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Green School Revisited

When it opened last year, the Green School was met with a mixture of admiration,

astonishment and derision. As usual, it was the skeptics and the nay-sayers that shouted the

loudest. It's just a bunch of hippies in a bamboo hut they cried. It's not a proper schoolthey whined. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At the same time, and more encouragingly, Green School

drew attention and admiration world-wide. Now, after a full year of operation, the school

embarks on its second year on full throttle, with a new director, a new principal, 12 new

teachers, 90 fee-paying students from 20 countries, and 18 balinese children on

scholarships. Tropical Living reports on a phenomenon in progress.

CNN has been there, and even made a donation. ABC News did a feature. TIME as well. New

York Times. David Copperfield came to visit. He thought it was magic! Donna Karans been;

stylish was her verdict, of course, and just about every conservation and ecological

organization you can imagine has sent representatives to Bali to find out just what it is these mad

people along the Agung River are getting up to. When Tropical Homes visits, late one Fridayafternoon, however, there are no VIP visitors, just us. The kids have all gone home, and peace

reigns at the Green School. I am met by the director, Ronald Stones (OBE, no less) and Andrew

Dalton, the principal, at the magnificent Heart of School building. Its the largest bamboo

building in Asia, possibly the world, a three storey structure of great beauty. If it didnt sound so

cheesy, I would call it graceful. A typical Green School moment occurs early in ourconversation. Andy: This is the largest bamboo structure in Asia, you know. Maybe in theworld. Me: In the world? Wow! Thats so cool! I have to write about that. Ronald, sternly:

Letsjust say in Asia shall we? We dont know if its the biggest bamboo structure in the

world, we only know its the biggest in Asia. Here at the Green School, we deal in facts. Andy

and I stare at our feet, sheepishly, suitably scolded.

Here, I must declare several interests. First, John and Cynthia Hardy, who founded (and

funded) the Green School, are friends of my wife and I, and John and I have done business

together on occasion. Second, my cousin and his wife have just moved from Stockholm to Bali

for two years with their three children, putting their careers on hold (and in jeopardy), in order to

put the two youngest ones in the school. And third, Im an unabashed fan of the Green School

and what it stands for. So now you know.

As you may have gathered from the conversation above, one of the things that strikes you about

the Green School these days is not how liberal and fuzzy it is, it is how conservative and old-

fashioned it is in many ways. Although a lot of the courses are unfamiliar, and the surroundings

are certainly unique, at the core of the Green School you feel one thing: learning. At his speech

on the first day of the new term, Andy said something like this: Im used to conventional

schools, so I need to change my way of thinking. And so must all of us. This is a unique school,

whose purpose is to give you all the knowledge that you would learn in any other school, and

something else besides. Here, you will also learn about building houses and creating energy,

about the planet and about business and how to take care of our planet and each other. But make

no mistake: here at the Green School, were going to be polite to each other, I want us to sayplease and thank you, to study hard and to work harder. We are here to learn, all of us. Does this

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sound like a bunch of hippies in mud field to you?In addition to Ron Stones, who has 24 years in

South-East Asian schools behind him, and numerous honours and awards to his name, the faculty

at Green School is highly conventional in its credentials; there are 21 teachers, including a

certified Steiner teacher and a PhD. Seven hold Masters Degrees, one an MBA, four have

postgraduate teaching qualifications and 17 Bachelor Degrees. It is perhaps more unusual that

amongst these, all of whom are qualified educators, you will find also find engineers,psychologists, environmentalists, scientists, film makers and artists. Andrew Dalton, the

Principal, for example, has degrees both in Electrical Engineering and Education. Susan Allen,

the Creative Arts teacher, has a Bachelors degree in Psychology and a Masters in

Environmental Studies. Katharine Lane, the International Primary Class teacher, has a

Bachelors degree in English and Politics, and a Postgraduate Qualification in Education. Joel

Mowdy, the English Specialist teacher, has a Bachelors degree in English Literature and

Creative Writing, and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. He is also a published author. It

goes on and on like this; you get the picture.

