No surprise here that the George School, a pricey private school in Pennsylvania, has been an IB World School since 1984. Also not surprising is the fact that once again, Glenn Beck has conveniently omitted mentioning the fact that this school with a decidedly left-wing "philosophy" is affiliated with IB.
As a private school, TAIB really doesn't care what they do. But do you really want our American public schools replicating "Occupy the North Pole" in order to fulfill IB student CAS credit?
John Loeffler of Steel on Steel hosted Laura Rambeau Lee and Lisa McLoughlin for an intense discussion about International Baccalaureate. TAIB wants to thank Laura for arranging this interview. We appreciate the opportunity to freely spread the truth about IB here in the United States and on the Internet with other people who "get it" and try and undo some of the Progressive brainwashing that has swept our schools.
December 6, 2011 - Over the past decade, whenever school officials are met with objections to IB from the community, it has been customary to distribute IBO's infamous "anti-propaganda propaganda" known as Myths vs. Facts.
As controversy over IB has increased in the United States, the increase in the number of high school IB Diploma programs has slowed to a crawl while it would appear that IBO has been making a concerted effort to expand its program which goes after our youngest children (ages 3-11) through the PYP. In 2010-2011, IBO authorized 102 IB PYP schools in the U.S., compared to 59 IBDP's, its supposed "signature programme".
It is important to remember that in the PYP, IBO mandates schoolwide implementation of the program and requires that every single teacher in the school must participate in IB's teacher training. It is therefore rather horrifying to discover that the 2011-12 PYP Workshop Materials not only include promotion of the UN's Agenda 21, but the Earth Charter, as well!
The Earth Charter states (10a):
"Promote the equitable distribution of wealth within nations, and among nations."
This is IBO's socialist agenda. IBO's regulations MANDATE the expenditure of YOUR taxdollars on IB PYP Teacher Workshops for public school teachers to absorb this Marxist indoctrination to be "taught" to YOUR children. Enough is enough. This should be all the proof any school district considering the PYP needs to call for an immediate moratorium of spending on IB in American public schools.
TAIB FAN MAIL
Comment: Let me start out by stating this: I understand your concerns. I also realize that the International Baccalaureate program isn't for all, taking into consideration the fact that some students don't enjoy rigorous academics. However, IB has helped me beyond explanation. I was failing my classes, bored of school, and overall didn't care until my parents thrust me into the program. IB may not highlight American exceptionalism for the reason that every country makes mistakes, and all countries are equally good. Now, as a Junior in IB, I have learned what it means to be a global citizen, especially now that I understand the full ethical implications of my actions. I cannot speak for people beyond myself and those I know who invested time and energy into IB, and I will sum up my beliefs and others' beliefs whom I know. This program has helped many students learn in many ways, and it caters to the needs of children like me who benefit from the global perspective. America is a great place, but other countries such as Japan are pretty cool too. Do you even know anything about Japan (well, besides what you were told in school about what a horrible place it is compared to America)? Japan is more technologically advanced than America, having robots that guide people on tours. Some of the famous Japanese electronics companies include, but are not limited to, Sony, Panasonic, and Nikon. That's only one example of my point. I apologize if you have trouble understanding the IB program, but I suggest that you quit this hopeless slander. IB is nationally and internationally accredited because of the exceptional level at which students are expected to perform. I sincerely regret your lamentable attack on us as a community, and I hope you find happiness (and hopefully some culture) in your life.
Signed, Concerned IB Student
Dear Concerned IB Student,
Thank you for writing. I appreciate the fact that you opened your e-mail by saying you understand my concerns, but I don't think you really do. Allow me to explain.
First of all, you say your parents "thrust" you into IB. Now my parents forced me to take Latin in HS, and while I argued that it was a "dead" language and I really didn't want to take it, in retrospect, I am glad I did. Latin is a very difficult, "rigorous" language but it is the basis for many English words (and it certainly helped me when I do crossword puzzles). However, forcing a student into a particular subject is very different than forcing them into a "programme" which, for all intents and purposes, does indeed "programme" you to believe a certain worldview - that worldview being one without borders and embracing redistribution of wealth. Let's examine this sentence you penned:
"IB may not highlight American exceptionalism for the reason that every country makes mistakes, and all countries are equally good."
This is a brutally FALSE statement. All countries are NOT "equally good". Can you honestly sit there and defend the barbaric treatment of women under Sharia Law in a theocratic, dictatorial country like Iran? Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, stands as the foundation for allowing America to develop into the greatest free nation on the planet. Why do you think millions of illegal immigrants risk their lives to cross our borders to live here? Can you point to ANY other country on the planet and say the same?
"Now, as a Junior in IB, I have learned what it means to be a global citizen...
What DOES the term "global citizen" mean to you? Let's look at the dictionary definition of the word "citizen": (from Merriam-Webster)
Definition of CITIZEN
1: an inhabitant of a city or town; especially : one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman 2a : a member of a state b : a native or naturalized person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it 3: a civilian as distinguished from a specialized servant of the state
1. You may be an inhabitant of the world, but there is no "global" entity which guarantees your rights and privileges as a free human being. Our Declaration of Independence, comes closest to being the most perfect definition of why being a citizen of the United States of America is the best citizenship in the entire world: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
2b - If you were to be arrested like those hikers on the Iranian border, as a "global citizen", would you turn to the UN for help securing your release? Or the U.S. State Department? All three of those hikers had American passports and it was the American government which negotiated their release. Do you think it's easy to get a passport out of say, N. Korea? How about Cuba? http://www.theexpeditioner.com/2010/02/17/how-many-americans-have-a-passport-2/ Only 1.5% of the Chinese have passports??? Now why do you think that is?
especially now that I understand the full ethical implications of my actions."
With all due respect, you are a teenager. No teenagers understand the "full ethical implications" of their actions and this begs the question, WHOSE ethics? Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. IB teaches moral relativism. IB claims "others with their differences, can be right", yet this is the most hypocritical statement IB makes because anyone who dares to question IB's programmes is demonized. I readily admit I am much more of an absolutist than a relativist. It is NEVER right to strap explosives to one's self and blow up innocent people. NEVER.
Do you even know anything about Japan (well, besides what you were told in school about what a horrible place it is compared to America)?
Although I have never had the opportunity to visit Japan, it is one of the countries I would love to visit before my brief stay on this planet is over. I love Japanese food, the graceful, gentle beauty of Japanese art, the humbleness and politeness of its people and the intricacy of the Japanese language/symbols. I have great respect for Japanese advances in technology, however having a robot lead a tour group is rather cold and depersonalized, wouldn't you say? Who told you Japan is a horrible place? (although I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the part of Japan that suffered the tsunami and is still suffering from the radioactivity of the nuclear power plant that was damaged) I would love to take my Nikon camera and shoot images of Mount Nokogiri or Fuji. Does that mean I would want to be a citizen of Japan? No thank you. I can appreciate foreign cultures without renouncing my American citizenship, something I feel blessed to have been born with and will fight to defend.
I apologize if you have trouble understanding the IB program, but I suggest that you quit this hopeless slander.
Ahem. I am counting to 10 before responding to this sentence. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Nope, that didn''t do it. I am now going to make myself some breakfast and come back to this e-mail in a few minutes................. okay, now that I've had my cinnamon French Toast I can respond without taking your head off. Young lady, your IB arrogance has no bounds. Where do you get off being so condescending to an adult? Where's that "tolerance" IB supposedly teaches you? I completely understand what the IB programmes entail and I don't like it! I believe that under the First Amendment, I am entitled to free speech and freedom of the press. Yet you "suggest" I should "quit this hopeless slander". Do you even know what slander is? to make a false spoken statement that causes people to have a bad opinion of someone . Slander is oral, not written and it is personal, not pertaining to an inanimate object such as the IB Organization or its products. Furthermore, nothing I have said on TAIB is false, therefore your accusation of "slander" is simply offbase.
IB is nationally and internationally accredited ....
I'm sorry, but that is simply inaccurate. IB is not "accredited" by ANY scholastic organization or authority, nationally or internationally. IB World Schools are "authorized" by the IB Organization after a school pays boatloads of money for its mandatory teacher training, membership fees and "label". Universities may choose to bestow college credit for certain IB exams and scores, but that does not constitute "accreditation".
I sincerely regret your lamentable attack on us as a community, and I hope you find happiness (and hopefully some culture) in your life.
