The Green School

The element that truly distinguishes Green School is its very premise. Begun a decade ago by John and Cynthia Hardy, jewelry designers and longtime Bali residents, it was intended to do nothing less than create a future generation of “green leaders,” even as it would defy — in form and function — what we know as school itself. In a much-viewed 2010 TED Talk, John Hardy, clad in sarong and sandals, speaks passionately about his own early troubles as a student (owing, in part, to his undiagnosed dyslexia) and how his school differs from a traditional educational institute. That talk, and, more importantly, word of mouth, has lured more than one parent to Bali from as far afield as Malibu, Budapest and São Paulo — and often, unlike “The Mosquito Coast,” it was the kids prompting the decision to come. The Green School was not simply the default option, as it is with other international schools, for expat families employed by nearby multinationals. Today, its student body (consisting of 435 students, from pre-K to high school, across 35 nationalities) has more than quadrupled from its original size. The school has become a sort of bamboo beacon, a pilgrimage site for progressive educators, a stop for TED-circuit global luminaries from Ban Ki-moon to Jane Goodall. 

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From “The School Prepping for the Apocalypse“ by Tom Vanderbilt for the New York Times T Magazine; Photo by Jeremy Piper (@jeremypiper) 

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