What Makes an Education?

Casey, the student

What makes an education? This is a question we ponder these days as we struggle with Casey's needs in terms of 80+ years of life--what is best for him, what will have mattered the most in the third grade, trying to be honest and know when we are imposing our own desires and when we are seeking the best for him.

The question we are struggling with right now is what would be best-----a local Italian school or an International School? Clearly there are pros and cons on both sides. When we first started talking about doing this, we knew exactly what we wanted--Casey was going to an Italian public school so that he could live a different culture, learn the language, make friends, develop a view of the world that was not myopically patriotic to the exclusion of validating other nations and cultures.

We wanted to live in a village or town where he and we could make friends, develop a degree of comfortability, know and be known--and a place that was centrally enough located that we could have easy excursions into larger cities such as Siena, Florence, Rome. We wanted to find if the ambience that has permeated our trips there--some as long as seven weeks--continues when "living" there for an extended time--or is there a romance of short term visits that dissipates in the reality of day to day experience? Would we find that we are more inseparately attached to our life style in the states than we think? These things were our thoughts as, after a lot of talk over several years, we decided "to do it."


Casey enjoying the simplicity of the small town. Would this work?

But then, as we explored our thoughts with other people--especially both Italians and expats in Italy--we were given a different perspective. If we are going for just one school term, the language situation might be too much--not time enough to learn or settle in so he would remain an outsider the entire time. This certainly is not what we want--an unpleasant, unhappy experience and memory. Then--the other concern we have is the quality of what he will learn.

If we put him in the International school of Florence, where he will be taught in English, he would continue his learning in the 3 r's and so would not fall behind his contemporaries here at home. Plus--he would be able to make and communicate with friends right off the bat. The other real plus is the experience of interacting with children from so many different cultures and countries--somewhere around 43 according to the school.

Some of the negatives are that, although English speaking kids are given Italian instruction, from what I have picked up from other expats with kids enrolled, it is not enough to become anywhere near fluent. And--most importantly, he would not have the advantage we seek for him of living and finding his way in a different culture and country.

So the dilemma continues for us. We become so limited in living location options with the International school. Rentals close enough to commute to and from school are much more expensive than other areas of Tuscany--and that is not the area we would freely choose to settle in given our druthers. Additionally, the school fees are not negligible--not at all. But---if that is best for Casey that is what we will do even though some of the other things we want are sacrificed.

So, for now we struggle with this decision. Our hearts want him in an Italian school but perhaps our heads should rule. What do you think?


Casey and his science project. He was pretty proud!

Ignorance is Blind and Finding a School

I suspect that we are not too much different from most people--especially those here in the US (although, we would like to think that we are much different than many of our countrymen these days, politically speaking.) We are spoiled--think that we can pretty much do what we want, when we want, how we want--such as just picking-up and moving to another country at will--just as we might move from sunny San Diego (our territory) to snowy Syracuse--New York, that is--(once upon a time our territory) or points in-between.


Our sun filled back yard--as I write.

But--lo and behold! other countries have procedures, immigration controls and laws, I's that must be dotted, T's that must be crossed and bureacracies that sometimes are infathomable. And--as I think of how difficult it is for people of other countries to come here, I know that we just need to get on with it. So--we are starting off on the pre-journey of planning and anticipation with our eyes on the life-changing journey that lies ahead of us. And we are excited and eager.

Before starting any processes, we absolutely needed to address the issue of Casey's schooling. How much we want him to become bilingual and fluent in Italian! But----even more, we want these months (or longer) to be extraordinarily fun and engaging for him--a time to help form an adult who will seek the new, the different, the challenging--who will thrive on the unexpected, taking risk and seeking adventure--a person who sees his God everywhere and who values and understands differences. And so, the fact that international schools, while taught in Engish, do include Italian language instruction, and that these schools have children representing as many as 43 different countries somewhat guarantees that Casey will have the rich experiences we seek for him.

This led us to spend a great deal of time googling to find potential schools--focusing on Rome and Florence--actually, Siena was another major option but we couldn't find an international school in that area. If someone reading this, knows of one, please tell us as we are still open.

When we contacted schools which seemed particularly appropriate, we discovered just how costly this is going to be--we're talking a lot of euro! And, not all schools will accept students for just one school term. Eventually, we narrowed our choices to the Ambrit school in Rome and the International School in Florence. Both schools were easy to contact, enouraging and "just nice" in their e-mails. Both have programs and curriculae that seem to be rich and child centered with many opportunites for growth and cultural experiences. So then the decision became where do we most want to be--and, that wasn't too difficult to decide as the dream has always been Tuscany or Umbria--although, the richness that is Rome made that option very enticing.

With the school decision made and with encouragement from the very nice Ms. Ragusa from the ISF that there will be room for Casey in the fall of 2006, our eyes have turned to where to live and how to get there. Fortuantely for us, our lives are enriched by some very good and dear friends in Montepulicano who have offered to help us through the processes of establishing ourselves and so at least our road is paved by "knowing" someone. My understanding is that one of the governing principles of Italy is that knowing someone who knows someone and the friend of a friend routine is critical to accomplishing things for native and foreigner alike.


Nico, our good and dear friend in Montepulciano

And so--we have our guru--we have our determination--we have goals--and--we have a grandson who makes everything even more precious and perfect. We are off--on a trip to where ever this leads!

Next: Location, Location, Location. Coming up: The Italian Consulates and What It Takes