[Mpls] Re: International Baccalaureate posting by Atherton

[Liv Coleman]

Sorry for my last post which did not actually appear in text in the digest 
version (or in the archives), if at all.  Here’s what I wanted to post:

On cultural relativism:

Despite what the IB mission statement purportedly says, the IB program does 
not prescribe cultural relativism as a way of understanding the world.  In 
fact, the Theory of Knowledge (TOK) class required for the IB diploma is 
designed to get students to debate and think critically about various types 
of knowledge claims.  As an IB student at Southwest some years ago (Diploma 
grad ’97), I remember having a lively discussion in my TOK class about 
cultural relativism and I think that many students actually came away quite 
skeptical of the approach.

To get a sense of the types of essay questions IB assigns to students in the 
Theory of Knowledge class, take a look at this pdf file:

http://www.aisj.co.il/ToK%20Essay%20Titles%20May%202004.pdf

Generally speaking, I think it’s better to look at the actual content of 
educational programs than the rhetoric of their mission statements.

On French educational systems and inclusiveness:

French students take a standardized exam around 8th or 9th grade that 
determines which of a variety of specialized high schools (lycee) they 
enter.  Some of these are vocational high schools and some of them are for 
university-bound students.  Although the French Baccalaureate is largely 
equivalent to the International Baccalaureate, it’s simply not true that all 
French students take the French Baccalaureate.  The vocational students 
don’t prepare to take the exam and there’s little to no flexibility in the 
system for them to switch into a high school that would prepare them for it.

In the Minneapolis high schools that offer IB, by contrast, all students are 
allowed, even encouraged, to take IB classes.  You do not have to be 
enrolled in the IB program to take IB classes.  The IB program is very 
rigorous and demanding, so it’s understandable that some students would want 
to take only a few IB courses, such as IB History and IB Math, rather than a 
full load.

Liv Coleman
Fulton/Madison, WI

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