As a result of the educational experience at ISB, students receive transportable gifts of intellectual development, metacognition and cross-cultural understanding. Although these gifts have considerable immediate benefit, they also appreciate in value with the passage of time. For many, the gifts are most fully realized and appreciated in adulthood.
These gifts are transportable because, in a very practical way, they allow students to move seamlessly from this school to schools and universities of choice throughout the world. With the opportunity to experience outstanding teaching that challenges, supports and nurtures, students become experts in their own learning. Having learned how to learn, they are adaptable and able to maximize their learning in a variety of settings.
The gift of intellectual development allows students to achieve their potential in academic study, vocation, avocation, and all aspects of personal life.
The gift of cross-cultural understanding and the resultant worldview are perhaps less tangible. This is a gift that resonates deeply and touches a person throughout life. Moreover, it is a gift that keeps on giving to others. It comes through friendships with classmates from around the world, from learning with a teacher whose cultural background is very different from one's own, from living in visiting countries and cultures different from one's own, from carefully planned activities in the Thai host culture and from curricular and extracurricular instruction that seeks to maximize intercultural understanding in all classes and school sponsored activities.
This gift is an experience that profoundly changes the way students feel about themselves, their own countries, and other countries and cultures. Students will learn that there are many "correct" ways to look at a problem depending upon particular cultural assumptions and practical realities. Students will learn to see issues from different points of view, and they will learn to negotiate solutions that take into account the mindset and cultural assumptions of themselves and others. Through exposure to people from other cultures, students will achieve a deeper understanding and appreciation of their own culture and its assorted assumptions.
The gift that the students receive is due in large measure to the learning environment that the school fosters. Within that environment, each student chooses his or her own road in search of inner and outer harmony.
The transportable gift is an understanding of oneself alone, and also an understanding of oneself in the world. It begins at school and continues throughout one's lifetime.