IB is a community? Now this is some scary stuff you've written. I actually used to have a page on this site titled "Is IB a Cult?" but because so many IB students went ballistic over it and were unable to focus on any other points I have tried to make, I took it down. But let's run with that thought for a minute. You consider yourself part of a community of global citizens, do you? A community of students who all believe that every country in the world is equal in terms of liberties and opportunities as the U.S.? In other words, our U.S. taxdollars are helping to breed a community of brainwashed Kommissar wannabes? Your e-mail simply reinforces everything I have come to conclude about this sham of a programme which is nothing more than Marxist indoctrination disguised as "rigorous" academics. Your insipid and obnoxious conclusion about MY PERSONAL LIFE, about which you know NOTHING, is beyond the pale. You know NOTHING about where I have traveled to, what languages I speak, what instruments I play, what relationships I enjoy or what cultural knowledge I possess. How rude of you, an IB teenager, to imply that because I oppose IB I am a miserable, uncultured individual. You should regret your choice of words far more than my opinion of IB.
Regards,
Lisa E. McLoughlin
IB Student's Sad Commentary
Over the years, IB supporters have dismissed the complaints about IB on the Internet by IB students as "typical teenage complaints". It is inconceivable how any educator can continue to endorse IB after reading the reflections below of an IB student, taken from the blog known as Tumblr:
A note on IB The International Baccalaureate Program was the biggest mistake I ever made. I wasted time, money and even my own sanity on this stupid, useless, unknown program. Now that I’m in college, I’m having to take all of these horrible core classes, because I couldn’t get college credit through IB. I barely took any APs, and the ones that I did take, apparently don’t matter.
I worked so hard trying to get As in Physics and English and History that by the time actual exam time came, I was burned out and unable to exert any kind of effort into my work. I hate it. And I will forever regret having done it.
I don’t care how smart you think you are or how talented and knowledgeable or hardworking you may be. IB will do nothing for you. AP is more reasonable, and PEOPLE ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT IT IS.
I remember feeling so smart and confident in myself during Pre-IB. All of us IB kids felt this way. We’d look at all of the other ‘normal AP kids’ and feel superior. Well, guess who ended up doing better? There were so many horror stories. People dropping out like crazy. Some people not showing up for months. Nervous breakdowns! Do you know how many of my friends would tell me on a weekly basis that they could just break out in tears at any random time?
And anyone who had the guts to leave was seen as weak. Weak. I mean that just sums it all up. It’s like this everywhere now. Oh because China and India are ahead of us we have to start working like robots too. Freaking shut up. You think it’s all fine and dandy, then you take a moment and realize that all you’ve done is helped make your child unstable and in my case, depressed.
Yes, the majority of us graduated and went on to college, but I saw what it did to people. We all did a pretty good job of hiding it, but truthfully, it broke us. The saddest thing for me is that the truly brilliant ones, those who were good, honest and intelligent, the ones that I believe deserved to end up at Harvard and Yale—they’re the ones who were screwed over the most.
Forever bitter, and forever a hater. That will never change.
The IB Diploma - Old Fashioned, Inflexible and 20th Century
One of the most argued canards regarding International Baccalaureate by its adorees, is that IB respresents "21st Century" learning and education. This has always bothered me, because from where I sit, there is nothing 21st Century about IB! IB's philosophy is based on the left-wing ideals of a woman from 1948!
Imagine my delight when upon re-reading Former IBO Director General George Walker's little plenary speech from 2005 (in which he referred to me as Mrs. Long Island), I took a closer look at something else ol' George pontificated upon. Walker was no dummy. He fancied himself a high-falutin philosopher/diplomat of sorts. Anyway, George relayed the following tale:http://www.ibo.org/dg/emeritus/speeches/documents/ibna_jul05.pdf
A new proposal
"I promised I would end on a more radical note and now I am turning to look forward 30 years. The reality is, under the present model the International Baccalaureate will remain a dream for the majority of young people and their parents in this and in other regions. Fifteen hundred IB World Schools in 120 different countries is certainly beyond the dreams of those early IB pioneers, but that very success has fuelled our ambition to achieve more, indeed to achieve much more. And that, I have to conclude is going to be very difficult within the present structure which is institutionally-bound, expensive and exclusive in the very simple sense that it excludes far more than it can ever admit.
One tiny event here in IBNA has encouraged me to start to think along different lines. About a year ago, a student at Duke University sent me an e-mail explaining that his family had moved in the middle of his IB diploma course so he had never finished it. In one sense it didn’t matter: he had been accepted by a world-class university without it. But he had enjoyed it so much he now wanted to complete it; could I tell him how he might obtain his IB diploma? The answer was, alas, with great difficulty because unless you live next to an IB school; unless you are aged about 16 and have a couple of free years ahead of you, studying an IB diploma is virtually impossible.
We are beginning to look just a little old-fashioned, just a little inflexible, just a little 20 th rather than 21st century. So what I am currently working on is a proposal to launch an IB open international college offering IB courses on line but in close association with the growing network of IB World Schools which will be invited to provide teaching, mentoring and other forms of support to students and teachers around the world who want to become part of the open college ...."
POINT OF FACT:If a student transfers into or out of an IB school during their junior or senior year to or from a non-IB school, they will be unable to sit for the IB exams.
This is very important. This speech was given in 2005, the year before Jeffrey Beard took over as Director General. We know very well that Mr. Beard does not have any background in education. So TAIB is going to give Mr. Walker props for his self-realization that there is need for "updating" IB, or at least bringing it in touch with 21st Century needs. It is now almost 2012. No such "Open International College offering IB courses online" exists! In 2005, George thought it could be a reality in less than 5 years! So in fairness, let's tale a look at what IB actually DOES offer online as of November, 2011:
Here is the IBO page promoting its Online Diploma Programme. Note how it boldly makes the following claim:
"Students unable to attend an IB World School yet want to experience an IB education."
If I was stupid and didn't know anything about IB, reading that I would ASSUME that any student, anywhere in the world could pay a fee and go online and take IB courses. That's what most NORMAL people would assume, right? Umm, no. Not with IB.
Now let's take a look at IB's PajomaEd page and its actual online courses. Let's go to admissions. What does it say?
Pamoja Education's online IB courses are currently limited to students attending authorised IB World Schools®. Enrolments are made through the school's IB Diploma Programme Coordinator, or another school official who has taken on this responsibility in agreement with the Diploma Coordinator. Pamoja Education only offers courses with exams in May.
WHAT? So in other words, these online courses are STILL only available to students who are "ENROLED" in an IB "authorised" school! This is no more open, less expensive or transparent! IBO is still demanding all of the application fees and training fees and annual memberships fees from a brick and mortar tax funded site!
IB is about as 21st Century as a pet rock. Let's retire this moldy, elitist, outrageously expensive UNESCO boondoggle NOW!
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BBCW:IBDiploma, So Last Century! By Truth About IB One of the most argued canards regardingInternational Baccalaureateby its adorees, is thatIBrespresents "21st Century" learning and education. This has always bothered me, because from where I sit, there is nothing 21st Century aboutIB!... BBCW
U.S. SAYS NO TO UNESCO!
This is big news, yet the mainstream media has chosen to focus on some baseless "sexual harrassment" smear against Herman Cain, the first black Conservative candidate for President. It certainly will not escape TAIB's notice as this is very significant as it relates to IB . Public Law 101-246, which the Democratic-controlled Congress passed in 1990, states that “no funds authorized to be appropriated by this Act or any other Act shall be available for the United Nations or any specialized agency thereof which accords the Palestine Liberation Organization the same standing as member states.”
Public Law 103-236 Title IV, passed in 1994, prohibits “voluntary or assessed contribution to any affiliated organization of the United Nations which grants full membership as a state to any organization or group that does not have the internationally recognized attributes of statehood.”
Since IBO is an NGO of UNESCO and therefore an "affiliate", should it not also be subject to withholding of U.S. taxdollars under these two laws? At the very least, there should be some sort of addendum added to the 2009 ARRA prohibiting use of those funds for IB in American public schools!
Treasure Mountain is an American Treasure!
October 26, 2011 - Congratulations to Principal Bob O'Connor of Treasure Mountain Middle School for making the recommendation to remove the word "International" from the school's name. This is great news to TAIB! These are Americans in a public school that wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars running IB as a pilot program for five years that learned the hard way, IB simply isn't a "viable" choice for American public schools if they want to improve student academic achievement.
"Gardner said the school board will discuss options for taking the international attribution out of Treasure Mountain International School at the next meeting. The school district will pay for signage and costs associated with changing the name."
TAIB would like to send a contribution to the school district to help offset the cost of restoring the signs in support of the decision. Right now, we only have $56.54 in the TAIB account. If you would like to contribute $1, $5 or more for this specific cause, please click HERE.
Rochester, MN Supt. has Trouble Understanding NO to IB!
