Makalakumu Posted November 6, 2013 Posted November 6, 2013 First of all, let me be clear, I work for an IB World School and I am a Libertarian. What follows below is my view on how these two concepts dovetail. I know some libertarians been critical of the IB in the past, so I’m going to throw out a little different POV here. Here is some history. The IB was started in the 60s when people who lived in other countries and had to travel frequently wanted to create some kind of international standard school that their children could attend and that would be accepted broadly in any country. What needs to be noted here is that this program started as a private initiative that was meant to work with the various societies of the world and navigate the various structures and barriers governments erected. It’s not perfect or idea, but this beginning permeated the history from there. The first program in the IB was their Diploma Program. This was considered to be a college finishing program and was intended to have broad acceptance with all of the various countries of origin that were feeding students into it. This built an attitude of international mindedness into the program and it also created the need to understand cultures on a deeper level. This led to the creation of the Theory of Knowledge class where topics like philosophy, epistemology, and ethics could be explored at a deep level. Springing from this, grew a need to allow students to have the opportunity to explore a topic deeply with independent research in order to really allow some of these philosophical principles to explored. Another need grew within the program which basically allowed the students to express the principles they uncovered through creativity, action and service. This forms the backbone of the DP program today. Here is a graphic that describes the DP program. http://www.ibo.org/diploma/curriculum/ The Primary Years Program was the next program to be added to the IB. This program teaches basic literacy skills through the teaching of school wide or grade wide themes. The idea here is that questions about the theme will guide a student into the various traditional subject areas that are taught. For example, my children had a business theme in the third grade of their school and they learned how to read, write and do math through creating their own class corporation and producing something of value for the school. Here is some more info of the IB PYP. http://www.ibo.org/pyp/ The Middle Years Program was the last to be created and is perhaps the hardest for schools to implement. The MYP starts in 6th grade and goes through 10th grade. There is no required content in the MYP, only various scaffolded skills that students learn through various perspective lenses. The MYP is very interesting because it allows teachers and students to inquire into subjects that interest them and use them to increase their use thinking skills in a systematic way. The MYP is capped by a Personal Project that allows the student to research and develop something independently using all of the skills they developed their traditional subject groups. For more info about the MYP, check here. http://www.ibo.org/myp/ There is so much more I could write about my personal experience with the IB, but I’ll leave off with this. There are all kinds of ways of learning different things. Some of them can be accomplished formally and some more informally. Some require structure and some require very little structure. When the IB program is offered by private and independent schools it really is tremendous because a lot of the negative things that governments want in education systems are stripped away. Here we have a program that guides students through processes that eventually help them learn how to ask questions and think critically. I think the IB program is something that Libertarians might want to consider as an option other than unschooling or home schooling. If your life is such that you need to send your children to a school, check out an IB school.
Existing Alternatives Posted December 20, 2013 Posted December 20, 2013 Thank you for posting this. These days in Canada IB seems to be the flavour of the year, as huge numbers of student desperately trying to get into these programs. I am more interested in this as a parent... Is it really as universal is it sounds? Which countries have implemented it on a wide scale? Are schools supposed to adhere to the curriculum that you described or is it just a loose guidance? My concern is that by the time that government schools are done with this curriculum you would not be able to tell it from your regular “salute-the-flag” variety.
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