WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.620 So have you ever looked at a totally mundane 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.919 piece of information like like a map directory 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:09.460 or a list of addresses and realize it's actually 00:00:09.460 --> 00:00:13.000 hiding this massive sprawling story about the 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:15.160 world? Oh, absolutely. I mean, we overlook that 00:00:15.160 --> 00:00:18.410 kind of raw data. All the time. Right. And today 00:00:18.410 --> 00:00:21.050 we are taking you on exactly that kind of journey. 00:00:21.149 --> 00:00:23.390 We've got a deep dive custom tailored just for 00:00:23.390 --> 00:00:26.089 you, focusing on how a seemingly simple source 00:00:26.089 --> 00:00:29.809 can act as a masterclass in global diplomacy, 00:00:30.010 --> 00:00:32.189 cultural footprints and international history. 00:00:32.469 --> 00:00:34.950 OK, let's unpack this. We're looking at the details 00:00:34.950 --> 00:00:37.450 surrounding a single high school. Just one school. 00:00:37.590 --> 00:00:39.810 Yeah, just one. The Pietro della Valle Italian 00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:43.549 School in Tehran, Iran. It really is a fascinating 00:00:43.549 --> 00:00:45.490 exercise in reading between the lines because, 00:00:45.549 --> 00:00:47.469 you know, we tend to think that to understand 00:00:47.469 --> 00:00:49.070 international relations, we need to read these 00:00:49.070 --> 00:00:53.250 dense thousand page geopolitical treatise. Oh, 00:00:53.270 --> 00:00:55.270 for sure. The heavy academic stuff. Exactly. 00:00:55.270 --> 00:00:57.609 But sometimes the most profound insights are 00:00:57.609 --> 00:00:59.810 literally hiding in plain sight. An everyday 00:00:59.810 --> 00:01:01.909 directory or a list of operational status can 00:01:01.909 --> 00:01:04.209 reveal the shifting fault lines of global relations 00:01:04.209 --> 00:01:07.269 way better than a textbook. That is exactly the 00:01:07.269 --> 00:01:09.709 mission today, to show you how a single set of 00:01:09.709 --> 00:01:12.129 coordinates and a catalog of active and closed 00:01:12.129 --> 00:01:15.390 schools can completely reframe how we see the 00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:17.390 global landscape. Yeah. Let's start with the 00:01:17.390 --> 00:01:20.150 micro level details, the actual physical space. 00:01:20.629 --> 00:01:23.150 The source paints a very specific picture of 00:01:23.150 --> 00:01:26.390 the Pietro della Valle Italian school. In Italian, 00:01:26.530 --> 00:01:28.629 it's the Scuola Italiana Pietro della Valle. 00:01:28.709 --> 00:01:32.129 We even get the Persian romanization, which is... 00:01:32.349 --> 00:01:35.170 Let me get this right. Madras -e -Tlaliyeh, Pietro 00:01:35.170 --> 00:01:37.170 della Valle. Spot on. Thanks. And it's located 00:01:37.170 --> 00:01:39.290 in Farmany, which is a district in Shamiran, 00:01:39.430 --> 00:01:41.629 right there in Tehran. And the source doesn't 00:01:41.629 --> 00:01:43.730 just give us a vague neighborhood either. It 00:01:43.730 --> 00:01:46.609 pins the institution down to an exact address 00:01:46.609 --> 00:01:49.250 on Lavasani Avenue number 47. Lavasani Avenue 00:01:49.250 --> 00:01:51.510 number 47. It even pins it down to the exact 00:01:51.510 --> 00:01:54.790 coordinates. 35 degrees, 48 minutes, 3 seconds 00:01:54.790 --> 00:01:58.569 north. 51 degrees, 27 minutes, 56 seconds east. 00:01:58.730 --> 00:02:01.120 That is incredibly specific. Right. It's not 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.640 just some abstract idea. It's a physical footprint 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:06.219 you can locate on a map. You can almost imagine 00:02:06.219 --> 00:02:08.939 like zooming in on your screen, crossing continents 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:11.240 right down to the roof of the specific building. 