My students

I have two classes of 18 students each and a 10 student advisory group that meets once a week starting on Sept 16th. They are amazing people. Very kind and motivated for the most part, though some bullying rears its ugly head and racism is subtle but present on the students parts, mostly it is historical however and not personal.  Students here work hard and have for the most part two supportive parents. Mom's usually stay home and join the PTA or run and manage the campus store. They represent a lot of high ability women, making the best of the fact that they sacrificed their career for the family. I think it is particularly difficult when their kids reach High School, soon to leave for the States for college. Then what do they do?

The students whose picture I cannot post come from forty different countries and have in many cases parents from two different countries. Some of the children have never been to the country on their passports. When parents mentioned this at Open House they were quite wistful about this fact; disbelieving almost using "How did that happen!" voices.

The biggest problem students can have here is no contact with parents for a variety of reasons. One is that both parents work at jobs that require a lot of travel. The other is that a marriage between people of different nationalities breaks up. It can be very stressful for families here, and almost impossible for a two career family., I think, though teaching couples is very doable and common at JIS. Many families though at Open House mentioned how much they love living in Indonesia.