October 20, 2011 - TAIB was unable to log into the full online version of this story, but we smell trouble brewing. Rochester's very astute Board Chair and its Treasurer clearly state that they are opposed to IB for very sound reasons, yet according to the concluding paragraph in bold: Superintendent Michael Muñoz said he interpreted the board's comments to indicate that both ideas should be studied further.
Note the complete absence of a total dollar amount attached to this really, really poor overview. Besides the fact that IB schools are authorized, not accredited, the application fees are misrepresented and even inconsistent within this singular document.
HERE is a list of the Rochester BoE Trustees and their e-mails and phone numbers. TAIB will be sending a letter of commendation to the Board and offering assistance to support thwarting their change agent Superintendent's agenda. According to the presentation, no money has been spent on IB to date. However, if the Board allows site visits to other IB schools, this constitutes entering the Consideration Phase which requires the submission of a $4,000 fee per site to IBO. The Rochester district only shows district expenditures which exceed $10,000 online. Individual purchase orders to IBO for $4,000 cannot be gleaned online.
This is going to be a district to watch. It seems pretty obvious that Mr. Muñoz has his GPS's destination set for Geneva, Switzerland.
Concord Patch Publishes TAIB Op-Ed
A big thank you to Concord Patch editor Tony Schinella, for taking an interest in the IB story in Merrimack Valley Schools and for running my op-ed in its entirety.
"You see a lot of condescending attitudes toward everyone without a black card," said Kennedy senior Kiana Miyamoto, 16, of Buena Park, who has a black card and is enrolled in the school's college-level International Baccalaureate program. "One IB student said in class, 'Hey, you're in IB. Anyone who has a white card shouldn't even be in IB.' It's really sad to see people who have the black cards acting this way."
"Castle Park High’s former principal, Diego Ochoa, and assistant principal, Abram Jimenez, stepped down in early August after district officials discovered $21,583 had been taken from nine clubs at the 1,500-student campus without their knowledge. Officials also found $72,712 in bills, as much as two years old, had not been paid for everything from football and cheerleader uniforms to yearbooks and Advanced Placement tests. The problems are outlined in documents obtained by The Watchdog under the California Public Records Act. They show the school’s International Baccalaureate program suffered the greatest loss at $8,500, followed by the drama club, which had $6,000 taken from its account."
Of course, two sex scandals within two years should have no bearing on IBO authorizing Oprah's school, whatsoever, as long as her money's good. According to this site, Oprah's worth $2.7 Billion. Yeah, that should cover the cost of IB for a few years.
Barack Obama Academy for International Studies 6 - 12 10 IB World School OR Two Flashes in the Pan
To tally the extent of wasted taxdollars in the recent restructuring of the large Pittsburgh public system would be a massive undertaking that would require months. However, it should be PRETTY glaring how politically connected and wasteful the money sent to IBO for the International Baccalaureate truly was. This school was only authorized in 2009! You can see it is still wasting money on the MYP. Which means beginning in 2007, money was already being shoveled en masse to Geneva. Not only that, the district closed down the Schenley school which already had IB, and because the designation is not "transferable" within a district and separate applications are required for each SITE. A huge chunk of money spent on IB is the upfront, applicaton and training process. Here is yet another case where IBO walked off with a bare minimum of hundreds of thousands of dollars within a 5 year period.
*SNARK ALERT* Academy. Barack Obama International Baccalaureate Academy. Good grief! I remember when they tried to pull that crap in my district. I'm serious. They wanted to rename Locust Valley High School - The Locust Valley Academy after it bought IB. I stood up at the Board meeting and called them "pretentious" and "obnoxious" and reminded them that we are a PUBLIC SCHOOL!
DUMB AND DUMBER IB - Wasted Millions and Unanswered Questions
The documents presented at right were sent to TAIB by IB watchdogs from Texas and Arizona. The doc from the Waco, Texas, district is truly mindblowing. Please review pages 27-44 carefully. We are still searching the Minutes for an actual vote by the Waco BoE or answers to the questions and will post them if located.
The second document is a terrific compilation of schools which have dropped IB by state.
September 24, 2011 - What's it going to take folks? Where are the Liberals screaming about separation of church and state? Does any right minded American need any more proof of how IB is attempting to corrupt the minds of our children?
Make sure you take your antacid before reading THIS ARTICLE.
“My name is Ahlima and I live in Saudi Arabia. … Perhaps two differences Westerners would notice are that women here do not drive cars and they wear abuyah. An abuyah is a loose-fitting black cloth that covers a woman from head to toe. I like wearing the abuyah since it is very comfortable, and I am protected from blowing sand. …I have seen pictures of women in the West and find their dress to be horribly immodest. … Women in the West do not have the protection of the Sharia as we do here. If our marriage has problems, my husband can take another wife rather than divorce me, and I would still be cared for. … I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia.”
9 More U.S. High Schools Drop IB!
Coronado High School, Coronado, CA Loara High School, Anaheim, CA Wilmer Amina Carter High School, Rialto, CA Woodland School, Cartersville, GA Zionsville Community High School, Zionsville, IN
Apollo High School, Owensboro, KY
Hillwood High School, Nashville, TN
Virginia High School, Bristol, VA William Fleming High School, Roanoke, VA
Start Spreading the Word ...
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." ~ Margaret Mead (1901-1978)
To be sure, the folks at IBO believe in the above quote and believe that IB is the vehicle to change the world to its way of thinking. Here at TAIB, we believe that our thoughtful, committed Founding Fathers got it right with our Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution and that these founding principles don't need changing. Change can work in both ways, and it is TAIB's goal to CHANGE IT BACK and undo IB's deceitful and lugubrious attempts to change our public schools and the minds of our children.
Progressives learned long ago that the key to "intellectual" domination of our public schools was through three powerful means: 1. Unions 2. Democratic legislation - Federal grants 3. Private Progressive non-profits/foundations
In other words, money feeds the agenda. TAIB has to ask; where are the Conservative foundations to help promote academic excellence in our schools? Where are the Conservative foundations with deep pockets to counter the Progressive agenda to dumb down our schools and create "global citizens"? The Heritage Foundation is one and we hope that soon we can enlist the help of Lindsey Burke to shed a national spotlight on the dangers of IB. Lindsey has appeared on FOX news and made several significant You Tube videos on the state of American education. TAIB would like to encourage its readers to e-mail Lindsey at:Lindsey.Burke@heritage.org with your concerns about IB.
IB in the News - While we anxiously await Andrew Breitbart's launch of BigEducation.com, we are thrilled to have made the acquaintance of Laura Rambeau Lee who is getting the word out about IB on BigGovernment.com, the same folks who broke the ACORN scandal: The Road to Rio is America's Road to Ruin . Great job, Laura!
From the Tuscon School District in Arizona, Debbie Niwa, author of the well researched paper IB Unraveled, made the local paper for her public comment at a recent school board meeting. You can hear Debbie's full comment HERE. Great job Deborah, keep up the great work!