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:14.560 It grounds the whole discussion in a very real, 00:02:14.680 --> 00:02:17.620 tangible infrastructure. And that physical grounding 00:02:17.620 --> 00:02:19.599 is crucial here. I mean, this isn't just an exchange 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:21.620 program where someone visits for a semester and 00:02:21.620 --> 00:02:24.199 goes home. No, not at all. The text outlines 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:26.300 that the school offers a continuous educational 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:29.199 pipeline. From kindergarten all the way through 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:32.360 senior high school. Wait, so a family could theoretically 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:36.120 have their... child enter as a toddler and graduate 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:39.560 as a young adult fully educated within this Italian 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:42.240 cultural framework right in the middle of Tehran. 00:02:42.500 --> 00:02:44.620 Precisely. It's a completely unbroken pipeline. 00:02:44.939 --> 00:02:47.340 Imagine the impact of that on a person's development. 00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:49.240 Yeah. You're living your day -to -day life in 00:02:49.240 --> 00:02:51.379 the capital of Iran, right? Yeah. But inside 00:02:51.379 --> 00:02:54.860 those walls for over a decade, your academic 00:02:54.860 --> 00:02:57.400 reality, your cultural references, your language, 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:00.159 they're all Italian. It creates a deeply immersive 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:03.259 cultural bubble. And it's a very strictly measured 00:03:03.259 --> 00:03:05.759 bubble, too. The text points out that the school 00:03:05.759 --> 00:03:09.099 offers Italian language courses based on CEFR 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:12.699 and CIS. Right. Now, for anyone listening who 00:03:12.699 --> 00:03:14.340 has tried to learn a second language, you might 00:03:14.340 --> 00:03:16.979 actually recognize those acronyms. But let's 00:03:16.979 --> 00:03:19.099 break down how they actually function here. Well, 00:03:19.159 --> 00:03:22.659 think of CEFR, which is the Common European Framework 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:26.129 of Reference for languages like... like martial 00:03:26.129 --> 00:03:28.250 arts belts for language learning. I like that 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:29.689 comparison. Yeah, it's an objective standard. 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:32.490 So whether you are studying in Tehran, Tokyo, 00:03:32.710 --> 00:03:36.110 or Toronto, a B2 level means the exact same thing 00:03:36.110 --> 00:03:38.189 everywhere. It means you can hold your own in 00:03:38.189 --> 00:03:42.169 a complex conversation. And CILS. CILS is the 00:03:42.169 --> 00:03:44.110 Certification of Italian as a Foreign Language, 00:03:44.250 --> 00:03:46.590 which basically applies those broad standards 00:03:46.590 --> 00:03:49.020 specifically to Italian. So why do they need 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:51.199 these specific rigorous frameworks if they're 00:03:51.199 --> 00:03:54.180 just teaching kids in a local international school? 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:57.360 Is it just about passing exams? It's about standardizing 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.599 the cultural export. What's fascinating here 00:03:59.599 --> 00:04:02.560 is how relying on those frameworks ensures a 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:05.680 highly consistent cultural product. A cultural 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.560 product. Exactly. A student taking an Italian 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.879 class at this school in Tehran is being measured 00:04:11.879 --> 00:04:14.520 against the exact same linguistic benchmarks 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:18.129 as someone sitting in a classroom in Rome. The 00:04:18.129 --> 00:04:19.870 Italian government or the cultural institution 00:04:19.870 --> 00:04:22.350 running it isn't leaving the curriculum up to 00:04:22.350 --> 00:04:24.970 chance. They want strict quality control. Yes. 00:04:25.129 --> 00:04:28.629 They are calibrating the education so that the 00:04:28.629 --> 00:04:31.949 Italianness being