21C International Schools

THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN WITHOUT USING AI

What is a 21C International School?

A 21C is a short acronym for, you guessed it, 21st Century and of course “International Schools” coming right after 21C is a designation newly created by forward thinking and visionary educators.

I was educated at international schools and in the 20th Century. My elementary schooling was at St Andrew's School in La Paz Bolivia. St Andrew's is an IB (International Baccalaureate) school and it’s pushing forward to be a 21C school, My secondary education at Bishop Du Bourg HS in St Louis Mo, a private catholic school, was also not a 21C school at the time of my graduation. The University of Missouri, and ASU-Thunderbird my alma matter were not 21C, but now they are.

So, what is the vision of a 21C International School?

I will mention the top 5 characteristics of what I know to be a 21C International School.

First a 21C school is using 21st century technologies to impart knowledge and learning, which means the school is using or is in the process of implementing the use of tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI), the internet, smart phones, tablets, LMS tools, social media, and other 21st century tools. All this to create “individualized instruction” and “individualized curriculum”.

Second the school has a student body of between 25% and 50% international students that come from other countries because of its reputation for excellence in its curriculum and teaching staff.

Third, the school regularly graduates from High School, students that can speak fluently 2 languages or more. In my case when I graduated H.S. I could fluently speak Spanish, English and French. Many schools treat learning a language as an elective subject. Treating language learning as part of the core curriculum is of extreme importance in 21st century schools.

Fourth, summer vacation does not exist for 21C schools and the school operates year round with many one week breaks in between trimesters. Summer school was created in the 19th and 20th centuries to have our kids help us collect the crops that we grew, as back then we were an agrarian country.

Fifth these 21C International Schools graduate students from High School in 2 or 3 years instead of 4 years. These students then go on to attend top Universities and will graduate in 2 or 3 years.

21C technologies have allowed us educators to substantially increase the amount of learning and information that young students can attain. I personally have examples of these graduates, and it is not a fantasy

Lastly, I am not blaming our current school system. It is very understandable that our current system of schools was designed over 100 years during the industrial revolution and the system worked wonderfully 100 years ago.

Let’s recognize that we are in the 21st century and our educational system has to operate and come up to the technologies and standards of the 21st century.

To find out how to become a 21C International School please contact Prof Carlos

Prof. Carlos Roncal is the School Principal at World Language Schools a designated “21C International School”. He returned to Lamar University in 2018 (21st century) to obtain his ?School Principal certification course which he finished with a grade of 96% out of 100%

Please contact Prof. Carlos Roncal at

[email protected]