Instilling International Baccalaureate values in children starts at the elementary school level. “…the anti-American teaching in the primary years program is done in a very subtle way. It’s more about the “right way to be or the “right way to do things” or the “right way to think” and a lot of it is not the American Way.”
Curriculum Trends
The following two opposing quotes exemplifies the debate in curriculum today. Is school about the teaching of information or is it about creating the model “child of the future?”
“What the revolution has been in curriculum is that we no longer are teaching facts to children…” — Shirley McCune, then Senior Director, Mid-continent Educational Laboratory, speaking at the Governors’s conference in 1989. This quote was transcribed from the conference video. McCune was the Federal Liason, learning and teaching for Washington State until 2008, and played a key role in WASL and curriculum development.
“When will ‘progressive’ educators admit that you can’t learn history, geography, science, etc. in an atmosphere where children are expected to ‘construct’ their own knowledge in little groups and teachers are forbidden to engage in ‘direct instruction’?” –Andrew Wolf, Editor and Publisher, The Riverdale Review, Bronx Press Newsgroup
What are Middle School teachers saying about the “Middle Years Program” of International Baccalaureate? One teacher says, “Most teachers grimly accept MYP and quietly pay lip-service to it. If you sign a contract to work in an MYP school, you have to play the game….” Read more …
“This [International Baccalaureate] seminar opened my eyes to the fact that IBO [International Baccalaureate Organization] is more ideological than educational,” says one high school teacher in Maryland. Read what this and other high school teachers are saying about IB.
School Board members across the United States are debating the wisdom of adopting the International Baccalaureate program. Read some of their comments.
The promotional brochures and parent information meetings for International Baccalaureate emphasize the good features of the program. Now read what students are saying about their negative experiences with IB.
School District administrators who adopt the International Baccalaureate program describe it in flowery terms. However, read the comments of parents and taxpayers who actually know first-hand about the program.
Whatever happened to reading, writing, and arithmetic as the focus of teaching in public schools? This is what happens when the school feels the need to teach “Higher Order Thinking Skills” instead. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announces his push for “green” education. See the press release.
“…As we can see, with the exception of Switzerland, the United States spends more than any other country on education, an average of $91,700 per student between the ages of six and fifteen…”
“–schools can teach and measure noncognitive, college-readiness skills just as they do reading or mathematics—”
Common Core Standards of education for all the states is not the magic solution it claims to be.