As for the curriculum, it follows both the Cambridge IGSCE and the IB paths; youre your basic

Maths, English, Sciences and so on, are exactly the same as they would be if you were inMelbourne or Hong Kong. Some of the courses, however, are highly unusual, although, being

fully accredited, not unique. The main one is Green Studies, which includes studying agriculture,

energy, waste treatment, animal care, sustainable development and construction. Last year, the

older kids built a club house together, all in bamboo of course. Staff from PT Bambu, Johns eco

development business, was on hand to advise, but not to participate. The whole thing took two

months. John Hardy says that when he now goes into an old church or a castle with his

daughters, they immediately scan the roofs and arches for load bearing points and weight

distribution, making knowing comments about proportions and light. Its the same with

agriculture; these children learn how to harvest rice, to build a dam, how to generate electricity.

Here, the children dont study how to build a house; they learn how to build a house, by buildinga house. This is why people come here from Singapore and Melbourne and Stockholm, resigning

from their jobs and renting out their houses, as necessary, to give their children a year or three to

experience the Green School.

I first met John Hardy almost four years ago, when he called me up and told me to buy a piece of

land he owned on the Bukit. He didnt ask if I wanted to buy it, he told me to buy it. So I went tolook at it; bang on the ocean, a hundred and thirty meters of cliff-front, about an acre of land,

stunning views to the South East, white sand beach below. Totally amazing. Normally you have

to buy five hectares to get that much cliff front. Id never seen anything like it. So I called him upand asked why he would want to sell such a unique piece of land unless he was bankrupt, which

he clearly wasnt. I dont want to sell it. he said.'I have to sell it; Im building a school out of

bamboo in Ubud. Ah, but of course you are, I thought. Right. So I went up to the John Hardy

jewelry center in Ubud, and attended a lunch for 400 people. This lunch was a daily event;

everyone who worked there had lunch together daily, all eating the same lovely Balinese food on

bamboo plates and banana leafs. Throughout the lunch, people would stand up to I am almost

saying bear witness but that is unfair; tell a story is probably more accurate. About a

community project they were doing, say, or an organic farm, perhaps. Bahasa Indonesia, English,

French, Italian and Balinese was spoken all around me, we were surrounded by the beautiful

Yew Kuan designed showroom and the terraced rice fields, the former filled with exquisite,

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breathtakingly expensive silver jewelry. Pretty hard not to be impressed. My moment of

conversion came when the lady next to me, an ultra-elegant American lady, clad in Chanel from

head to toe and with a coiffure that could withstand a Grade Five hurricane, leapt up from her

seat and proclaimed: John, daaaahling, having seen this ah-maazing place for myself, I want to

assure you that Neiman Marcus South-West is doubling its business with John Hardy next year!

John flashed her one of his wicked-wolf smiles and said: And so you should, darling. So youshould. Then he turned to me and winked. Shameless, he is, that John Hardy fellow.

And so you get hooked on the Hardys. Everyone has their own Hardy story, but theyrebasically all the same. You meet them, you get mesmerized, steamrolled, charmed and

challenged, and you walk away either converted to their cause, or you decide never to come

anywhere near Ubud again. Whiners and procrastinators are not invited back. Anyone who has

made as much money and created a world wide brand the way the Hardys have done are bound

to attract massive envy, especially on an island like Bali, where even the most modest

achievement is regarded with suspicion. Some people even think Im successful, for Gods sake!

That doesnt set the bar very high, I can assure you. So when the Hardys make this massive pile

of moolah and then decide give away a very large amount, a huge amount actually, of said lucre,not simply by giving it to Oxfam, but creating something as totally unique as the Green School,

well, my oh my. You could almost taste the sour grapes emitting from the clenched jaws of the

Seminyak and Ubud nay-sayer brigade. But, you know what? What did doubting Thomases and

fence-sitters and kvetchers ever achieve? Not very much. So sod them, actually.It is therefore

with the utmost pleasure that I can honestly, truthfully and loudly report that the Green School is

an unqualified success. It stands alone in its kind in the world, and is the result of the sheer

bloody-mindedness and determination of the Hardys and the uncompromising vision of Ron

Stones and the senior faculty and staff at the Green School, the huge enthusiasm of the teachers,

the open hearts and minds of the students that study there, and to a very large extent the courage

of the parents of these children, leaving their lives and world behind to embrace the bold and

new and visionary phenomenon that is the Green School.