Below is a somewhat depressing note to reinforce WHY we are committed to eradicating IB from our public schools. TAIB would like to share with you the e-mail of an IB student from Upper St. Clair, PA:
Comments: Hi, my name's Zack and I was an IB student at Upper St. Clair,…which ironically enough is mentioned on this site for its lawsuit against IBO. I guess I'll just jump right in, this site seems to paint communism with a very negative tone. In an article reviewing the IBO and its relationship with the UNESCO it is mentioned that China's education system is better than ours, but that claim is immediately dismissed as ridiculous because why would we want to be like communists...I think there is a lot to be said for countries that adopt communistic or socialistic ideologies. When people think of communism in this country, ruthless and evil tyrants and their horrible atrocities tend to be the first thing that comes to mind, however, these things are not a part of communism itself. Moreover, the wealth distribution in this country is pretty atrocious as well with the top 1% of the country controlling something like 30% of the country's wealth and the top 20% of the country controlling over 85% of the wealth while the bottom 40% is trying to survive with less than 1% of the country's wealth...does that seem fair? Take into consideration that these people in the bottom 40% are not lazy, and would work or go to college if they could, but many of them can't even finish high school because they have to take on jobs to support their families. There are many people in this country who are unreasonably rich, and who could live very well with half or even one tenth of the money that they have. And why should these people have more money? Because they work harder? No. Because they are smarter? Possibly, but then again they mostly received the best education money could buy and didn't have to worry about working constantly and paying their way through school. All I'm saying is don't be too quick to dismiss communism as evil...our economy could stand to be a little more equal and opportunistic. As for the rest of the issues brought up on this site, I respect your opinions, however, I might suggest not criminalizing the IB organization so much. I was a product of an IB education and I had lovely teachers and fantastic classmates who I am still friendly with...most of whom are going to ivy league schools I might add...All in all I had a lovely experience with the IB program. I'm from Upper St. Clair and there is currently a dispute going on hence how I found your site. Though the program doesn't graduate many IB diploma students, that's mainly because of the strict requirements that diploma students take all IB classes however inconvenient that may be. Regardless, there are many kids who took mostly (90% or more) IB classes who were just as if not smarter who are still getting into wonderful colleges all across the country. I feel like this site is unjustly villainizing an organization that is doing good work and that is benefitting a large number of students. We like to think of things in terms of "us" and "them." "Them" being the evil people who only wish to harm us, and the "us" being the ust people fighting for the good cause. Well, in all my 18 years, I've learned that it's never that simple...never. And that viewing things like this can lead to oversimplifying actions and only accepting things which confirm your feelings that they're wrong and you're right. All I want you to take from this is that IB does educate kids in a way that prepares them to be successful in life...of that I am certain. Obviously there were kids who are just as prepared who did not take IB, however, of our school's 20 or so Valedictorians, I would estimate that at least 17 took IB classes. IB may demand money for their services, but hey, that's how capitalism works! If they're going to prepare kids to be successful, then they want to get paid for it too. Why should they have to lower their prices when people will pay through the nose to have their kids succeed? It's a business, one that provides a useful service to the community and one that is quite successful at it. As for superiority to AP goes, i think that a student could be equally as successful taking all AP classes, in fact many of the AP classes and IB classes overlapped quite a bit, however, you can't put your kids in AP classes in grade school and middle school, years which are important in preparing kids to do well in high school. As for the "control" that they wish to have over communities, I don't think this is their evil way of trying to take over the world so much as that if colleges and universities are going to respect the program at all, then that program will have to ensure that the students they educate are adequately prepared to do well in these places of higher education. They have to be able to ensure the success of their students otherwise their product is worthless and they wouldn't be able to charge so much for it. I swear to you, I respect your opinions, you can delete this message and never think of it again, I just wanted to give you my two cents because I realize that however I may disagree with some of the beliefs you hold regarding IB, we are both citizens of this world and wouldn't be doing any of this if we weren't concerned with making the world a better place. I can tell that you care deeply that students get the education they deserve and that people are not being taken advantage of. That being said, I hope you see the same concerns in my words and can appreciate that we ultimately want the same thing. I hope reading my comment wasn't a complete waste of your time. And thank you for your time and your attention. If you'd like to respond, I left my email address, so feel free. I promise I'll give your opinions the same time and consideration as you have given mine.
"This gift enables us to re-commence the building work of the UNIS Master Plan." ~ George Dymond, School Director of one of the original 10 IB World Schools
NY Daily News 9/16/11
TAIB Statement on Anonymous' You Tube Video
TAIB is not associated with the making of, or endorsement of, the Anonymous War on International Baccalaureate video (right). TAIB is featuring the video here as it is relevant to "Breaking News" when a group (that is probably on DHS's terrorist list), goes after the organization which is the topic of this website.
TAIB does not advocate violence and believes IBO has every right to sell its product to private institutions. If IB is the excellent product it claims to be, it should survive marvelously on the free market instead of sucking the Federal U.S. government's and the U.S. taxpayer's teats.
As you can see above, IBO is busy scouring the Internet for information associated with "anonymous + operation + international baccalaureate". Because of this, TAIB felt it was necessary to republish this disclaimer.
We Love These Kids!
Hats off to the kids in this You Tube video (right) for putting together an hysterical (and very well shot and edited) parody of IB's Learner Profile.
Typical E-Mail from an IB Student
First Name: Kaitlyn Last Name: L Address Line 1: 123 Why Would I Tell You That? Lane City: State: Virginia Zip Code: Country: USA E-mail Address: redacted
Comments: Y'all are republican, aren't y'all? Not that I particularly have anything against republicans; my mom is republican. I'm independent myself (or as I like to put it, I go both ways, politically speaking). But before I explain why I find your site (Mr. Anonymous-Tight-Wad(s)) to be so ludicrously uptight and close-minded, IÂ’ll tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Kaitlyn L (as you can see from above), I live in South Eastern Virginia, I'm 15, and I am a rising sophomore in the IB MYP program at my small town public high school. As you have probably already guessed, I am more in favor of the IB program, which you, obviously, are very much not. I would like to DISCUSS (please note the capitalization, which in this case is meant for emphasis (not yelling) in a hope that you will respond to this comment with your own, as I would love to see more into the mind of a pigheaded isolationist) why I find your arguments and general ideals about IB to be wrong.
Firstly, the republican comment. You seem to be very narrow-minded, conservative, and definitely think the only opinion that matters and is right is your own. This, I feel, describes the completely right-winged republican. I live in an area that is absolutely FULL of republicans and I very often have difficulty having political conversations with some of my friends because of this. I'm sure I would end up having this same issue with very left-winged democrats as well, but I have never met someone like that (considering my environment) so I am solely speaking from the experience I have with right-wingers.
You strike me as the person(s) who find(s) "different"” to be "bad". Gay? You most likely think it's "wrong"”. Mixed race? You likely have the same feelings. Now these are just generalizations that I feel may apply to you. Even if you do not have feelings such as the ones I just described, you give off the vibe of someone who does. An "everything I think=good, everything else=bad"” mentality. That type of thinking will get you nowhere except having a website that simply pushes your own biased agenda on something that you have no experience with and have no business bad mouthing.
As I have been in the MYP program for 4 years now, I would say I have experience with how we are taught and what is expected from an IB student. The only times I can remember teachers ever seeming to somehow push their views on us was with a couple VERY republican women who just liked to hear themselves speak (let's just say I never really got along with those couple of teachers), and nobody really listened to them anyway. The best example of an IB teacher (or a teacher at all, for that matter) was my World History I teacher from last year. I was never interested in history before and usually got the worst grades in any humanities/history class I took. He made me interested enough in the subject as a whole that I actually went home and researched more in depth on some of the things we learned. Every time we came upon a sensitive subject (mainly religion) he would give us simply the facts and what we needed to learn. NEVER did he force a view of his on us, nor did he even give us an inkling of how he actually felt on the subject, as a teacher should when trying to give students a chance to formulate their own opinions. And NEVER have I had a teacher who tried to make me think any communist beliefs (as you believe the IB program is based upon).
I believe that the point of the IB program is simply to open students up to what is happening around them. I get involved in my community, I have had the opportunity to learn another language, I am learning ASL, and I have even had the privilege of traveling to Spain twice. I had little to no interest in doing any of these things before I entered into IB. The program is not trying to make us accept communism or utopia-like ideals. I'm gaining an understanding of how our world works, how our country works, and even how my own community works. I have always been a generally tolerant person, but now I am tolerant of even more than ever before, even snot-nosed bigots who have nothing better to do than diminish a great organization that has helped me and many, many other young people become smart, well rounded citizens.
Overall, I think it's about acceptance, understanding where someone else is coming from, maybe even sharing your opinion, but still respecting the other person. You might want to try and take your heads out of your asses for just a moment and see this all from my view, hell maybe not even my view, just somebody who might possibly think DIFFERENTLY than you. Maybe you'll realize that there are other ways to look at something and that just because your head is so full of haughty conceitedness, it doesn't make you right.
Get Over Yourselves, Kaitlyn L
PS: Have fun un-sticking your heads from your asses, it seems like they're already pretty far up there.
TAIB's REPLY:
Kaitlyn,
Thank you for writing. I always enjoy receiving mail from IB students. Letters like yours validate TAIB's position on IB extraordinarily well.
Did you show this e-mail to your Mom before you hit send? I'm curious as to what she would have to say about the tone of your communication.
As an examiner I have for years marked both IB HL and A level maths scripts. Nothing so special about IB, and in fact prefer A level maths as the answers required are precise. The IB questions can be open-ended, and vague , and hence the answers from students can be varied making marking difficult, and some questions are so ambiguous that maths as a precise subject loses out. The papers have flaws, moderation is not good at all, it is often cursory and there can be marking standard swings as students sit across countries. My son did A levels and is now a postgraduate.
- Rob, London, 27/8/2011 10:39
IB Halted, Kicked Out and Scaled Back
August 26, 2011 - TAIB feels like we hit the IB Trifecta! Check out these three stories:
1. http://www.easyreadernews.com/32327/ib-withdrawn/ - "Earlier in the year over fifty teachers from RUHS stormed the school board to protest the implementation of the program. Their objections included scheduling concerns, the cost of the program, and a lack of teacher input during the implementation process. The teachers also argued that Advanced Placement coursework already serves high achieving students and the IB program did not address the urgent needs of less high achieving students."
