Interviews

We’ve all heard the expression “walk the walk if you are going to talk the talk” – a person (or organization) should support what they say, not just with words, but also through action. Yet, most of the schools participating in the globally elite study preach core values of community and honesty but when digging deeper into the student and alumni interviews, it quickly becomes apparent that the core values which are so heavily broadcasted to the world are not the same as the values the school is actually instilling into their students. More specifically, as I read through the interviews of students who attend the Croft School – an extremely elite, private school located in Chile – I noticed a large disconnect between the advertised values of the school and the realities which the students revealed throughout their interviews.

 

When visiting the Croft School’s website it is quickly understood that essential to the Croft school’s mission is the Croftonian profile which embraces the principles of fair play, all-rounded, good manners, spirit of service, team spirit, joy of learning. The foundation of the Grangonian profile revolves around the shared values of empathy, honesty, humility, loyalty, compassion, and respect. Throughout their website, these values are clearly communicated in multiple different articles, infographics, and images. There is no missing the fact that team spirit, service, and community are key aspects of their culture. 

Despite these publicized values on the internet, the students’ accounts of Croft’s values did not seem to match those that the school advertised so heavily.  For example, when asked what the values of the school were, Alejandro (a student at the Croft School; a pseudonym) responded with  “they emphasize a lot of fair play and community service but I feel like those values have been lost a lot. Like now they focus a lot about good behavior. Like that’s all they focus a lot on now. Like they’re being really strict. And good manners. They care about good manners.” While Alejandro may have a general knowledge of what the school’s intended values are, he reveals that those values are absent in the school’s current culture. Furthermore, when asked about whether or not the school has a focus on service he hesitates before saying “They try to but it doesn’t work sometimes because there’s not much motivation to. It doesn’t have like any incentive, students don’t respond that way.” The notion that the students need an incentive or motivation to engage in service of any type emphasizes the extreme elitist attitude that is pervasive throughout the Croft School. To further highlight the contradictions in the school’s advertised values versus the students’ actions, Alejandro discloses that “there’s not the sense of helping each other, it’s really individual and [the student] are not trustworthy because they steal, they steal a lot in the school and they steal clothes mainly.” Again we uncover how not only do students fail to give back to their community through acts of service but rather, they STEAL from their peers and classmates. 

Uncovering the inconsistency between what the school publicizes to the world and the student’s actual behavior has raised a lot of questions and doubts as I have gone through the research process. As I continue throughout my research, I aim to be more cognizant of the discrepancies and also investigate how and why these discrepancies evolve. It is important to take a moment to recognize and acknowledge that simply because somebody (or some organization) talks the talk, doesn’t necessarily mean that they (or their students) walk the walk.