In Defense of International Baccalaureate
Reader Comments
wheelhouse
Well, well, well. I'm glad I bothered to read back a few pages. The layout of this blog is simply awful.
>>>>>>>>>>>>Face it, Observer: your behavior is more than slightly obsessive.
To sum up: I certainly understand that folks sometimes don't like to support public programs with which they don't agree...but where does that attitude end? Should public schools stop installing or maintaining elevators because most students don't need wheelchairs?>>>>>>>>>>>>
And this.. from a university Professor? Obviously not a Professor of anything to do with pre-law. People like you are the reason I have become obsessive over this program, exactly the reason. Prior to my IB Obsession, I was the VP for our district's SEPTA, that would be Special Education PTA. In the State of NY, there are no specific laws which protect the rights of the gifted, unlike NC and a couple of other States, so addressing the needs of gifted and talented students fell under the SEPTA umbrella, as well as the needs of the students with disabilities. Those students, specifically those who have the misfortune of being confined to a wheelchair, Wheelhouse, are protected under a Federal Law, you may have heard of it, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Ring a bell? So your snarky question as to whether public schools should stop installing elevators because most students don't need wheelchairs (a Federally mandated requirement) vs. using public money to fund a non-mandatory controversial foreign program, demonstrates your complete lack of understanding of civil rights, civics and U.S. sovereignty.
But perhaps you were an IB grad yourself. ;-)
to Sue of NY
Since your district is considering the MYP in an effort to "raise academic standards", allow me to refer you to a doctoral thesis which studied MYP vs. Non-MYP:
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04172006-173212/unrestricted/DissertationDeborahRJackson.pdf
Please feel free to present these results to your administrators as scholarly evidence that MYP will NOT improve your academic standards.
[CONT.}
MYTH: IB programs are pilot programs for UNESCO and the UN, developed for the purpose of
creating an “international education system.”
FACT: The IB was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1968 as a non-profit educational foundation. Its original purpose was to facilitate the international mobility of students preparing for university by providing schools with a curriculum and diploma recognized by universities
around the world. Since then its mission has expanded, and it now seeks to make an IB education available to students of all ages. The IB, along with approximately 400 other organizations, is part of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC). This relationship with the United Nations and its agencies does not extend to curriculum development or assessments.
In 1996, IBO officially formed a partnership with UNESCO to create what it called “a universal curriculum framework for world peace.” According to the UNESCO website, “UNESCO leads the global Education for All movement, aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015.” It is also important to note that funding to IBO from UNESCO has continued to the present day and is evidenced in any of IBO’s Annual Reports under Contributors. Ian Hill, IBO’s Deputy Director, has been quoted as saying, “The primary goal of IBO is the promotion of World Citizenship.”
IBO is guilty of lying by omission. Whatever value or benefit can be found within the DP in terms of educational rigor must be countered with the knowledge that IBO lies about its true agenda and relationship with UNESCO. From its intellectual origins in 1948, to its current agreement with UNESCO for “Peace Education” which is in effect through 2010, IBO is undeniably philosophically and fiscally committed to integrate UNESCO’s educational goals into its curriculum. It is therefore completely disingenuous and misleading of IBO to frame the two statements above as “myths”. IBO’s “facts” merely confirm the “myths”, but also take it a step further by attempting to deny its primary goal of creating an “international education system”.
I, for one, am sick and tired of IBO and its supporters calling those of us who have researched this organization's history and documents being called liars and conspiracy theorists. If parents can't trust an organization to tell the truth about its origins, philosophy and fiscal ties, how can we possibly trust the same organization to teach children how to "know what they know" ?
to Ann of CA
"What it is NOT is a cult, an leftist indoctrination program, an anti-American UN-based curriculum or anything of the sort."
With all due respect Ann, your research was incomplete.
The IB Diploma Programme, or simply the DP, is the most widely recognized and promoted of the three IB programs. Established in 1968, the DP was developed to provide the children of diplomats a claim to an international diploma which could be recognized by universities as a “rigorous” standard of a well rounded education.
According to former IBO Director General George Walker, “the intellectual process that would culminate in the IB Diploma Programme” was launched in 1948 by Marie-Therese Maurette, former Director of the International School of Geneva, Ecolint. Maurette wrote a paper for UNESCO called “Ways of Educating for Peace: do they exist?” Maurette’s pedagogy included the promotion of bilingualism, community service, and the specific caveat that “history should not be taught before the age of 12 to avoid it becoming a catalogue of national heroes and patriotic celebrations. When introduced, it must be world history.”
In 1951, the International Schools Association (ISA) was created in Geneva with the express purpose of “furthering world peace and international understanding through education”. Most of ISA’s educational creations ended up in the archives until 1968, when the ISA became the International Baccalaureate Organization.
IBO’s relationship with UNESCO is probably the most disputed of all aspects of its programs. IBO even went to great lengths to develop and distribute what it calls its “Myths vs. Facts” document. The following are the first two items on this IBO “fact” sheet:
MYTH - IB is funded by UNESCO.
FACT: The International Baccalaureate (IB) was funded by the United Nations Education Service and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the 20th Century Fund, and the Ford Foundation until 1976. From 1977 the Heads Standing Conference (HSC) of Diploma Programme (Diploma)
schools was formed and they began to pay the IB an annual subscription fee. In countries where state schools offered the IB Diploma Programme, the governments made financial contributions, and some continue to do so on a reduced basis. In return for these fees, the IB helped schools implement the IB Diploma Programme, offered training workshops and teaching materials to IB teachers, and managed a system of external examinations for IB diploma candidates.
[CONT.]
U.S. History is Omitted from IB
"IB is not anti American, that is ridiculous, it's to be fair and supportive of ALL people not just Americans, tell you what, we are not the greatest country nor is any other."