taught is uniform, verifiable, 00:04:32.189 --> 00:04:34.870 and globally recognized. It's like a perfectly 00:04:34.870 --> 00:04:38.069 tuned piece of cultural machinery operating inside 00:04:38.069 --> 00:04:40.230 a foreign capital. That's a great way to put 00:04:40.230 --> 00:04:42.230 it. But the story doesn't end at the walls of 00:04:42.230 --> 00:04:45.149 this one school. The data also categorizes the 00:04:45.149 --> 00:04:47.569 broader network of international schools in Iran, 00:04:47.790 --> 00:04:50.589 specifically focusing on Tehran. We get a list 00:04:50.589 --> 00:04:52.310 of what's active and what isn't. And here's where 00:04:52.310 --> 00:04:54.670 it gets really interesting. This is where the 00:04:54.670 --> 00:04:57.189 geopolitical reality really starts to show itself. 00:04:57.490 --> 00:05:00.370 Yes, those structural wiki lists are so often 00:05:00.370 --> 00:05:02.970 overlooked, but they act as a silent archive. 00:05:03.569 --> 00:05:06.550 They categorize information without any editorializing, 00:05:06.670 --> 00:05:09.029 which is what makes the contrast within them 00:05:09.029 --> 00:05:11.689 so striking. The data is divided into two main 00:05:11.689 --> 00:05:13.629 categories at the bottom of the page. Let's look 00:05:13.629 --> 00:05:16.439 at the active roster first. Operating right now 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:19.459 in Tehran, you've got a vibrant mix of European 00:05:19.459 --> 00:05:22.899 and Asian institutions. There's the French school, 00:05:23.060 --> 00:05:26.120 the Ecole Française de Tehran, the German Embassy 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:30.220 School, the Japanese and Korean schools, the 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.959 Pakistan Embassy International School, and, of 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:35.439 course, our Italian school. It's a very diverse, 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:38.779 thriving list. It is. Now, contrast that active 00:05:38.779 --> 00:05:41.100 list with the second category in the exact same 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:43.360 directory. The defunct list. The schools that 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.579 have closed their doors. Exactly. It's a completely 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:47.740 different demographic. The defunct roster is 00:05:47.740 --> 00:05:51.079 heavily Anglo -American. You've got the British 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:53.379 School of Tehran, the Tehran American School, 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.480 the Community School. Keep going, yeah. The Iran 00:05:56.480 --> 00:05:59.060 Bethel School, the American School of Isfahan, 00:05:59.319 --> 00:06:02.240 and the Iranzaman School. When you place those 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.079 two lists side by side, you are looking at a 00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:07.500 completely neutral snapshot of shifting diplomatic 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:10.500 tides without stating a single political opinion. 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:13.819 Without outlining any specific historical conflicts 00:06:13.819 --> 00:06:16.920 or taking any sides whatsoever, this directory 00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:19.779 reflects profound structural transformations 00:06:19.779 --> 00:06:22.360 in international relations. It's just raw data. 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:24.920 The text doesn't editorialize at all. None. It 00:06:24.920 --> 00:06:26.720 doesn't say why the British and American schools 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:28.980 are closed or why the French and Japanese ones 00:06:28.980 --> 00:06:31.600 are open. It simply presents the reality of the 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:33.980 map today. And as an observer of this information, 00:06:34.199 --> 00:06:37.800 that raw data. speaks volumes. Behind that simple 00:06:37.800 --> 00:06:40.439 defunct label is a whole history of embassies 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:43.560 closing, diplomatic ties being severed, and