Bernhard Gademann

Spear’s Review

‘Anything we do, we focus on making education relevant, ensuring that it has a contemporary connection – and therefore we contextualise through many different ways,’ says Bernhard Gademann, the conductor of Switzerland’s globally revered Institut auf dem Rosenberg, of its holistic and technologically informed approach to learning. ‘I think we live in such a dynamic world, with any kind of changes – from digitalisation to sustainability – constantly shaping societies and changing the way we work and live.

‘All of our parents are entrepreneurs that run their own businesses that are very successful, and they’re really our best sounding board for new ideas. And they’ll come to us and tell us what they think is missing today in education.’  

One such parent pointed out that it’s sometimes difficult to foster a healthy culture around robust debate in the modern world. ‘[They said that] people don’t know how to have a have a civilised argument any more … what happened to a good proper way of having a discourse?’ Gademann says. ‘So we took this as inspiration – within two weeks, we had a course called the Art of Conflict.’ 

Gademann, who heads the 135-year-old school that has been run by four generations of his family, had a somewhat unconventional route into education, working in finance and technology before taking the helm of the Institut. He draws on his unique experience by teaching students about wealth creation and investment. ‘Everybody should know about interest rates, inflation, share investment portfolios – nobody teaches this.’ His students create portfolios and are told to invest a hypothetical $1 million sensibly and sustainably. ‘It’s really, really beautiful to see how they can connect all the knowledge that they pick up, and end up with having their own voice and are not just repeating something. They come up with their own project.’ 

His love of technology – including AI – has also revolutionised the classroom – and the school’s timetabling. ‘We employ very powerful algorithms; for example to create timetables … In theory we would be able to have a new timetable every single day. We think the world’s not quite ready for it, but we have the capability to do it.’ 

Traditional schools, meanwhile, could do better: they need to embrace technology and change, he says. Gademann believes that the gulf ‘between reality and what is actually being taught in a classroom’ is widening, adding that he strives to ensure his Institut is not ‘restricted by the way typical schools work’.

One unique aspect of the Institut’s approach is the work of their Artisans, a term which Gademann says elevates the human and social skills of teachers that machines will never replace. ‘Human beings very much rely on social interaction. This is how we learn. If you think about your job today, you never took an exam to perform your job today. Ninety-nine per cent of that you learned on the job; you did that because you were interested, you were curious,’ he says. ‘And so I think referring to our teachers as Artisans raises their position.’ 

Gademann’s Artisans, and some other crucial pieces of tradition, including the Rosenberg values, will stay central to the philosophy as the school continues to set standards in the world of learning.