We are the Dangels – Chris, Charlotte, Carolyn and Luke. A relatively normal family, we have a strong desire to spend as much time together as we can before the kids get too old (Charlotte high school graduation – June 2023 – EEK!). We also have been feeling the need to “take a break” from the craziness of life and work and schedules in the US, and to give ourselves and our children the opportunity to see the world; to see life from different perspectives, to experience another culture up-front. After a not insignificant amount of preparation, on August 13, 2018 we embarked on a year long adventure – a sabbatical year in Cape Town, South Africa. Chris was extremely fortune in being awarded a sabbatical year from his teaching position at Arlington High School in Arlington, MA. He will be working part time at the Elkanah House school in Table View, north of Cape Town.
Decisions about Schooling
Charlotte and Luke will be attending the American International School of Cape Town, starting August 19. We decided on AISCT after exploring several options, including local government schools and the International School of Cape Town. Factors impacting our decision included: 1) consistency of curriculum, ensuring that upon the completion of the sabbatical year they could fit back into the US education system seamlessly; 2) consistency with the US education school year calendar vs. the South African calendar (which runs on a calendar basis); 3) diversity of the AISCT student body, which includes 25% South African students, 25% US and 50% from the rest of the world; and 4) overall alignment of experience with their own personal experience. We quickly decided that while our overall goal for the year is to expose ourselves to different perspectives and cultures and ways of doing things, we could offer the children a solid base of the familiar through their school to ground them for other new experiences.
Dangels in Cape Town 