My first day at Lauder is a crisp, sunshiney fall day. Literally and metaphorically. It is not lost upon me that the students skip, jump, bounce, and run from place to place or nowhere in particular at all. Peter Varga (or Varga Peter as they say here in Budapest) tours me around the campus, and I learn from him that the younger children have indoor and outdoor shoes and that they go outside for extended periods of time everyday to play-rain or shine, snow or not. In fact, we passed his youngest son, Basti, on the playground at the beginning of the tour and then again well after our tour of the campus. When we saw him the second time, he was running into school and flinging off his coat, his hair wet with sweat and a playful grin on his face.
In the lower school wing, I see a group of ESL students huddled in the hallway on the floor. From a distance and the chatter coming from that group, most people would assume that nothing much in the way of learning was going on. But they effusively show me their workbooks and tell me in perfect English all they are learning in their ESL class.
High school students, however, can be a tougher sell, but Peter’s math class of juniors were eager to hear about Las Vegas and wanted to know if the movies are true. They, too, speak excellent English, and I loved imagining them hanging out together with our students at Adelson. I think they will have a great time when that opportunity presents itself.
As we drove off campus to meet our knowledgeable and engaging tour guide, Agi, I am left with the impression that Lauder students are happy, floating from place to place and glistening in the sun.