2.http://www.ticotimes.net/Business-Real-Estate/Technical-school-fights-for-prestigious-IB-program_Friday-August-26-2011 - "But a political change at MEP seems to have also been accompanied by a change of heart. Mata left her post and was replaced by Dyalah Calderón, who revoked the school’s authorization one year after it was issued....[SNIP] ... MEP officials see things differently. “We went over the request and we realized that the technical education that students get in any CTP in the country is not compatible with the IB academic program,” Calderón said."
3. http://isurfwaco.com/news/local/4664-report-higher-costs-than-expected-for-waco-isd-international-baccalaureate.html - "Watkins’ report suggests the IB middle-years program may cost far more during the next three years than district officials had anticipated. He estimates this year will cost $700,425, next year will cost $649,425, and 2012-13 will cost $976,200. This is the first time numbers like that have been presented. The totals include costs for IB training for teachers, mandatory fees, curriculum and course materials and new staff needs, including foreign-language teachers and IB coordinators. Waco ISD trustees gave the go-ahead for the IB program at Lake Air and Tennyson in April 2009. At that time, they were presented with associated costs of about $156,200 for 2009-10 and $164,700 for 2010-11 and the next year."
IB in Cottonwood, Arizona
August 21, 2011 - Two very odd articles were just published regarding IB in the Cottonwood-Oak Creek school district in Arizona. In the first, Superintendent Barbara U'Ren seeks to dispel runors that she was pushing IB because it was the subject of her doctoral dissertation. A denial is one thing. Let us read her dissertation to see the truth.
Across the U.S. TAIB has observed district administrators claiming that IB will "increase enrollment". This article demonstrates exactly what lengths a district will go to in order to try and validate that claim.
Be sure to read this just published Letter to the Editor from our friend Gene Birkeland - the last surviving Minutewoman of the U.S.A., "Guarding the land we love".
Arizona Senator Rich Crandall Called Out for Support of IB
The recent annual IB Conference of the Americas held in San Antonio, Texas, featured State Senator Rich Crandall lecturing about how to "build political support for IB".
Upon checking Rep. Crandall's website, TAIB learned: Representative Rich Crandall (R-Mesa), has been appointed as vice-chair of the National Conference of State Legislatures' (NCSL) Standing Committee on Education. Rep. Crandall will be working with legislators and legislative staff from other states to provide advice, direction and input on the Committee's work on education issues. He begins his one-year term at NCSL's Fall Forum which meets December 9-11, 2010 in Phoenix, AZ.
TAIB is assuming that the 2010 date in the above press reference is a typo and urges Arizona residents to keep on top of this committee's "recommendations". Rep. Crandall may want to rethink his political support for IB considering how well it worked out for Tim Pawlenty.
TAIB would like to thank Gene Birkeland (Ellen McClay) for taking the time to write to Rep. Crandall regarding his appearance.
August 20, 2011 - TAIB is pleased to present the following e-mail exchange between an Ohio parent and an admissions officer at Ohio State University. The inquiry was forwarded up the chain past one admissions officer who claimed no knowledge of IB until a definitive reply was received.
Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 9:39 AM To: Finlay, Charles Subject: International Baccalaureate OSU:
Good moirning! Our daughter is starting HS. We are debating an issue: IB vs AP. Can you help us? How many credits do incoming Freshman generally earn through each of these Programmes? Thank you so much, Concerned Ohio Parent --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Jefferson BlackburnSmith <JBlackburn-Smith@esue.ohio-state.edu> Subject: FW: International Baccalaureate To: address withheld by request Date: Friday, August 19, 2011, 3:55 PM Mrs. XXXXXXXX: Thank you for your question. Although I can't give you the exact amount of credit we award to each program, I can tell you that we do award significantly more credit for AP scores than for IB scores, especially for students coming from Ohio. The AP program is much more common within Ohio than IB programs are, but that is not true in every state. Many schools offer both, and it is not uncommon to see students enrolling that have earned credit through both programs. Either program is recognized as being more rigorous than college prep or honors courses, and that is taken into account in our application review process. Students can earn the same amount of credit through either program: up to one year of undergraduate credit can be earned through IB and or AP tests. AllOhio Statecredit is linked to how well students do on the actual AP test or IB higher level test. We do not give additional credit for IB diplomas. You can see what credit is available for your daughter to earn, and at what score on the attached pdf. This information is also available at:http://registrar.osu.edu/testing/index.asp Feel free to email me directly or call if you have additional questions.
Jefferson Jefferson R. Blackburn-Smith Sr. Associate Director Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience 110 Enarson Hall 154 W 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210 614 292-7605blackburn-smith.3@osu.edu
AP is Better Than IB - Administrative Testimony from Reno HS
After successfully preventing a K-12 IB takeover of Incline Village schools in the Washoe County SD, Nevada, patriot John Eppolito surprised even himself by stumbling upon this video featuring the Assistant Principal of Reno High School. Nevada has school choice and it appears as though administrators at Reno HS are making the case for students to choose their high school over the IB program at neighboring Wooster High School. This video never would have happened without John's tremendous efforts to expose the truth about IB.
TAIB is also featuring this video on our popular IB vs AP page.
IB PYP - How to Raise Idiots
American parents currently confronted with IB PYP takeover of their public elementary schools are questioning the value of this very expensive, schoolwide "programme", as well they should. Take a look at these three You Tube videos "celebrating" the PYP.
In the first, two little boys sitting by themselves at a coffee table in front of a disgusting mess which is supposed to be their dinner supposedly ask, "Where do vegetables come from?" Why they would ask that when there is nothing that appears to be a vegetable mixed in with the slop is beyond us, but let's assume they do. Where is Mom? Where is Dad? Don't they have a garden? Have they never visited a farm? Who prepared the food for them? They have a Mac laptop for goodness sake .... but they probably don't know how to spell v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e so they can't find the answer to their question there. So, these two little boys set off on their own sans any adult supervision and wander into a filthy restaurant kitchen, grocery store and off to a farm to learn the answer to their question. Note the emphasis on the importance of water (Agenda 21) and the primitive farming tools displayed. This is how IB uses constructivism - eliminate any and all family values and influence, waste precious time and encourage children to put themselves in potentially dangerous situations.
In the second video, the children sing of "a flame burning in the night, beckoning the fight for birth, for death, for life ..... one earth, one sky, one sea". Does that make sense to you? How does beckoning the fight for death create harmony and peace? This is a disgusting abuse of little children and TAIB would love to find someone who could actually interpret all of the other non-English words in that indoctrination chant to know what they mean.
In the third video, we learn what a collaborative PYP classroom should like like. God help the child with ADD! What a mess! Just looking around that room with the hundreds of post-it notes and IB "commands" to take action and perform service made this adult feel anxious and confused. This room is absolute chaos! The video tells us we should "hear an excited hum", yet do you see a smile on a single child in this classroom?
This junk "youth service" program must be kicked out of American public schools pronto! Wake up parents! Take ACTION and kick this UN indoctrination to the curb!
U.S. Public Schools Need to Learn IB Lesson from St. Helena
August 12, 2011 - Back in March, we learned that the St. Helena district in California had become disenchanted with IB a mere three years after having been authorized to run the Diploma program. A decision was made by the Board to abandon applications for the PYP and MYP and place the DP on "probation". The usual handful of vocal IB idealogues turned out at meetings to complain about giving up on IB too soon, begging to "fix" IB before throwing it out like "yesterday's trash", but a new Superintendent and newly elected Board Trustees determined that a return to academic fundamentals should take priority.
A new school year has begun and lo and behold, there was no mass exodus from St. Helena schools. The high school is once again offering AP courses which had been eliminated because of IB and based on student interest, this will most likely be the last year that IB is offered in St. Helena.
It is important to note how this district functioned in order to eliminate IB. The district requires 80% teacher "buy-in" to introduce any sort of major new program. Support for IB amongst the teachers was no more than 50-50. The public got rid of IB ideologues on the Board who in turn got rid of an IB loving Superintendent. It can be done, folks. Keep the faith. Let this be a lesson to all American public school Superintendents and Board of Education trustees - don't buy "yesterday's trash" in the first place!
Coming to an Arkansas billboard soon!
Gross and Shocking Waste of Federal Grants
August 10, 2011 - It is bad enough that the 2009 ARRA (stimulus bill) allocated over $10 Billion for the implementation of "innovative programs" in Title I schools. As we have seen, many U.S. districts are using this "free" money to implement International Baccalaureate (IB) in public schools, K-12.
