In Search of Tante Suzy

Constanza Eggers (LGB, 1968) is a Harvard graduate, profoundly thankful to her cherished "Tante Suzy," who dedicated herself as a teacher at Ecolint. Tante Suzy played a pivotal role in shaping Constanza's academic journey, influencing her learning, and teaching career path, and nurturing her as a compassionate individual by instilling the very best of her values. Constanza wanted to express her heartfelt gratitude for Tante Suzy's profound influence and wrote a letter to Tante Suzy. Unfortunately, Tante Suzy passed away but if anyone is in touch with her family, don't hesitate to get in touch with us at [email protected] so that we can share this moving text.

"Dear Tante Suzy,

You are so warmly alive in my memory! I wanted to let you know the lasting impact a year in your classroom has had: I have built my ethics and my educational career inspired by your teaching. I often feel and share the pride in the pioneering and pivotal knowledge that emanated from my experiences in your classroom.

Your shy but encompassing smile and your sparkling eyes immediately felt both comforting and inciting at the same time. I realized more than thirty years ago I had enjoyed a unique opportunity to delve into what learning truly is throughout my full life as an adult.

Tante Suzy, it was not the content that mattered, it was how you engaged us in learning that was so special and stimulating. As a newcomer in the class, fresh from other schools, other languages, and cultures, I felt instantly able and integrated. Vocabulary lists were not a boring list to be memorized, but a game and an inquiry, where we raced with each other to find the words in our copies of Le Petit Larousse Illustré and then read aloud and discussed that word for a long while. Teaching was clearly an adventure for you that you were sharing especially with us, to provide us a window to wondering and beginning to explore and connect knowledge and life, always with feeling, consciousness, purpose, and pride. I remember a time when you took us across the woods, encouraging us as we climbed, observed, commented, joyfully 'played', and at the end, you took us to your house to sit on the couch and the floor to listen to Beethoven's Ninth! It was clearly as much a treat for you as it was for us. I remember you urging us on, with expectant, encouraging eyes, as we stood at the front of the small classroom, one at a time, to recite our favorite poems. My body remembers this too, feeling my hands clasping behind my back and swaying rhythmically to ease my excitement and shyness at taking stage. We dared to go beyond our comfort zones and accomplished things we never had tried. I remember the ceramic tile I painted with some pastoral scene, as all art and creativity was part of what we were privy to in your classroom. I remember you taking us to gather chestnuts, your pleated skirt swishing ahead of us on our adventures. And I remember the place quite well...This school building had an intimate meaning for me. The corridor to the bathroom stands out to me for some reason: dark, mellow brown wooden floors, a turn here, a step down ahead. There was something warm and comforting about this corridor -maybe it was the way the sun-dappled patches of light filtered through the leaves of the large tree onto the floor. maybe it was the smell of well-aged farmhouse remaining on the wood floor. Although I couldn't remember what the building was before it was a school. I know it had an addition perpendicular to the main building. We visited the workshop with you on the ground floor of that addition, where the next year's class had participated in a taxidermy project. I was looking forward to next year to learn this interesting way to approach anatomy class!

I believe it was because of my travels, my family, and you that I pursued a career in education for all, advocating for and practicing teaching and learning based on critical thinking, personal responsibility and engagement, and intercultural respect and knowledge. Only recently have I learned that l'Ecole Internationale was created 100 years ago with the same principles. What an influence l'Ecole has had on all of us lucky enough to attend!

Everything seemed so vibrant there, at your school, in your classroom, in your presence. Unfortunately, I did not stay long enough to experience the other amazing teachers at l'École, but my time there was pivotal in my education and in my life. Because for the first time in my school experience, and one of my only until college, I felt as though you, our guide, were totally focused on me, and each of us, your students. For the first time in a classroom, I had a face and a voice.

Perhaps the greatest proof that you were an exceptional educator/guide is that I remember you so vividly amidst a jumble of many faceless classrooms in various countries. 

Merci, Tante Suzy!"