Thomas, do you need an IB program to enable you to "be fair and supportive of ALL people?" I don't think so, but you do need to study U.S History and the U.S. Constitution to gain a full appreciation for the country that you will (I assume) live in and vote in and pay taxes to.
Nevertheless, your globalist remarks should earn you an A on your next IB essay.
Still deciding
I have read these posts with much interest since my district is still 'exploring' whether or not to implement the MYP. We do not have a primary IB nor do we have the diploma program. We are focusing on middle school in an effort, we are told, to raise academic standards in the district. What I have not been able to determine, through any of the literature, listening to coordinators, and even while attending level II training, is how this different from any other best practices approach. It seems to me that our money would be better used on high quality staff developers, as opposed to IB trained coordinators. If a district holds itself to high standards and has the administration doing the same by holding teachers accountable for high quality teaching while at the same time supporting them when parents complain about students being held to the same high standards, then why do we need IB? Are they just there as the babysitter/policeman who makes sure that we are doing a good job? I have no problem at all with the IB approach to unit planning, but I still don't understand why we need them to watch over us.
IB program
Hi Im a high school student of Suncoast High School located in Florida. The IB program is more creative in how it tests its students. I am in three AP course, and currently in IB Pre Calc. With IB math we are required to make an investigation of something that has not been discussed in class. This is to help those who are not good test takers. I believe that IB is the stepping stone for being creative where the AP lacks. Both programs are rigorous and rewarding. And IB is not anti American, that is ridiculous, it's to be fair and supportive of ALL people not just Americans, tell you what, we are not the greatest country nor is any other.
Why is U.S. History not included? Go with AP not IB
No question that IB is academically rigorous and teaches critical thinking. No question either that it is an instrument of the UN designed to promote a global agenda, de-emphasizing the importance of the U.S. Why else would U.S. History be eliminated at the high school level? THe IB curriculum promotes "American Studies" focusing on the N. and S. American continents.
I have a great appreciation for other cultures. My grandparents were immigrants. I have lived and worked in Europe for an international exchange organization.
I have also worked for a major U.S. Fortune 100 corporation that grew from a garage operation to billions of dollars in revenue annually employing thousands of workers worldwide. This same, "global" corporation would never have gotten its start outside the U.S. It benefitted from the American enterpreneurial tradition,U.S. laws promoting a free market and U.S. venture capital. Probably not one of the IB case studies.
My children are citizens and future taxpayers of the U.S. (and those taxes support the world!) We are considering a charter high school, but if they go IB, forget it. As it is, their middle school teachers are too frightened to even say the pledge of allegiance. Yet citizenship is something that is taught -- arriving immigrants have to pass a test to qualify for it.
AP provides an excellent, rigorous program for high schoolers which includes U.S. History and Government. Students receive college credit by exam, the program is recognized by every major university, and the curriculum did not come out of the UN circa 1968. Unfortunately, many school administrators have already drunk the IB Koolaid and assume foreign is better.
IB
The poor state of American education is reflected in some of the ignorant comments I see here - people interpret personal opinion as fact without knowing what they are talking about. The person who keeps promoting their website regarding the "truth" about IB won't even put their name or organization down. They state they are "concerned citizens" which I would have to guess means one lone conspiracy theorist/keyboard warrior. After reading that site, I shake my head at the lies they promote as "truth."
My son is in middle school IB in the district in which I work as an assistant to administration. (I do not work at the school he attends) As a conservative and proud American, I would never put him in any program that would sway his mind against the US, and this program absolutely does not do that. Working for the district and knowing his teachers both personally and professionally, as well as his principal, assures me of this. Several of them, are, like me, conservative. Of course, I heard all the UN-run rumors and researched them completely before discovering there was nothing to it - and put my son in the program.
He has thrived. He is a conservative and worked on a conservative political campaign recently. This program link subjects together so they all relate to each other. There is a community service component - and they can choose to serve any community they wish, including a religious one. The students get a language beginning in sixth grade, which most students in this country no longer have. If learning a second language is some UN conspiracy, then I'm glad I'm part of it. Learning a language expands the brain the same way music does. As for taxpayer dollars: in California, we have stringent standards teachers must meet and curriculum they must use, whether in IB or not, and all standards are met. There are other programs in schools: AVID, ILS, IS, vocational tech, etc.
The IB students in my son's school are the ones who win the spelling bee, the math competitions, the science olympiad - graduates have become scientists and physicians. The emphasis in this program is critical thinking skills - not indoctrination. Challenging established beliefs leads to critical thought - not challenging them leads to indoctrination. If you fear IB, you certainly don't know what is going on in regular education.
In the high school my son will attend has both the IB and AP tracks and the IB students can (and do) take both. Mostly because they are over-achievers since most colleges accept the IB same as AP and it's given the same weight.
IB is just a rigorous program that gives our best and brightest a chance to do challenging work and think beyond the typical boundaries imposed by normal school culture. It's no more dangerous than Resource is for the underperforming student.
What it is NOT is a cult, an leftist indoctrination program, an anti-American UN-based curriculum or anything of the sort.
Health and Physical Education
I read on the IB website where they encourage students to COMPLETE their health and physical education requirements early. No explanation was given so my assumption is that once one is enrolled in IB that there is no time for these subjects? If states have these as state standards, how can one complete them early if they are sequential and as we all know most districts don't provide enough time to even complete these requirements in the allotted time available now let alone early. If the assumption is that health and physical education are throw away subjects, I might question what IB is teaching if not that the physical self is separate from and not integral to the cognitive self (not that I suggest that they are separate as I do not). So the question remains, what about health and physical education or the real self that will carry into our futures and allow us to truly develop our total beings. Too much research is out there regarding physical activity and brain research to ignore this possible short coming.
