The Tehran American School (TAS)
1970s campus location
was an American international school in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. It was founded in 1954, and it held its final classes in 1978.Egherman, Tori.
Notebook , The Last Days of the Tehran American School

. ''

PBS Frontline ''Frontline'' (stylized as FRONTLINE) is an investigative documentary program distributed by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Episodes are produced at WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts. The series has covered a variety ...

''. November 5, 2012. Retrieved on September 15, 2015. The school, affiliated with the

U.S. Embassy in Tehran The Embassy of the United States of America in Tehran was the American diplomatic mission in the Imperial State of Iran. Direct bilateral diplomatic relations between the two governments were severed following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, and ...

, served grades K–12 in a coeducational manner and used English as the language of instruction.Harvey, John F. ( Motahedin University). "School libraries in Iran." In: Carroll, Frances Laverne. "School Library Development in Other Countries." ''Recent Advances in School Librarianship: Recent Advances in Library and Information Services'' (Volume 1 of Recent advances in library and information services).

Elsevier Elsevier () is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, '' Trends'', th ...

, May 20, 2014. , 9781483157689. Section start (identifies the author): p
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CITED: p
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"Probably the best school library was operated 1950–78 by the private Tehran American School which was affiliated with the U.S. Embassy and taught in English, grades K-12. A full-time American librarian supervised this 1500 student coeducational school ..

History

The American school was established after the director of the

Community School, Tehran Community School ( fa, مدرسه كامیونیتى) was a boarding school in Tehran, Iran, originally intended for the children of Presbyterian missionaries from the United States who were stationed in Iran since the 1830s. However, it soon s ...

, Richard Irvine, announced in 1953 that the school was going to limit the number of Americans enrolled to preserve a balance in the cultures among the student body. The

U.S. Ambassador to Iran Prior to 1944, Iran was not served by a United States ambassador; instead, a diplomatic minister was sent. The first ambassador was named in 1944. After the Iran hostage crisis in 1979, the United States terminated diplomatic relations with the I ...

Loy Henderson Loy Wesley Henderson (June 28, 1892 – March 24, 1986) was a United States Foreign Service Officer and diplomat. Background Loy Wesley Henderson was born on June 28, 1892, in Rogers, Arkansas, to a poor Methodist preacher. He attended college i ...

, guided the opening of the new American school, which initially had Kindergarten through grade 8, the following year. The school initially had 94 students.About Tehran American School
" Tehran American School Association. Retrieved on September 22, 2016. The senior high school division opened by 1960. In May 1973 the school had 1,400 students. The school's first campus, which opened in 1954, was later named the Sayed Khandan Campus in 1974. A new elementary and middle school campus, Lavizan Campus, opened in the fall of that year. In the fall of 1976, an athletic center and gymnasium opened. As of 1976, the school planned to open a new high school campus. At its peak, TAS was the largest American school outside the United States with about 2,000 students. The school closed due to disruptions that developed into the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynas ...

. The last superintendent, i.e., principal of the entire school, Dr. William Keough, was seized in the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 in the course of shipping out the students' transcripts; the transcripts were never sent."Tehran American School Transcripts"
Tehran American School Association. Retrieved on September 22, 2016. The TAS campus subsequently became an Iranian university, ''

Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University (SRTTU), is a public university in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The university is named for Mohammad Ali Rajaee, the second president of Iran. The university is located in the North East of Tehran, in t ...

'' (SRTTU). The main mission of the Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University is educating the teachers for technical and vocational education schools in Iran. Today the grounds have been rebuilt for the restricted use of the National Archives and Library of Iran ('' Sazman Asnad va Ketabkhaneh Melli''), and the public use Tehran Book garden (''Baghe Ketab Tehran''), a multi-plex arts, culture, and science education center.

Library

The school library had 18,000 volumes. John F. Harvey, a visiting professor at Motahedin University in Vanak, Iran, stated that the American school had " obably the best school library" in Iran. According to Harvey, the American School's library was the first modern school library in Iran.Harvey, John F. ( Motahedin University). "School libraries in Iran." In: Carroll, Frances Laverne. "School Library Development in Other Countries." ''Recent Advances in School Librarianship: Recent Advances in Library and Information Services'' (Volume 1 of Recent advances in library and information services).

, May 20, 2014. , 9781483157689. Section start (identifies the author): p
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CITED: p
179
"While Iran has had school libraries for many years, modern school library ideas arrived only in 1950 with the opening of the Tehran American School."

Student body

Frontline Front line refers to the forward-most forces on a battlefield. Front line, front lines or variants may also refer to: Books and publications * ''Front Lines'' (novel), young adult historical novel by American author Michael Grant * ''Frontlines ...

'' has reported that historically most students did not have many Iranian friends and "led lives fairly isolated from Iranian society". At the same time, they developed emotional connections to the host country.

References

External links

Tehran American School Association
{{Authority control 1954 establishments in Iran 1978 disestablishments in Iran American international schools in Iran International schools in Tehran High schools in Iran Educational institutions established in 1954 Educational institutions disestablished in 1978

History

Library

Student body

See also

References

External links