International Mindedness
Times of political turmoil and war can cause particularly acute distress in international communities. Many AIS Vienna students, families, employees, and alumni are directly or indirectly affected by recent events in Israel, Gaza and the Middle East– one, but unfortunately not the only, political and humanitarian crisis affecting our community members.
The impact of the shocking number of lives lost, and the deep concerns for all of those affected as the conflict in the Middle East continues are understandably being felt by AIS Vienna community members across the globe. There is no place for hate of any faith at AIS Vienna and our thoughts are with everyone suffering.
The events in recent weeks have far reaching effects. As we all try to understand the current situation, we would like to reassure and remind us all that as an international school with 80 nationalities represented, we consciously foster a safe and nurturing learning environment for students of all faiths and backgrounds.
We are committed to helping our students and community through difficult times by practicing international mindedness, in which we work to understand and validate the perspectives of others, and deal with real world issues in a safe and age-appropriate manner. Many students and their friends need support in working through the emotions surrounding conflict between countries. In addition, students need support to safely deal with interpersonal conflicts that may arise among them. As adults, we are committed to helping students be supportive of one another and manage feelings they may have about these world events.
Teachers, staff members and parents serve a critical role in this process by facilitating age-appropriate discussions with students and by teaching and modeling kindness, respect, and understanding.
We thank our community for coming together in difficult times, and for supporting us in our efforts to maintain our safe and nurturing environment for learning. As such, we refrain from sharing politicized messages on school channels and instead help each other and our students nourish our friendships across differences. We have also encouraged current families to review their children’s social media feeds and create time to talk to them about what they are seeing and hearing from the media.
As always, AISV is here to support our students with our shared humanity and kindness, and with the community mindedness emblematic of AIS Vienna. As a school and community of positively impactful global citizens founded on the principle of peace, we share our heartfelt support for those affected by current crises around the world.
