Article by Finlay. H. Hamilton on behalf of the Update team.
Mr. Deighan retired from teaching at Ecolint in 2025.
It is hard to do justice to John Deighan: educator, leader, guest speaker coordinator, Update founder, and friend. His very character and presence, his warm smile, his fervent gesticulation, his resonant voice—one that reverberates with the emotive force that only Scotsmen seem capable of achieving—are etched so distinctly into the hearts and minds of those who have met him that he has adopted something of a legendary status in the canon of the school. He is the sort of man about whom it is hard to feel indifferent. The sort of man to whom everyone pays attention. The sort of man who is easy to know and very, very hard to forget.
Asseverated again and again in his own sonorous voice, and present in many of the 400+ speakers he brought over his twenty-one years at Ecolint, was the same consistently rousing message: “Stand up against social injustice; speak out against abuses of authority when you witness something wrong!”
Writing about him, it is difficult to escape the sensation that one is producing an obituary for a great man—the type one reads about in history textbooks, pictured waving high the flag of liberty, facing up to tyranny, marching against the bars of injustice and championing the rights of the everyday citizen.
Yet, this is no obituary and John Deighan is no world leader, nor acclaimed civil rights activist. No famed author or great philosopher. No. John Deighan is an educator—retired, at long last—and that is perhaps what makes him so special. He is one of the few teachers who have, through their modest and underappreciated work, achieved the feat of projecting inspiration, integrity of values and the passionate drive to educate for a better world. It is to his great credit that from the students’ perspective he can be described in such apparently hyperbolic terms—there is little other way of conjuring the didactic importance he has had in our lives.
It is probably unsurprising, then, that Mr. Deighan decided to become a teacher (instead of continuing with his university subjects of economics and accounting) after watching the movie Dead Poets Society, in which the eccentric Mr. Keating inspires and inculcates his class with a renewed love for life and learning. It is a funny coincidence that both Deighan and the fictional Keating share the first name John. In any case, we posthumously thank Robin Williams, who played Keating; for without his execution and character, we could have ended up with John in accounting instead of the incredible Mr. Deighan, a teacher who has taught us all far more than just languages.
A sign of a good teacher is that they can find important lessons in all manner of places. Born in Aberdeen, with parents from Glasgow, Mr. Deighan remembers two formative moments from his childhood.
The first was visiting his elderly aunt at the Glasgow tenement she resided in. Tenements are a type of terraced building, shared by multiple dwellings, that are typical of the region. As a young boy, this was Deighan’s first exposure to a background significantly different from his own. For him, the most striking feature of these tenements was the powerful sense of community: there was a solidarity among people that he witnessed first hand when sent to exchange goods with, or help out, a neighbour.
The second memorable experience from his childhood years was a summer job at the shipyards secured for Deighan by his father, who worked as a naval architect. A young Deighan was assigned to the monotonous, stultifying chore of counting nuts and bolts to be used in the construction of the boats. In doing so, he was actively immersing himself in a world of heavy industry to which many are exposed on a daily basis. This activity forced him to consider how even if he and his family lived a fairly privileged middle-class life, others “didn’t have it so easy”, and were performing intense labour in often challenging conditions (cue the famed Scottish downpours, gales and snow).
Both of these moments delivered for Deighan the realisation of how lucky he was to live with a loving family in decent conditions. It also encouraged him to engage in a lifelong introspection, asking himself to review always: “who you are, where you’re from, and what you’re about.”
Fast forward to a post-Dead Poets epiphany Mr. Deighan, teaching at a secondary school in Scotland but looking to get out into the world. It was his natural curiosity and desire to learn that drove him to spend a year abroad in Spain—or at least, that is what it was supposed to be, before one year turned into two, that before long turned into eight and a marriage with his lovely wife Lola. Mr. Deighan then spent two years in Lisbon, in a country he described as being small, but having a deeply fascinating history.
After his Iberian adventures, Mr. Deighan and his wife ended up teaching at a British school in Caracas, Venezuela, where his son was to be born. Here was a place that deeply fascinated Mr. Deighan—a fact apparent in the sincerity and enthusiasm with which he speaks about it.