families 00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:46.120 packing up their lives. Wow. Yeah, when you think 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:48.240 about it in human terms, it's heavy. It really 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:51.220 is. The closure of certain Western educational 00:06:51.220 --> 00:06:53.680 institutions alongside the continuous operation 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:56.160 of European and Asian ones tells you how the 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:58.480 landscape of foreign presence in expatriate communities 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:01.980 in Iran has evolved over decades. It really bridges 00:07:01.980 --> 00:07:04.199 the gap between high -level theory and human 00:07:04.199 --> 00:07:06.779 reality. You see the word defunct and realize 00:07:06.779 --> 00:07:09.000 that used to be a bustling campus with teachers, 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.819 students, community events, parent -teacher conferences. 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:15.139 Exactly. Real people. It's amazing how a simple 00:07:15.139 --> 00:07:17.860 list of school names can essentially serve as 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:20.680 a footprint of global history. It's primary source 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:24.139 material that is completely unburdened by narrative. 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:26.300 It doesn't tell you how to feel about the shifts 00:07:26.300 --> 00:07:29.720 or whose fault anything is. It just logs what 00:07:29.720 --> 00:07:32.500 is open and what is closed. So we've seen how 00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:35.720 Tehran serves as a microcosm for shifting global 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:39.120 ties through these educational footprints. But 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:42.019 what happens when we zoom out, when we look at 00:07:42.019 --> 00:07:44.139 the country casting this particular educational 00:07:44.139 --> 00:07:47.379 net? Italy. Right. The source provides another 00:07:47.379 --> 00:07:50.459 incredibly detailed list mapping out Italy's 00:07:50.459 --> 00:07:52.699 international school network across the entire 00:07:52.699 --> 00:07:56.660 globe. And it is a massive, meticulously categorized 00:07:56.660 --> 00:07:58.500 network. The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 00:07:58.500 --> 00:08:00.180 doesn't just lump all these international schools 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:03.160 into one bucket. They have a very specific, deliberate 00:08:03.160 --> 00:08:05.759 classification system. Yeah. The text explicitly 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:07.939 breaks this down. It notes that schools with 00:08:07.939 --> 00:08:10.060 the word state and their name are owned and operated 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:12.060 by the Italian government. State owned. Right. 00:08:12.259 --> 00:08:14.980 Then you have private schools. And finally, there 00:08:14.980 --> 00:08:17.500 are some schools marked with asterisks. The asterisks 00:08:17.500 --> 00:08:19.860 are fascinating. The source indicates these are 00:08:19.860 --> 00:08:22.100 not officially recognized by the Italian Ministry 00:08:22.100 --> 00:08:24.480 of Foreign Affairs, even if they have an Italian 00:08:24.480 --> 00:08:27.100 name or curriculum. If we connect this to the 00:08:27.100 --> 00:08:30.600 bigger picture, this classification system reveals 00:08:30.600 --> 00:08:34.700 the mechanics of how a nation maintains and monitors 00:08:34.700 --> 00:08:37.820 its cultural infrastructure globally. Think about 00:08:37.820 --> 00:08:40.440 what a statal school actually represents. Okay, 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:42.669 let's think about that. Having a state -owned 00:08:42.669 --> 00:08:45.309 school abroad means the Italian government is 00:08:45.309 --> 00:08:48.730 directly funding, staffing, and managing a physical 00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:51.970 building on foreign soil. It is a direct extension 00:08:51.970 --> 00:08:54.129 of the state. It's almost like a cultural embassy. 