Support the IB

Right, I was bored, so I browsed the internet for blogs about AC since I was curious about the past IB result and how it went (the friend that I poked still hasn’t replied back). Somehow, I couldn’t find any blogs that mention even a teeny bit about the 2006 results, which was a bit disappointing. Guess AC students don’t blog that much after all.

I did, however, found a blog linking to an interesting news article in the Guardian.

Okay, it was dated March 2006, but it was recent enough. Partly myself to blame for not being able to get into the habit of reading newspapers in Cambridge. Anyway, I was really surprised at those people who rejected the IB. What were they thinking? Is it anti-American? Anti-Christian? Marxism?

I did the International Baccalaureate at Atlantic College, Wales for two years in 2003. I don’t really know much about A-levels since I’ve never done it, but I imagined the IB is harder, since we’re doing six subjects instead of four, with Theory of Knowledge, the 4000-word Extended Essay and community service to boot. One thing I noticed is that it is a well-rounded program with an emphasis on the international community and issues, evident from the humanity subjects and even the sciences (can’t do much about maths, though). All in all, a really good program. I would have chosen it to A-levels or any other equivalent program any day.

It also encourages independent thinking. There’s an interesting story about it here where there’s an IB teacher who creates a fictitious character in history and told the students that it will be in their exam, and to do independent research on it. He was hoping that when nothing shows up about the character, the students will realise something is wrong. However, that didn’t happen and the students all fail the test because they answer according to the class notes. The reason behind his actions is to show the students not to stay in their comfort zone and be spoonfed, but instead do some thinking on their own.

Right, back to the matters at hand. So what’s actually bad about the IB? To be honest, I don’t know. Anti Christian? It is, by definition, an international program, so of course it has to be secular. Although I don’t think that’s quite the way to describe it, since we touch religion quite a bit in TOK, and not to mention the World Religions subject (I’m a Muslim, by the way).

If trying to understand things from an international perspective and dissecting international issues is anti-American, than I say that’s a load of crap. Sounds to me like it’s just blind arrogance and pride at work here. These people should really discard their view of being superior and right all the time and start being emphatic and receptive to others for a change.

Just my two cent worth of opinion, although I don’t really have to make much fuss about this since I don’t think their reasoning have much credibility in the first place. Still, as someone who benefited a lot from the IB (not to mention the two years is one of the best times in my life) I felt inclined to say something.

In the true spirit of AC: Go international understanding!!

Yaz.