THIS STORY out of Tuscon, Arizona, demonstrates further waste of a $92,000 Federal grant to be spent on "marketing" to attract "Anglo" students to attend these IB "candidate" schools. Kudos to Board President Mark Stegeman who voted no because he was "concerned about spending that much money on marketing, not education".
What a shame that Mr. Stegeman didn't see the depth of IB's social justice scam before voting to approve the magnet applications to the IB organization for three schools within TUSD. TAIB is assuming that there must have been some sort of Board action approving the educational "themes" for the magnet schools in question. It is unconscionable that so much money is being spent to bring in IB and then they have to spend more money to try and dupe the higher income/achieving "Anglo" children into being bussed into ghetto schools.
Frankly, TAIB is rather shocked at the use of the word "Anglo" in the headline. Can you magine the outrage this headline would have garnered if instead it read: TUSD spending $92,000 to attract Negro and Hispanic kids.
Mother Jones' Dementia
You know when the Progressives at the left-wing rag Mother Jones make a concerted effort to target those who oppose IB and Michele Bachmann, we've got their attention and they are afraid. Very afraid. For truth is on our side and all they can come up with are the tired old ad hominems. Note how Mother Jones tag teams the FrumForum blog so its sheeple can comment on both articles.
So put on your tinfoil hats, you conspiracy loving, stupid, ignorant, tea sapping morons. Isn't it interesting that Mother Jones targeted Julie Quist (our Facebook friend) but never linked TAIB? Very Alinsky of them.
We did manage to cull one quote from the comments that made us grin ear to ear:
"Baccalaureate is for lame-ass european wanabees. Real Americans play Texas Hold 'em." ~ath716/Mother Jones
Exxon-Mobil Promotes AP Math/Science
These advertisements which are currently on air, run contrary to everything IB stands for - Big Oil helping to fund an American academic product which promotes American exceptionalism.
National Math and Science Initiative
With a $125 million commitment of support, ExxonMobil became a founding sponsor of theNational Math and Science Initiative(NMSI) in 2007. To better prepare talented students and teachers for the world of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, NMSI replicates proven programs with quantifiable results — such as theAdvanced Placement Training and Incentives Program (APTIP)andUTeach.
NMSI is already making an impact, dramatically increasingAP exam pass ratesfor students participating in the APTIP and demonstrating the program's ability to help close achievement gaps for minority students.
One of the keys to success is providing high-quality professional development for current teachers. Since 2008, NMSI has trained more than 6,000 AP and pre-AP teachers across the country
A Christian Perspective on International Baccalaureate
July 28, 2011 - TAIB is pleased to have been contacted by Wally Caddow, Managing Director of the Trinity Classical Academy, in California. Mr. Caddow expressed concern as to how to field questions from parents seeking an understanding of the difference between a Christian education and the type of education which will be offered in a new IB charter school in the Santa Clarita Valley. Mr. Caddow shared with TAIB a statement from The Ambrose School, a Christian academy in Boise, Idaho. TAIB will reprint The Ambrose School's perspective in its entirety.
Our perspective on the International Baccalaureate Program and how it compares to classical Christian education.
Several Boise area schools including Northstar Charter and Riverstone International School use the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. Parents occasionally ask how these compare with classical Christian education. IB programs have high academic standards, as do classical Christian schools. The main difference is in the IB worldview. IB program is typically recognized and preferred by liberal colleges because it combines strong academic standards with the progressive (liberal) multicultural view. The main difference between the two systems is that classical education bases itself in the traditional Western cultural and Christian ideal of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. The IBO pursues a postmodern view of tolerance and relativism.
Below is the mission statement of the IBO:
The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
From this mission statement, families can expect an approach that is not sympathetic with the Western cultural tradition of America’s founding fathers (the position generally described as “conservative”). Of course, nothing in the IBO’s statement is directly objectionable. As classical Christian educators, we want to understand other cultures and respect their people as image bearers; we want students to be caring, knowledgeable, and inquiring; and we want our students to be humble in understanding that other people can be right.
However, these phrases are euphemisms that mean much more than they say. They represent postmodern ideas that permeate the educational environment and reject a divine standard of Truth in favor of personal truth, God’s goodness in favor of social relativism, and Beauty in favor of personal preference. What is really meant by the progressive mindset is that we cannot claim that a Western idea of justice is superior, for example, to the justice system which includes human sacrifice. The IBO’s values are more in alignment with the Humanist Manifesto which represents the moral system of progressives.
Classical Christian educators discuss the great ideas of human history and judge them based on their conformance to the standard of Truth outlined in Scripture and through reason. This is what develops our students’ passion for Truth, and enhances their mental and verbal reasoning skills. This is also what offends many who believe in progressive ideals. The claim that Truth can be judged by a universal standard violates their value system.
Many major universities are philosophically committed to tearing down traditional educational absolutes because they reject America’s Western cultural roots. At the same time, many of the country’s finest colleges recognize students who have a “Great Books” type of education in the Western Classical tradition. We’ve found that colleges are quite impressed with graduates from classical Christian schools.
So what should a parent conclude? If you seek an education centered on the values of tolerance and relativism, without a common understanding of Truth, then the IB schools are probably the right choice for your family. If, however, you desire your student to be taught under the assumptions that built traditional Christian values, you may want to consider classical Christian education.
After receiving the Christian Perspective update above, Sgt. White of Ozark, MO, submitted this excellent paper (featured at right) to TAIB. Please read and share for a better understanding of IB philosophy.
July 26, 2011 - It is very difficult to track U.S. schools which drop IB. Now and then TAIB hits upon an article which happens to mention a district's decision to get rid of IB. Such is the case in Bristol, Virginia (emphasis TAIB's):
"The program, Rhinehart said, could replace the ill-fated International Baccalaureate program, which school leaders dropped, citing high operating costs and limited enrollment. “A lot of people had the wrong idea about IB,” Board Vice Chairman Randy Whitesaid. “They thought it was strictly an academic thing, but it was much more than that.”
However, according to IBO's website today, Virginia High School is still an authorized IB World School and has been since 1999! Since it is well past July 1st which tends to be the technical start of the school year in most districts. we must assume that Virginia High School has paid its $10,000 membership fee for 2011-12 in order to finish out the handful of students entering their senior year. If we add in the 2-3 years of payments made to IB prior to 1999 and calculate through 2012, that equals sixteen years worth of wasted spending. SIXTEEN years!
Clearly, IB is not a sustainable "pilot programme". No one can say the district didn't give it "time to catch on".
This is Not a Joke!
July 23, 2011 - It is rare that anything concerning IB's brainwashing or psychological warfare techniques used on our children surprise us here at TAIB. We've come to expect the most devious and disingenuous employment of devices by IB administrators to enslave children in IB. But this:
8:15 AM:In the theater, our IB coordinator explains everything IB-related, from CAS hours to the extended essay to the theory that we're not going to be considered nerds if we stay in the IB program (false). On our way out, we're each handed THE YUMMIEST COOKIE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD—I'm serious, these cookies are legit. Each one has been decorated by a current IB student, and most of them have awesome captions like "Abandon All Hope," "Get Out While You Can," "Just Drop," and, my personal favorite, "IB Kids = SEX."
11:30 AM:As soon as we get to math class, the teacher shoos us away to the theater, where we hear the IB speech again. It turns out that today, every IB period is a cookie period. JACKPOT. If that's not a reason to do IB (at least at my school), then I don't know what is.
IB Conference in Texas Celebrates Ecuador's Governmental IB Endorsement
July 22, 2011 - Ahhh, the annual IB Conference of the Americas. Once you get past the drums and obnoxious "i" phone, pad, app, IB references, the service in action nonsense and all of the IB self-praise in the following video, one "announcement" was of particular interest to TAIB: (begin 16:12)
"The Federal government is committed to endorsing the IB authorization process at 22 state run schools ...."
And what do we know about the Federal government of Ecuador?
"Socialism will continue. The Ecuadorian people voted for that. We are going to emphasize this fight for social justice, for regional justice. We are going to continue the fight to eliminate all forms of workplace exploitation within our socialist conviction: the supremacy of human work over capital. Nobody is in any doubt that our preferential option is for the poorest people, we are here because of them. Hasta la victoria siempre!
This is the true IB agenda - socialist takeover of "public" schools. Fortunately, the U.S.A. is not Ecuador. WE THE PEOPLE must put a stop to IB's strategic plan and we must do it NOW!