Besides an enlightening period of time spent with indigenous communities, Mr. Deighan recalls being captivated by the intense polarisation that one man—Hugo Chávez—summoned in a country that was seemingly divided between those who idolised and those who reviled him. Chávez, president from 1999 until his death in 2013, claimed to be pursuing the alleviation of poverty and a fight for Venezuelan equality and prosperity. However, critics argue that he presided over a period of democratic backsliding, and that his economic reforms were unsustainable and ultimately damaging in the long-term.
From the atmosphere of privilege in the school he worked at, Mr. Deighan was only exposed to one perspective on Chávez. That was, until he had what he equally describes as the privilege of meeting a Basque woman who worked in the slums of Caracas and opened his eyes to another reality. This unique experience revealed to Mr. Deighan the importance of seeing both sides to an argument before jumping to any conclusion. According to Mr. Deighan, such a practice “makes you more critical, more open-minded and empathetic,” regardless of which stance you end up taking.
It was also this experience that helped birth the idea of a guest speaker series for students, staff and parents at Ecolint. After being forced out of Venezuela due to the political and security situation, Mr. Deighan was offered a role at the International School of Geneva – La Châtaigneraie. Thinking back to his encounter with the Basque woman in Caracas, he saw it as critical to our education that we see other realities outside the bubble of our Swiss international school.
Guest speakers have arguably been Mr. Deighan’s most impressive achievement, with their sheer volume and calibre outclassing most universities’ lecture programmes. In the last academic year alone, which was Mr. Deighan’s final term and represented the school’s centenary, a whopping 50 odd speakers were brought.
Bringing everything from professional athletes to activists and prime ministers was Mr. Deighan’s modus operandi. His love for working with young people to facilitate interviews and introduce them to incredible figures stemmed from a desire to deliver meaningful change. For Mr. Deighan, success was measured in the number of students who left the classroom, interview or assembly with a changed attitude to their lives and an impetus for action in their eyes. When the students flocked down the aisles of the aula to converse with the guest speaker after the talk, Mr. Deighan was rewarded with the hope that: “They’ll maybe think about how they can change to make things better; not just for themselves, but for everyone.”
I can certainly say that Mr. Deighan’s speaking series will have a lasting legacy on my own life—the courage and resilience I witnessed in the talks by speakers like Shiori Ito and Nadia Murad were deeply moving. And the opportunities afforded to me in being able to discuss topics of present-day relevance with leading lawyers and politicians was really very empowering. There’s something extraordinary in the way that Mr. Deighan let students own the process of interchange with the speakers; it’s not often you have teens on stage as equal interlocutors with world leaders like Julia Gillard. I’m infinitely grateful to have had the privilege to know Mr. Deighan and for the opportunities he has offered me through the Update and his august speakers series.
Mr. Deighan also explains how he himself has learned so much over the past two decades or so between the first guest speaker Sergio Ramírez (leader of the 1979 Nicaraguan Sandinista revolution) and the last one, Jennifer Robinson (human rights lawyer who has represented several high profile figures including Julian Assange and Amber Heard). According to Mr. Deighan, those speakers who have had the toughest experiences are the ones who left him with the greatest impression.
One such was Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of rape and activist. Her graphic recollections of the abuse she suffered, and the fact that she waived her right to anonymity to fight with her rapist in court in order to protect her daughter was incredibly stirring. In fact, Mr. Deighan recalls 50-60 boys and girls descending after she had finished speaking to hug her.
Another was Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Canadian-Palestinian medical doctor whose three daughters were murdered in Gaza, prompting him to write a book entitled I Shall Not Hate. For Mr. Deighan, this was such a luculent expression of dignity and courage, and an example of the strength of character that we should all strive for. Abuelaish had endured the worst possible experience as a father, and yet recognised that a perpetual cycle of hate will never deliver peace or closure—for him, and for the wider region.
Finally, Mr. Deighan shared a memorable moment during the guest speaker talk by Ben Helfgott, who was a British-Polish Olympian and holocaust survivor. As with all the guest speakers, the talk ended with a series of questions during which one girl asked him what he was feeling as he walked out into the Melbourne Olympics stadium. Helfgott responded that the only thing he was thinking of was those people—his friends and family—that he had left behind in Buchenwald concentration camp. The room instantly fell silent, and Mr Deighan recalls seeing the same girl who had asked the question with a tear in her eye.