00:08:54.409 --> 00:08:57.110 Which is a huge financial and diplomatic commitment. 00:08:57.629 --> 00:09:00.049 It's one thing for expats to set up a private 00:09:00.049 --> 00:09:01.929 school to teach their kids the language, right? 00:09:02.169 --> 00:09:04.409 But it's entirely another for the government 00:09:04.409 --> 00:09:06.570 in Rome to cut the checks and manage the curriculum 00:09:06.570 --> 00:09:09.830 directly. Exactly. Private schools might promote 00:09:09.830 --> 00:09:12.110 the culture. And they obviously serve a really 00:09:12.110 --> 00:09:14.730 important role for expat communities. But the 00:09:14.730 --> 00:09:17.730 statal distinction is a direct lifeline to the 00:09:17.730 --> 00:09:20.269 home country. Wait, so if a school isn't recognized 00:09:20.269 --> 00:09:23.169 by the ministry but has an Italian name, why 00:09:23.169 --> 00:09:25.690 does Italy bother tracking it on their lists 00:09:25.690 --> 00:09:27.759 with an asterisk? Are they just trying to be 00:09:27.759 --> 00:09:30.179 comprehensive or are they protecting their brand? 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:32.500 Oh, it's absolutely about protecting the brand. 00:09:32.679 --> 00:09:35.860 Really? Definitely. By marking unrecognized schools 00:09:35.860 --> 00:09:38.519 with an asterisk, the government is dictating 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:41.159 exactly what does and does not meet their standard 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:43.600 of an Italian school. It's a quality control 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:47.389 measure for their soft power. Soft power. Right. 00:09:47.470 --> 00:09:50.029 If a school in another country calls itself Italian 00:09:50.029 --> 00:09:53.450 but isn't following those rigorous CEFR or CILs 00:09:53.450 --> 00:09:55.610 frameworks we talked about earlier, the ministry 00:09:55.610 --> 00:09:57.669 wants to make sure everyone knows that institution 00:09:57.669 --> 00:10:00.889 isn't an official representative of Italian culture. 00:10:01.289 --> 00:10:04.210 It's kind of like unauthorized merchandise. Unauthorized 00:10:04.210 --> 00:10:06.190 merchandise. That makes total sense. You don't 00:10:06.190 --> 00:10:08.610 want a rogue school diluting the cultural export. 00:10:08.830 --> 00:10:11.179 Exactly. You want to maintain the standard. And 00:10:11.179 --> 00:10:13.960 the geographic reach of this network, authorized 00:10:13.960 --> 00:10:17.100 or otherwise, is incredibly extensive. You read 00:10:17.100 --> 00:10:19.019 through the regions and it covers almost every 00:10:19.019 --> 00:10:21.460 corner of the earth. In Europe, you've got state 00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:23.820 -owned schools in places like Athens and Madrid, 00:10:23.980 --> 00:10:27.080 alongside private ones in Barcelona and Switzerland. 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:29.220 And the Americas are heavily represented, too, 00:10:29.320 --> 00:10:31.159 which directly reflects historical migration 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:34.159 patterns. Where you see large clusters of these 00:10:34.159 --> 00:10:36.220 schools, you're usually looking at the results 00:10:36.220 --> 00:10:39.879 of deep... generational cultural ties, and significant 00:10:39.879 --> 00:10:42.220 diaspora communities. The North and South America 00:10:42.220 --> 00:10:45.460 list is huge. You have the Scuola Italiana Cristoforo 00:10:45.460 --> 00:10:49.340 Colombo in Buenos Aires, the Instituto Italo 00:10:49.340 --> 00:10:52.139 -Brasiliano Biculturale Fondazione Torino in 00:10:52.139 --> 00:10:54.679 Brazil. Quite a few in South America. Yeah. Schools 00:10:54.679 --> 00:10:57.700 in Chile, like the Scuola Italiana Vittorio Montilio, 00:10:57.899 --> 00:11:00.679 the Collegio Italiano Leonardo da Vinci in Colombia, 00:11:00.899 --> 00:11:03.519 all the way up to La Scuola d 'Italia Guglielmo 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:06.159 Marconi in New York. Plus, there are several 00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:08.500 of those asterisked, the unrecognized schools 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:11.200 