Elementary Principal Takes 1-Year Leave to Travel the World

“As educators, we need to learn what is happening in schools around the world," Wuest said. "What learning environments do their children experience, what is valued in education? When we know this, we understand better the kind of thinker, employee, citizen their children will become and we can respond in our classrooms by preparing our students better for the relationships they will have on college campuses, in the workplace and in life."

Wuest leaves this week for Thailand, where she will be joined in her travels by her boyfriend, David Bradley. Her trip is self-funded and she will try to find work in each country, making Bangkok an ideal starting place. 

"I can fly in and out of Bangkok pretty cheap and it's cheap to live there and easy to find work," she said.

Wuest will then visit other countries in southeast Asia, will return home for Christmas and then head to Africa to resume work.

Connecting with various cultures and educational institutions in different continents, she says, can help students better understand the world around them.

“If we want to give American students a fighting chance, they need to have deep understanding through real experience with children of various cultures," she said. "These are the ones they will compete with for jobs, and these are likely the ones they will be working with as adults."

Part of this understanding, Wuest says, is moving beyond merely tolerating other cultures.

"If we're going to move forward as a society, we've got to come to some sort of understanding with each other," she said. "We shouldn't be tolerating one another. Tolerance has got to go. You tolerate the drill at the dentist. Our response to other people shouldn't be that."

Instead, she said, students should be taught acceptance and understanding. 

While Wuest is working abroad, she says Long Meadow will be in good hands. Denise Bereznoff, a retired administrator from Baldwin Elementary, will fill her role on an interim basis and Marianne Maurer will serve as Bereznoff's assistant. 

While Wuest admits she's a little nervous for the trip, she considers this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she has received encouragement from Rochester Community Schools and its Board of Education.

"It's an ideal time," she said. "It's a rare time in my personal life, my children are now grown and out of the house. I don't need the house, so I was able to dump that mortgage and be free as a bird for a year. That doesn't always happen in someone's life."