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Education Creates Life – An Interview with Khun
VARnnee Chearavanont Ross What inspired you to establish Concordian International School? Since I was a teenager I’ve asked myself what can I do for society. I’ve been trying since university. I can even remember producing an application essay in which I wrote about doing good for Thai society after finishing my degree. It’s something I’ve always been interested in and I have been fortunate to have a very supportive family who gave me the chance to explore the world via education, travel and work. Many today lack such opportunities but I want to make use of my upbringing and experience to help others gain an education. In terms of inspiration, actually I didn’t intend to establish a school. At the time I was concentrating mainly on helping only poor students. But I had the chance to visit a school in Hong Kong and get to know its philosophy; ‘To create students who create a better world.’ This impressed me deeply and made me re-evaluate what I was doing. I realised that we should focus on students with opportunities in education because they have the best chance to change the world. They have the most effective means of support and thus are best placed to effect change for the better in society. On the other hand, they could make society worse if they lack morality. The idea of establishing a school was born in 1999 when Thailand and many countries in Asia were facing the Tom Yam Kung economic crisis. If you consider the recent economic and social problems we have experienced, you will see that the issues were not caused by uneducated people. Rather the problems arose with the emerging classes who are well-educated and increasingly influential here at home and in the world. It made me realize that an education without any morality can be a dangerous thing to the whole world. So I asked myself what was missing in education? And I concluded that a school has a duty to teach students to be responsible and moral if we want a better world. But the big questions are how do we make them both good and competent people; and how do we teach them to realize that ethics and public interest are the most important aspects? These morals are even more important than smartness or wealth as generally perceived by people. Study is all well and good but the key questions to ask are have you tried your best? Have you paid enough attention? Are you a good person? Because if you are smart but have no morality, you are not Concordian International School material. The name ‘Concordian” alludes to people who hold fast to peace. We named the school in order to promote a more peaceful world. And only moral people can make a peaceful world.
Starting up is always challenging. How did you learn to manage the school? In the beginning, there were a lot of questions. For example, what type of international school would we be when there are already many such schools in Thailand. I didn’t want to establish yet another ‘typical’ international school. What we really want to do is create tomorrow’s leaders, youngsters who can communicate in many languages. We want to bring out the best potential in our students in order to put them on the path to sensible decision-making based on morality and social concern. We broadened this idea by looking at what makes successful leaders and what our school should offer – other than English and Thai language skills. We thought about the Chinese language, which was not commonly taught here 10 years ago, because we reasoned that teaching Chinese would give our students an advantage. It helps them grow as individuals and offers a fast-track ticket to the world of economics. Unlike other schools, forty per cent of our program for students from nursery to Grade 5 is instructed in Chinese. Of course there will be more Chinese people who are able to communicate in English. But the truth is most Chinese business owners are not proficient in the language. They hire someone to speak English for them. So if we can speak Chinese with