry-based pedagogy to the emphasis on internationalism, the pioneers of the International School of Geneva were inhabited by a zeal that was not only visionary but infectious too. This same spirit of innovation was the driving force behind the Rousseau Institute (which set up the International Bureau of Education in Geneva) and, some years later, the International Schools Association (ISA), which continues to exist today.
Alex Peterson’s timeless Schools Across Frontiers, and Ian Hill’s 1993 doctoral thesis, capture the enthusiasm of the time, incarnated in mythological figures such as Paul Dupuy (inventor of Ecolint’s international humanities course), Marie-Therèse Maurette, the energetic but austere and mysterious Director who steered the school through its early years and, pivotally, through the Second World War, mavericks such as Robert Leach (who was key in designing both the first Model United Nations for school students and the International Baccalaureate, sponsored by the school to undertake a 120 day tour of several schools as part of the research going into that project) and souls so committed to the cause of international education that they were prepared to make considerable personal sacrifices for it, such as Desmond Cole-Baker, the Director of what was the English Section of the school at the time, who found UNESCO grants for the project’s inception and the running of ISA. It was Cole-Baker who had the vision to extend what was initially a project to turn the International School of Geneva’s international history course into a recognised A-level (taken by only five students in 1963) into an entire programme. He told the teachers who would help design this broad-based curriculum to forget everything they had learned, to project their thoughts to the year 2000 and to imagine what type of education students in that time would need to thrive. Several years later, as Director General of the International Baccalaureate, Cole-Baker was prepared to mortgage his property to pay employees' salaries.
We look back at history as a series of events, but those events are driven by people, and it is the energy, vision, creativity and boldness of those people that has made the difference and allowed for ideas to become reality, for change to happen. This is particularly the case for the international education movement: it could not have happened without sustained and courageous vision. This involved committing to a project that was not initially financially sustainable and not caving in to force of conservatism and excessive scepticism.
Nowadays words like creativity and innovation have almost become clichés: we hear them at conferences, read about the necessity to be creative in endless papers about leadership and change management. It might be true that all of us need to embrace a spirit of innovation to be future ready. Perhaps the spirit and risk-taking of the pioneers of international education can inspire us to do so.
Conrad Hughes
Director General