scattered through Venezuela and Paraguay. Then 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:12.899 you move to the Middle East and North Africa 00:11:12.899 --> 00:11:15.299 section, which is where our Piedra de la Valle 00:11:15.299 --> 00:11:18.240 school in Tehran sits, alongside other institutions 00:11:18.240 --> 00:11:21.059 like the school Enrico Mate. And it even extends 00:11:21.059 --> 00:11:24.460 deeply into sub -Saharan Africa. The text highlights 00:11:24.460 --> 00:11:28.200 the Istituto Statale Italiano Omnicomprensivo 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:31.139 di Addis Abeba, a state -owned school right there 00:11:31.139 --> 00:11:33.460 in Ethiopia. That's a major presence. There's 00:11:33.460 --> 00:11:35.919 also the Italian International School Enrico 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:39.440 Mattei in Nigeria. It even logs a closed state 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:42.879 -owned school in Asmara, Eritrea. The footprint 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:45.990 is truly global. It shows how committed they 00:11:45.990 --> 00:11:48.169 are to keeping that cultural conversation going 00:11:48.169 --> 00:11:50.470 worldwide, whether through direct government 00:11:50.470 --> 00:11:53.350 operation, recognized private enterprise, or 00:11:53.350 --> 00:11:55.909 even just tracking the unauthorized ones. This 00:11:55.909 --> 00:11:58.710 network serves as a massive bridge between the 00:11:58.710 --> 00:12:01.090 host countries and Italy. Which brings us to 00:12:01.090 --> 00:12:03.350 a really fun, incredibly specific detail in the 00:12:03.350 --> 00:12:05.509 text about how Italy actually views this global 00:12:05.509 --> 00:12:08.649 map. Oh, the geography quirk. Yes. We've talked 00:12:08.649 --> 00:12:10.509 about how objective this data seems, but there 00:12:10.509 --> 00:12:12.389 is a bureaucratic quirk that shows how a foreign 00:12:12.389 --> 00:12:14.450 ministry can basically draw them. map however 00:12:14.450 --> 00:12:17.149 they want. Yes, the geographic categorization. 00:12:17.629 --> 00:12:19.870 Geography, especially in diplomatic contexts, 00:12:20.269 --> 00:12:23.330 is often as much about political orientation 00:12:23.330 --> 00:12:27.330 as it is about physical landmasses. Right. The 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:30.830 source explicitly notes that in its list of privately 00:12:30.830 --> 00:12:33.970 operated international schools, the Italian Ministry 00:12:33.970 --> 00:12:36.549 of Foreign Affairs classifies Turkey as part 00:12:36.549 --> 00:12:38.950 of Europe. That's such a great detail. They have 00:12:38.950 --> 00:12:41.710 schools in Istanbul, like the Liceo Italiano 00:12:41.710 --> 00:12:44.990 di Istanbul and the Liceo Scientifico Galileo 00:12:44.990 --> 00:12:47.809 Galilei di Istanbul. And they are firmly filed 00:12:47.809 --> 00:12:50.029 under the Europe section rather than the Middle 00:12:50.029 --> 00:12:52.669 East. That is a brilliant little bureaucratic 00:12:52.669 --> 00:12:54.549 maneuver. I'm sure geographers would love to 00:12:54.549 --> 00:12:56.029 have a word with the Academy Ministry of Foreign 00:12:56.029 --> 00:12:57.830 Affairs about continental divide. Definitely. 00:12:58.029 --> 00:13:00.389 But in diplomacy, categories reveal worldview. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:03.340 By categorizing those Istanbul schools under 00:13:03.340 --> 00:13:05.840 Europe, the ministry is making a subtle but distinct 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:08.639 administrative choice about how it relates to 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.179 Turkey. It highlights historical and political 00:13:11.179 --> 00:13:14.080 ties over strict physical geography. So what 00:13:14.080 --> 00:13:16.700 does this all mean? It just goes to show that 00:13:16.700 --> 00:13:19.679 even a seemingly objective directory is shaped 00:13:19.679 --> 00:13:21.840 by the perspectives of the people organizing 00:13:21.840 --> 00:13:25.019 it. You think you are just looking at a list 00:13:25.019 --> 00:13:27.379 of addresses, but you are actually looking at 00:13:27.379 --> 00:13:30.320 a diplomatic worldview. It really validates the 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.559 idea that no piece of data exists in a vacuum. 