School choice

Bilingual / international or Classical?

The difference between Bilingual / international and Classical is mostly one axis: technology at school. Bilingual / international sits toward built in from the start; Classical sits firmly toward kept out until late. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there, mixed ages and when formal academics start. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Bilingual / international

Teaching runs in two languages, often with a national curriculum on one side and another on the other, in a cohort assembled from several countries. For a family that has moved, may move again, or wants a heritage language kept alive at school rather than only at home, it resolves something no local school can. The academic programme is usually conventional and demanding; the language is the differentiator.

What it asks of you

  • Fees, and usually a commute
  • Accepting slower early progress in both languages before it compounds
  • A cohort that turns over as families relocate, and friendships that go with them
  • Supporting the weaker language at home, which lands on the parents

Classical

A specified body of knowledge, taught in a deliberate order, on the argument that you cannot think critically about something you do not know. The trivium stages it: facts and memorisation while memory is easy, then logic, then rhetoric. Often Latin, usually history in chronological sequence, and always explicit instruction from the front.

What it asks of you

  • Comfort with memorisation and recitation, which are unfashionable and central here
  • Accepting a canon, and that choosing one is a value judgement however old it is
  • Homework, and a household that supports it
  • Checking which tradition a given school belongs to — the name covers a wide political range
Side by side

Where they differ

Bilingual / international is the filled marker, Classical the hollow one. Widest difference first.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Bilingual / international sits toward built in from the start; Classical sits firmly toward kept out until late.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Bilingual / international sits a little toward school should stay neutral; Classical sits toward school should teach a view of the world.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Bilingual / international sits a little toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Bilingual / international sits a little toward an authority who instructs; Classical sits firmly toward an authority who instructs.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Bilingual / international sits firmly toward we can pay, and we can travel; Classical sits a little toward we can pay, and we can travel.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Bilingual / international sits a little toward learning happens at a table; Classical sits toward learning happens at a table.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Bilingual / international sits toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Classical sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Bilingual / international sits a little toward graded and tested regularly; Classical sits toward graded and tested regularly.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Who else is there. Both sit a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.
  • Mixed ages. Both sit toward classes of the same age.
  • When formal academics start. Both sit toward early, and ambitiously.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing