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The year was 1975.The civil war had
just started.The country was being torn
savagely apart. Many newly hired foreign
English teachers cancelled their move to
Lebanon. In desperation, IC turned to
the AUB English department. Would
they have some good students that can
teach the middle school classes?
And so it was that Edmond Tohmé, then
middle school director, found himself
staring at a young blonde. Still a junior at
AUB, Mishka Moujaber, was studying to
become an interpreter. She already knew
five languages. It was her ultimate dream.
Teaching certainly was not. But she was
summoned and so she came.
Tohmé offered her the job. Little did he
know that the young woman in front of
him, barely older than his own students,
would end up leading the school and
reform its programs – making it one of
the top schools in the international arena
of education.
Moujaber’s (now Mourani) start may have
been a slow one as other teachers and
directors kept mistaking her for a student.
In one infamous story during her early
days, she was barred from entering Rock-
efeller Hall during recess. Not only that,
but she was scolded for her bold claim of
being a teacher. It was finally her Depart-
ment Chairman,Thomas Weaver, who
vouched for her.
But a keen sense of humor and a newly
found love for education kept her go-
ing. Before long, she had become ‘Miss
Mishka’ with a long line of admirers.
“I still remember my students from the first
two years that I taught,” she said. “It was a
magic connection. I loved teaching them.”
Her dreams of becoming an interpreter fad-
ed as she found herself increasingly pulled
into the fascinating world of education.
Despite a heavy teaching schedule, she
managed to obtain her Bachelors in
Language and Literature with distinction,
Master’s in Literature and a Diploma in
Administration.
In 1978, the Educational Resource Cen-
ter asked for her help in launching the
Sultan School in Oman. She spent an en-
tire year with a team devising the English
curriculum program and was then sent by
IC to teach it herself in Muscat.
It was a turning point. Mourani contin-
ued to teach but also became a consultant
to the ERC. She felt a continuous urge
to shepherd in new programs but the war
was still raging. Administrators concen-
trated on keeping the school going.
Slowly but surely Mourani climbed up the
ladder until she became the school’s Senior
Vice President. Twice during her career she
found herself serving two posts simultane-
ously. (Director of the Elementary and
Middle School then Director of the Sec-
ondary School and Senior Vice President).
The urge to introduce the latest methods
and developments in education was only
getting stronger.
With the end of the civil war, IC found it-
self on the brink of an important decision:
to stay status quo or reform the system.
With Mourani now at the helm, the
decision was instant. In the 1990s,
IC participated in the revision of the
Lebanese National Curriculum.That
decade also saw the introduction of PYP
(Primary Years Program) in the preschool
and elementary levels. In 2000, IC began
offering the IB program and became
an “établissement homologué”. It was
reaccredited by NEASC & ECIS. New
programs including Theory of Knowl-
edge (TOK), the DP, student-centered,
problem-based, experiential, collaborative
learning, performance-based learning,
entered the realm of the curriculum.
Social service, once a club, became manda-
tory. Students had to fulfill 90 hours of com-
munity service as a prerequisite to graduation.
Today, IC is a school that never sleeps. Ev-
ery year sees new programs, new method-
ologies and new teacher training sessions.
This year is no different.This September
– as in every September, Mourani an-
nounced the latest projects in the school’s
annual plenary session (see box).
“I am never satisfied, “she said laughing.
“There’s always more. More teachers to
teach. More kids to reach. More methods
to apply.”
And for those late 70s and 80s graduates
who keep asking whether “Miss Mishka” is
still at IC, the answer is a resounding: YES.
The school that never sleeps
12
WINTER
2011
Little did he know that the young woman in front of
him, barely older than his own students, would end up
leading the school and reform its programs