The Bandung International School (or
BIS, for short) is a
school for the
children of
expatriates living in and around the
city of
Bandung. I once was a child of expatriates (well, I'm still their child of course, but they're no longer expatriates) living in Bandung and so I was sent to the BIS. All in all I had one of the best periods of my life (up to now, at least) at that time, and in part it was because of this school. Or maybe more accurate would be to say that it was due to the
class I was in and the
teachers I had.
In
grade two I had a lovely
Scottish teacher, who started me on the
Narnia series by reading
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to us in class. I eventually read the whole series, but it was some time before I realized that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe wasn't the first in the series. Oh well. At least she got me hooked on
reading, because prior to that I
hated it.
The teacher I had in grade three was just as great. This man is really the one that I
blame for my wish to be a
writer. He set up a whole
system to encourage us to
write. I can't remember exactly, but it had something to do with a card that had a whole list of items (like "
story", "
poem", "
limerick", and what have you) and the goal was to have
tick marks (or several) next to all the items on the
list by the end of the
year. I still have nearly all the stuff I wrote back then
stashed away somewhere in a
box or something. The
dream of becoming a writer has never really left me
since then, it has only been
strengthened through the years by reading
works by various authors.
The school has a
website these days and you can see parts of the school for yourself if you follow the "VR Tour"
link. In my time the school only consisted of the
ground floor. The second story was added in
recent years, just like the
swimming pool, the roofed
basketball court and a few extra smaller
buildings.
Sources:
Memory and http://bisdragons.com/
July 24, 2001