Of course, it is a special sort of person that can assemble such a diversity and quality of speakers, and cajole them into speaking to a room full of half-engaged teenagers. When asked how he does it, Mr. Deighan is understandably humble; he talks about being sociable, but the truth is that he is a masterful communicator—involved, affable and gregarious. Beyond a natural conviviality, Mr. Deighan invested an enormous amount of time, persistence and effort into the guest speakers, honing the practice to something of an art that I doubt will ever be replicated at this school. In some cases, he even spent years chasing after a particular person (five, in the case of Alastair Campbell for example).
According to Mr. Deighan, the key was all about personal giving: if you treat the speakers nicely, then they are more likely to come and more likely to respond helpfully if you follow-up about connections they have. It was by consistently picking each speaker up from the airport, driving them around, buying them chocolate, inviting them and their spouse around for dinner, and dropping them off again at the end that Mr. Deighan was able to amass a network that even the most successful LinkedIn aficionado could envy.
Naturally, the process wasn’t always smooth sailing. For one, Mr. Deighan had to navigate between the busy schedules of expert speakers and the administrative and timetabling demands of teachers. In addition, from time to time he would have to deal with difficult speakers, “prima-donnas”; in these situations, his advice was not to become exasperated and upset, but to take it nicely and avoid inflaming the situation.
The guest speaker series has also been seen by some as elitist. Mr. Deighan acknowledges this perspective, but emphasises that while most Ecolint students are from privileged backgrounds, that does not mean that they don’t want to—or shouldn’t—know about people in different circumstances. That is, perpetuating any divide will only make us more ignorant, and less happy as a society.
Alongside the speakers, Mr. Deighan laid the foundations for the Update school newspaper. This passion project has survived over a decade since the days of Joe Cook and the original crew. Under the auspices of Mr. Deighan, the Update has interviewed leading global figures and championed the student voice at La Chât.
Besides guest speakers and the Update—if you can believe it—Mr. Deighan had other full-time roles, including English teacher and World Language Programme coordinator at La Châtaigneraie. This is probably one reason why one of his few regrets about the guest speaker programme is that it was not more linguistically diverse.
When he joined the school, Mr. Deighan wanted to ensure that other languages besides English, French, Spanish and German were represented such that all the school’s diverse language communities could feel included and had the opportunity to stay connected with their roots. Or in his words, “we shouldn’t have Rule Britannia and the American School of Geneva.”
Now Ecolint has around 90 mother tongues, 130 nationalities and La Chât offers over 20 different language courses.
This increased diversity in languages mirrors that in extracurricular choices—something Mr. Deighan has said he has appreciated seeing change over the years. However, he warns that while the school has gotten much bigger in its options and its size, it has become increasingly difficult to change anything.
Likewise, a certain intimacy has been lost. There was a time, Mr. Deighan recalls, when the old headmistress would greet students one-by-one with their parents at the entrance to school. Some of these personal touches no longer exist in the same way..
Nevertheless, Mr. Deighan expresses a great deal of appreciation and admiration for his colleagues and students alike. That fact is clear in how long it took him to leave, and his constant dedication to providing us with opportunities and activities despite having no obligations to do so.
We asked Mr. Deighan in our interview with him for any final messages he wanted to share with us. I will write them below as they deserve to be left more-or-less unchanged:
“If you limit information too excessively, the rest of us can be controlled, quietened, silenced. That’s why if you’re not sure, you put your hand up and ask a question. If you are uncomfortable with something, you challenge the authority. The minute you are silent, you are complicit. So get out on the marches, speak out, shout out and call out injustice! […]
[Grades are of little importance in the grand scheme of things.]
What is important is how you are as a citizen in today’s world.”
It is hard to do justice to John Deighan, I think, because the man himself embodied so powerfully the desire for a just, educated and empathetic society.
Thank you, Mr. Deighan, for everything, and the Update wishes you all the best in your future endeavours!