00:13:34.259 --> 00:13:37.120 Every institution, every closed building, every 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:39.620 categorized list is connected to the broader 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:41.860 currents of international history. We started 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:44.419 this deep dive looking at a single school in 00:13:44.419 --> 00:13:47.080 Tehran, the Pietra Della Valle Italian School. 00:13:47.279 --> 00:13:49.440 Just one set of coordinates. And from that one 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:51.840 location, from a few coordinates and lists of 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:54.419 active and defunct schools, we've unpacked the 00:13:54.419 --> 00:13:57.529 mechanics of standardized global curricula. We've 00:13:57.529 --> 00:14:00.250 seen an impartial reflection of shifting geopolitical 00:14:00.250 --> 00:14:02.750 history in Iran. We really covered a lot of ground. 00:14:02.929 --> 00:14:05.389 We explored the massive worldwide network of 00:14:05.389 --> 00:14:07.970 state sponsored Italian education, the difference 00:14:07.970 --> 00:14:10.450 between a state owned cultural embassy and a 00:14:10.450 --> 00:14:13.029 private enterprise, and even the bureaucratic 00:14:13.029 --> 00:14:15.370 quirks of how a foreign ministry decides what 00:14:15.370 --> 00:14:17.629 counts as Europe. It's a completely different 00:14:17.629 --> 00:14:20.019 way to look at the world. You don't always need 00:14:20.019 --> 00:14:22.779 a history book to understand the shifting tides 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:25.419 of global relations. Sometimes you just need 00:14:25.419 --> 00:14:28.100 to look at who is building a school, who is funding 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:30.419 the curriculum, and who is closing their doors. 00:14:30.620 --> 00:14:33.840 It makes you rethink all the mundane directories 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:36.860 and lists we scroll past every day. There's so 00:14:36.860 --> 00:14:39.899 much human history baked into those simple data 00:14:39.899 --> 00:14:42.679 points. This raises an important question for 00:14:42.679 --> 00:14:45.509 you to consider as we wrap up today. Think about 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:48.330 the international or culturally specific schools 00:14:48.330 --> 00:14:51.929 in your own city or your own country. Based on 00:14:51.929 --> 00:14:54.129 what we've unpacked today, what do the origins 00:14:54.129 --> 00:14:56.830 of those schools reveal? Yeah, who built them 00:14:56.830 --> 00:14:59.929 and why? Exactly. Look at their active status 00:14:59.929 --> 00:15:02.269 or even the closures of schools in your own backyard. 00:15:02.750 --> 00:15:04.870 What do they tell you about the invisible currents 00:15:04.870 --> 00:15:07.929 of global history shaping your local world? Are 00:15:07.929 --> 00:15:09.730 there statal equivalents representing foreign 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:12.299 governments in your neighborhood? Are there defunct 00:15:12.299 --> 00:15:14.899 institutions that hint at a severed diplomatic 00:15:14.899 --> 00:15:17.419 tie from decades ago? It's worth looking into. 00:15:17.789 --> 00:15:19.990 That is such a great thought to leave on. Look 00:15:19.990 --> 00:15:21.629 around your own neighborhood. You might just 00:15:21.629 --> 00:15:24.370 see the fault lines of global relations hiding 00:15:24.370 --> 00:15:27.309 right there in plain sight, masquerading as a 00:15:27.309 --> 00:15:29.950 high school or a language center. Thank you so 00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:32.269 much for joining us on this journey today. Remember, 00:15:32.429 --> 00:15:34.909 this deep dive was customized just for you to 00:15:34.909 --> 00:15:37.090 help you extract the most fascinating insights 00:15:37.090 --> 00:15:39.649 from the information around you. Keep asking 00:15:39.649 --> 00:15:42.110 questions, keep looking closely at the mundane 00:15:42.110 --> 00:15:45.269 details, and most importantly, keep learning. 00:15:45.970 --> 00:15:47.230 Until next time.