Jewish Socialist Foundation Provides Seed Money for IB Debacle in Waco
July 16, 2011 - THIS STORY demonstrates how IB solicits private socialist backers to bribe public school districts into engaging in "IB exploration". TAIB has come across other private foundations that have raised money for IB in public schools before, but NEVER have we come across a "foundation" with such a blatant socialist agenda as the Bernard and Audre Rapoport Foundation of Waco, Texas. TAIB has confirmed that the Rapoports actually gave $152,418 for IB. (see excerpts from the Foundation's 990's below). It was only through the help of common people that he lived, and through relatives that he came to the United States and landed in San Antonio. In those early years in the States, he joined the Socialist Party, a movement that suggests common ownership and democratic control by all. He would soon meet Reva Feldman, the daughter of Hasidic Jews, who would later expose Bernard to the Jewish faith.
Media Matters? The ACLU? The AFJ? Planned Parenthood? Really? These are some of the other "charities" the Rapoports support. So what happens when a Socialist organization provides seed money to push a socialist educational program(me) in Texas public schools? Check out the difference in the original "IB cost projection" to the revision a mere two years later:
2009: $156,200 for 2009-10 and $164,700 for 2010-11 and $164,700 2011-12 2011: $700,425, next year will cost $649,425, and 2012-13 will cost $976,200
Let me ask you folks something. If you hired a contractor to "frame" a building for $450,000 and he turned around and handed you a bill for $2.5 million, would you pay it? Or would you say, "See you in court and get the hell off my property!"
Wake up Waco! Get the Rapoports and IB out of your public schools!
IB Explained
Despite his incredibly monotone and boring delivery, former IBO Director General George Walker's book promotion clearly demonstrates IB's real agenda. Watch and listen for the key phrases Walker uses: Diversity, Sustainability, European enlightenment, UNESCO Education for All, UN Millenium Goals, Climate Change, Equitability (redistribution of wealth) and of particular note, 40% of all IB schools are in the U.S. This percentage is up 7% from a mere two years ago.
As Americans, do you believe your "inalienable rights", those of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, come from Our Creator? Or do they derive from "the inherent diginity of the human person"? For it is the latter that the UN and IB stand behind: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/cescr.htm The right of everyone to "social insurance". What exactly does that mean? Equitable distribution of world food supplies in relation to need. Who will regulate and apportion this "human right" according to the UN? Through Agenda 21, the UN, of course.
IB has nothing to do with academic excellence. IB's sole purpose is to co-opt our youngsters for the purpose of promoting international socialism as prescribed by the UN to the detriment of national sovereignty.
IB Unsustainable in UK State Schools
July 8, 2011 - This is a well timed story from a reliable source. What is happening in the UK is the perfect example of what happens when socialist ideologues try and impose a very expensive programme on the public, but the public is too broke to pay anymore in taxes to support it! TAIB pointed out long ago that Fabian socialist Tony Blair had it all wrong with his promotion of IB and that the best laid plans of socialist leaders go belly up when they can't wring another cent out of a public whose prosperity has dwindled due to the global recession.
"It is a pity that the commitment of the previous prime minister, Tony Blair, to have a school offering the International Baccalaureate in every neighbourhood was one that (his successor Gordon Brown) decided to abandon." July 2010. ~ Michael Gove
IBO is experiencing a slight bump in new schools in the U.S. only because of Obama's 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In 3 years time, you will see exactly the same thing happen here that is happening in the UK. Once the "free" government funding ends, state schools will be unable to levy taxes sufficient to cover the onerous cost of IB. Billions of our Federal tax dollars are being wasted on a socialist educational scheme that fattened the pockets of a bunch of Euroeducrats, disrupted schools, caused division in communities and ultimately leaves the students hanging in the lurch.
THIS is a student discussion in the UK about the funding cuts to IB which makes for very interesting reading.
Despite gains of 279 IB schools in the U.S. since March, 2009, to the best of TAIB's calculations, IB has lost 24 IBDP schools, 23 MYPand 10 PYPor a total of 57fewer IB schools in the U.S.A.
Irreversible Blow
July 6, 2011 - Today is the day the IB finally releases the May 2011 exam results. Tragically, one young man who attended an IB school in the UK, never sat those final exams. Leonard Poets, 16, committed suicide before he had the chance.
"The Year 12 pupil talked about suicide after his mid-term results in the International Baccalaureatewere not as good as he had hoped."
TAIB would like to express our deepest condolences to the Poets family.
In other news, IB students in India who had hopes of attending Delhi University may have to delay their education a full year because of IB's July 6th reporting of exam results. It would appear that Delhi University, unlike most U.S. universities, requires proof of actual achievement, rather than accepting "predicted" IB results.
The late reporting of IB exam results has been a point of contention for TAIB. In the United States, high school graduations take place in June. IB Diploma "candidates" receive special sashes to wear and extra recognition on the school's commencement announcements as though the "honor" of receiving an IB Diploma is guaranteed. But the fact of the matter is an unfortunate 33% of IB Diploma candidates (or more in some cases), never earn enough points on their exams to land the actual IB Diploma. Merely because they invested their final two years of high school in courses with the IB label, regardless of success of failure, IB high schools elevate the "status" of IB students over the non-IB students. This is just further evidence of the smoke and mirrors "prestige" that is IB.
Leonard Poets, 1995-2011
4 Years, 4 Principals, 3 Locations Arabic NYC Madrassa to Become IB
June 29, 2011 - Slapping the IB label on a controversial all Arabic NYC school will be sure to take care of any potential anti-Western teaching and declining enrollment, right?
“We’re confident that the new location — accessible to families seeking an Arab-language education — combined with a curriculum that offers students Arab-language skills and tools to succeed after high school, will put Khalil Gibran on a path to improvement,” said DOE spokesperson Matthew Mittenthal on Tuesday.
“The school’s operators and community partners have committed to ensuring the school will have an IB (International Baccalaureate) program,” he added.
NYC Department Of Education's decision to move the controversial school into a building with emotionally disturbed students against the "will" of the Islamic community sounds like a disaster in the making. The article makes no mention of IB's "rigorous" two year authorization process or even a date when the original school will be closed.
Zead Ramadan of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) said, “Although there are many dual language schools in New York City, KGIA was the only one in which the city used our tax dollars to ensure failure by removing every element that could have made it succeed.”
And now, NYC will use taxdollars to send to Geneva, Switzerland, for the pretense of international excellence and world peace. Fortunately, the school is clear on the other side of Brooklyn away from the oh so tolerant Hasidic Jews who have a huge population in Brooklyn.
MUST READ!
From the state that just legislated "environmental literacy" as a high school requirement, (Montgomery County, MD), we bring you the words of graduates from a once AP, now mostly IB high school. IB is always claiming we have to "speak to the students" to understand the wonders of IB. We have. All we can do is wonder how any public school district can inflict the IB program on its students and taxpayers.
Recommended for ALL! (budding kommissars in full bore Progressive mode)
Hurry! Hurry! Purchase your very own copy of "Educating for Global Citizenship" - on sale for a limited time only for £16.20£14.58. (or $23.25 for you American troglodytes).
"It includes diverse examples from schools and organizations around the world and shows how schools can help students prepare for life in a “global village”. Author: Boyd Roberts
Oooo look, we even get a free chapter describing EXACTLY what IB really is!
Gee. What institution could that be? Think .... think .....
The Sonoran
Kudos to the Conservative Arizona paper - The Sonoran - for taking a stand on IB.
The Lost Year
June 13, 2011 - TAIB decided to take another brief look through the disastrous Review Book for IB History of the Americas by the Locust Valley School District in NY, before sending it off to our friend Deborah Niwa for further dissection. The section which really rubs us the wrong way is what we can only conclude are the "fine class notes" of LVHS student Emma deBeer Charno. TAIB is not seeking to demean the student, she obviously took notes on what was being taught in class. Her teachers obviously thought her notes were worthy of being used as a reference for all of the other students in the course.
Take a look at the excerpt from Ms. Charno's outline notes on the Civil Rights movement with regard to the integration of Little Rock High School in 1957. One line in particular jumped out at us:
"For like two months white parents don't send kids to school"
Is that so? I wonder what source Ms. Charno's teacher used for that bit of information? This aroused TAIB's curiousity as it didn't jive with TAIB's historical recollection of the Little Rock situation.
Something major was missing from IB's historical record. That something was The Lost Year. I don't know about the rest of you, but that seems like pretty important information when it comes to the operations of a school district. The 10th, 11th and 12th Grades were CLOSED DOWN by the Federal government from September, 1958 through May, 1959.
"Denying an education to all Little Rock high school youth profoundly affected thousands of families as the city ruptured into an even more divided community."
