Talk:Villa St. Jean International School
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This is a good article and obviously the result of considerable research. I do have a few comments.
First, I suspect that few would actually consider Antoine de St-Exupery to be "the greatest French writer of the Twentieth Century."
More central to the main content of this article, however, it is not true that "the Villa St. Jean evolved over the decades into an international school," or that "In the decades after the War, Villa St. Jean was transformed, and by a decade and a half after the War's end the school had become a metropolitan, international institution, teaching principally an American high school curriculum..."
In fact (see http://www.villastjean.com/Photos/François%20Ullmann/St._Exupéry.htm) the Villa consisted of overhelmingly French students and taught a strictly French curriculum through at least the 1960-61 school year and probably through 1961-62. My own recollection puts the student body at around 150-200 French, about 12-24 Swiss, 2-3 Americans, 2-3 Canadians, and a half-dozen from other countries (mostly French territories or former French territories) while I was at the Villa during the 1957-58 through 1960-61 school years. Francois Ullman generally confirms these numbers through at least 1955-56, although for 1959-60 he counts 176 French, 42 Swiss, and 40 "other." Perusing "Villa Talk" within http://www.villastjean.com reveals that almost all of the French students left the school by the end of the 1961-62 school year. The "French" Villa in fact closed and its administration and faculty departed. A group of American Marianists re-opened the Villa St. Jean International School at the same location for the 1963-64 school year. There was no decades-long transition. As I understand it, this was basically an American High School. This second school also closed after just a few years of operation.
Brian scva 11:38, 12 February 2007 (UTC)
