THE STANDARD EDITORIAL BOARD OF 2012-13

Our school prides itself on its diversity and global perspective. These ideas that are ingrained into the Mission Statement are, however, seemingly not receiving the attention that they deserve from the administration.

There are numerous unexploited or underexploited ways for the administration to diversify the school community, both by bringing students into ASL and by having a more active role in the greater London community. All students, faculty and the administration have to do is take a step outside the “ASL bubble.”

There needs to be more opportunities for ASL students to partner with students in other local schools in extracurricular activities. Programs like the ASL-QK Robotics Team should serve as an example. ASL students go to QK and QK students come to ASL to work together on a robot as equals.

There is something flawed about parading the community parternship program as one of our few links to Greater London. While we are provided with many opportunities and community service should be continued, what about creating other ways to interact with London students? Exposure to students from other schools would foster a global perspective because of the diverse viewpoints we would encounter in these interactions.

ASL’s debate team should have more official debates with students from the London schools, whose teams are considered some of the best in the world. Using an outside director for A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year is a strong example of using London’s resources for our school.

Partnerships would not only have to be intellectual. Sports such as rugby, track and field, swimming and football are ones that students everywhere compete in. Participating in sporting events with other London schools would give students more experience with competition, in addition to introducing them to other students from around London. Although this already occurs to some degree, athletic participation with other London schools has the potential to expand greatly.

ASL also has the opportunity to expand diversity inside the community. At present, only 5.1 percent of students are on financial aid. Though much of the tuition is spent on paying teachers and maintaining the school, there’s also money from tuition and from the Capital Fund spent on building new, cutting-edge facilities. By shirking on financial aid, the school makes a farce out of the Mission Statement and, though in terms of facilities we are ahead of the curve in comparison to other international schools, our lack of diversity leaves us far behind the leaders of the pack. The school is planning on allocating 8 percent of our tuition to financial aid, but there needs to be more. Diversity starts here, at school. The solution to this problem comes not simply from breaking away from the “ASL bubble,” but from merging this bubble with that of London’s.