Simply Abu Dhabi XXXV

2 6 2 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I At the same time, a poster on the wall reads, “Handwriting is an imprint of self on page,” a quote from Dr. Rosemary Sassoon, who believed that the handwriting of an individual is a mirror of one’s soul and personality. Another example of harmony and balance. Rosenberg manages to make a firm alliance between progressive teaching methodologies, where students learn understanding rather than system-based learning, and timeworn values, using cutting-edge technology. Rosenberg students all have access to the Rosenberg App with a host of social aspects and the ability to communicate with fellow students, staff and parents, and access to trail- blazing equipment – one example being that Rosenberg is the first school worldwide to have an Artificial Intelligence robot. Throughout the two-day tour this seamless blend of historical values and 21st century technology is in evidence. At the one of a kind ‘Creative Lab’, I’m surprised and impressed to see children as young as 6 years of age building robots, coding, and using 3D printing techniques. The colourful room is filled with all kinds of machines, robots, tools and gadgets as well as creations in various stages of completion. I’m pleased to meet Mr. Gerhardus Breedt, a senior educator and Head of the Talent & Enrichment programme, and a true Rosenberg-er. Gerhardus explains how the Creative Lab has been making waves around the world, attracting attention from the likes of Norman Foster + Sons as well as Swiss Universities including the ETH in Zurich – one of the world’s most prestigious institutions for science and technology. “The Creative Lab in a dream lab, where you can learn anything you want using industry level technology in subjects ranging from art to science to mathematics,” says Gerhardus. “We’re always looking for cross-curricular collaboration because the world out there is so interconnected. We are conscious of how this interconnectedness works and how different interdisciplinary actions and exchange actually creates all the beautiful new inventions and makes the world so colourful and diverse.” The Rosenberg Creative Lab focuses on the rapid advances made worldwide in digitalisation and automation and it functions as a boundary-pushing learning and experimental environment, featuring dedicated workstations for art, design, and technology, including coding and robotics. It’s fascinating to feel the energy fizzing in the room as students busy themselves in their individual tasks. This is not a normal classroom by any stretch of the imagination. “We try to engage students and not to bore them with text book education. We don’t want our students to do copy and paste and use a YouTube link,” says Gerhardus. “Create your own video! Tell your audience your own story! Be your own story,” he emphasises. Expanding on the nature of creativity Gerhardus says, “Human creativity, and the ability for humans to be creative, takes form especially when humans are faced with an element of surprise. A situation, for example, where something that has been trusted, stops working. And one has to find out why it’s not working. It can be on any level – it could be mechanical or it could be ideological. It could be a political approach to something. When society’s values change, the political systems have to adapt to the needs of the people, and you need creativity there. Indeed, creativity is in evidence everywhere at Rosenberg, it infuses all aspects of life here. Whether in the artworks or the newly built robots, the learning of multiple languages or manifested in dance, music and sports – whatever the subject or activity, creativity is elevated. And that also applies to how the school is operated. At the end of my tour I meet the fourth-generation President and owner of Rosenberg, Mr. Bernhard Gademann. Responding to the remarkable balance between old values and the progressive embrace of technology, Bernhard explains, “At Rosenberg, we are very committed to preserving tradition but at the same time, my grandfather and father always said that it’s important to adapt to the zeitgeist… because there is a very thin line between being traditional and dusty. “In my family, we follow the tradition of each generation innovating and doing something new to the school, to look into the future. Therefore, while I’m the defender of tradition and history, I also had a mandate to bring the school into the 21st Century. I now have to continue forward and make education relevant for students of today.” It’s an approach that secures the future of students, ensuring they keep pace with the world for when the time comes for them to contribute to the society they will live in. Bernard says, “We have to prepare them for positions of leadership 20 years from now, and so we have to think what is that going to be like.” At the same time, while one eye is kept focused on the future, the other ensures the best of the past is preserved. As Bernhard explains, “There are some values that are perpetual; Perseverance, kindness, the ability to relate, thinking in different ways, to connect with other people, to inspire – these are things that were relevant 130 years ago and are still relevant today, and will still be relevant in another 130 years.” Considering the challenges that may face today’s students when they graduate in a decade or more, Bernhard ponders for a moment before saying, “The first challenge will be this – the age of digitalisation will bring about change on an unprecedented scale. In the next two or three decades, this change will be propelled even further. That means we will work in different ways, production will work in different ways, consumers will behave in different ways. If you are running a family enterprise, if you are working in philanthropy or the arts, whatever it is that you do… it will affect your life and the way you are successful and connect with people. So, that’s the challenge.” He adds, “There is all this innovation, new technologies and new ways of doing business facing our students in the future. Just as much as we adapt at Rosenberg, the sons and daughters of entrepreneurial families who attend Rosenberg will have to adapt their family businesses and their family legacy.” In conclusion, Bernard considers the traits of both the child embarking on an education at Rosenberg, and the promising future of the graduate. “Most Rosenberg students come from entrepreneurial family backgrounds, very successful people, who are looking for the type of education that will allow their children to be successful, but also content with themselves. Many parents tell us, ‘you know, I don’t really mind what my son or my daughter does, but we want them to be passionate about it and we want them to be experts in their field.’ I think that’s a true generosity of mind. “When students leave us, they have what I like to refer to as the ‘Rosenberg state of mind’. That’s the confidence that they can achieve, the confidence to interact in an international environment having built a strong network, and having produced academic results which allow them to pursue their dream, and perhaps the most important thing, a sense of how the world works and how it is interconnected.”