Well, that doesn't sound like white parents willingly kept their children home, now does it? But teaching kids about the ruling by the Feds and the school board recalls doesn't support the "blame whitey" mantra Progressives love. Here is the lesson that should have been learned by IB students regarding Little Rock:
"Perhaps most importantly, the Lost Year illuminates how the community took their schools back on an integrated basis and informs the world that all of Little Rock was not represented by screaming mobs of segregationists at Central High in 1957."
== 1. Re: James Meredith / Ole Miss
"Killed 2 marshals, wounded 160"
Truth: Two people died, but neither were marshals. Zero marshals died.
==
2. re: Emmett Till
"tied a fan to him to chop him up"
Truth: The murderers tied a 70-pound fan to him to weigh his body down in the Tallahatchie River. His body was not chopped up.
==
3. re: Emmett Till
"15 year old boy"
Truth: Emmett Till was 14 when he was murdered == And that should be "gouge" not "gauge". Are these really the most impressive class notes these IB teachers could find?
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" ~ Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987
June 11, 2011 - Today TAIB received a package marked "Media Mail" with no return address on it. Enclosed was a short typed note from a parent, identified only as "Concerned". It seems the Locust Valley School District has invested significant resources in producing the IB History of the Americas "Review" book featured below:
Look at the "patriotic" pictures they put on the cover! Uncle Sam, Rosie the Riveter, Ronald Reagan and I think that's Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. But, as we have been wisely told, never judge a book by its cover.
It would take TAIB many hours to pour through this book and point out all of the left-wing bias. One of the quickest ways to determine whether or not a social studies course or material contains left-wing bias is to examine how it handles Ronald Reagan's accomplishments. TAIB located a section of the book (which has neither page numbers nor an index), which provided an outline for IB students to follow in order to answer questions which may relate to Paper 3 on their final IB exam. The Cold War is the topic. Read with your own eyes how IB treats Reagan. Nowhere is Reagan's historic command to Gorbachev even mentioned OR the tearing down of the Berlin Wall! Equally offensive is this team of teachers' inability to properly spell Reagan's last name, misspelling it as Regan a minimum of seven times in the outline! *editor's note - upon further review, these notes appear to be those of a student so the failure to catch the misspelled name falls on the proofreader.
So we go from 1985 to 1989 with nary a mention of Reagan's historic "Tear down this wall" speech. Incredible.
I have no idea how much my district spent on these rain-forest killing monstrosities. It seems to me they could have loaded all of this propaganda on a CD and it would have been much more cost effective. But the cost is really secondary. It is the poisoning of young minds by the Left that is far more detrimental to our freedoms in the long run.
IBrainwashing
June 9, 2011 - Not just one, but two remarkably blatant examples of how IB uses and abuses children for radical left-wing causes are in the news today.
The first comes from Arizona. TAIB would like to congratulate Sonoran News for publishing this story. Not much critical thinking going on there, eh? But Ron Paul's quote in this article bears repeating:
Paul stated, “It is strange that in the 18 years since the United States left UNESCO, we only started reading about the beginnings of reform in the year 2000. Are we to believe that after nearly two decades of no change in UNESCO’s way of mismanaging itself things have changed so much in just two years? Is it worth spending $60 million per year on an organization with such a terrible history of waste, corruption and anti-Americanism?”
Then from Michigan comes this enlightening story regarding what IB students in an elementary school are teaching themselves.
IB student fundraiser disses local Conservative paper
Upper St. Clair & IB Back in the News
June 1, 2011 - It's hard to believe that five years have already passed since Upper St. Clair, PA was involved in the messy ACLU lawsuit over IB. In September of 2008, IBO "evaluated" USC's Streams Elementary School's PYP. In the report, IBO's visiting team recommended that: "the school district make decisions regarding the full school implementation of PYP at Streams Elementary School." Additionally, IBO recommended that a "job description" and more release time be provided to the IB Coordinator.
That was in 2008.
Nearly three years later, along comes this article in Patch. The article never mentions the 2008 evaluation and presents the issue as though this is just a casual "consideration" on the part of the Principal.
The IB cancer is no longer in remission. In order to retain IBO's authorization, USC will have to increase spending on IB teacher training, eliminate "traditional" Kindergarten and other elementary classes and shift those darn "traditional" students to one of the other two elementary schools.
That's the story which this Patch reporter completely missed.
Texas Study Finds "No Significant Difference" Between IB PYP/MYP and Non-IB Schools
You have to ask yourself, "Why would IBO feature this study on its website?" In these difficult economic times, why on earth would any public school district waste taxpayer money on the PYP and MYP if these programs don't produce significant differences in student achievement?
This makes the second study conducted on American IB MYP schools which concludes IB does not improve student achievement. Please reference the doctoral dissertation by Deborah R. Jackson from Virginia Polytechnical Institute HERE.
May 9, 2011 - The following press release from Gainesville, GA, immediately set off alarm bells for TAIB. "Saturday, May Day queens and princesses took their place of honor before the assembled crowd for only the second time since 1954, when the last May Day event was held."
And why did they STOP celebrating May Day back in 1954? Could it be because the real history of May Day is both the communist international labor movement and pagan sexual celebration?
This year, Americans were treated to the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed on May Day. Being that it was a Sunday, labor unions already had the day off so there would be no point in having a rally because they couldn't call in sick to work. CORRECTION: SEIU MAY DAY RALLY IN LOS ANGELES! This Marxist holiday is being distorted to appeal to little girls in an IB school as just a spring celebration of princesses and queens. Marxist exploitation of innocent young girls duped into believing that this country is some sort of fairy tale monarchy.
"Over the years the women of the Newtown Florist Club, located in a neighborhood described as "an industrial fallout zone," have become a force for environmental justice and against racism through legal challenges, lobbying, media coverage, and testing of toxic levels. Youngsters are being groomed as the next generation of grassroots leaders."
May 7, 2011 - Now THIS is what TAIB has been looking for! This impressive five year study of IB student results at the prestigious University of Cambridge in the UK, clearly demonstrates that only the highest scoring (42-45), full IB Diploma students are more likely to be a top student at Cambridge than the average Cambridge student.
For the uninitiated, what does that mean? The IB Diploma is awarded based on the sum of a student's six IB exams plus points for Theory of Knowledge, Extended Essay and CAS (Creativity, Action, Service). An IB Diploma can be awarded ranging from the lowest score of 24, upwards to a perfect 45.
Cambridge is the UK's Harvard. You can see from the charts that Cambridge doesn't even accept students with an IB Diploma score under 38.
So how many American IB Diploma students score a 38 or above on their Diploma? Let's take a look at Locust Valley High School in NY, the only public school district in the country where TAIB has been able to obtain actual IB results for the past five years. These figures were only made available after TAIB filed a FOIL request with the district. Only for the past three years has the district released the actual IB report form for review. You will see that the 'mean' score for the IB Diploma has been a consistent 29. The highest IB Diploma score attained was a 39. Note that the pass rate for IB Diploma candidates in Locust Valley for the past three years has languished in the 66% range. One out of every three Locust Valley students who spend their final two years of high school in IB, fails to even attain an IB Diploma with a score of 24, let alone the required 38 to be considered for admission to Harvard or Cambridge.
Five years of results. Close to $2,000,000 spent on IB in Locust Valley. For what? Two or three students who surely would have achieved outstanding results on six AP exams alongside outstanding SAT scores.
Thank you, Cambridge University. This is the kind of data TAIB has been seeking for a very long time.
Improper Grammar? Or Deliberate?
May 6, 2011 - Following one of ibo.org's tweets on Twitter, TAIB came across the following exciting advertisement:
"This guide outlines the new world religions programme ..."
Excuse us? This "guide" was just published yesterday. So that would qualify it as "new". The last time we checked, "new" is an adjective and should precede the noun it is intended to modify. The noun IBO chose to modify is "world".
This new guide outlines the world religions programme ...
Are we wrong? Should we spend the $32.80 to find out what kind of indoctrination is contained within? And here's another thought. Let's say IBO is using "new" to modify "programme" as a noun. When did a single IB course suddenly become an entire "programme"? Doesn't IBO use the argument that the IB Diploma is so much superior to AP courses because it is a "programme"?
TUSD - Hotbed of Socialist Activism
THIS STORY outlines the gross misdirection and misinformation parents and taxpayers were provided about the cost of IB, back in 2009. The budget documents are included for all to see. This story is significant because the concerned citizens actually obtained the expenditure sheets. Are you paying attention, Greenwich, CT? How about down in Ozark, MO? This minimization of IB's outrageous cost to the public is not an isolated incident. It is IBO's method of infiltration. Get the program in place and then the public will "love" it so much they won't mind paying for it.
The "Ethnic Studies Program" is nothing more than a revolutionary money pit comrade of IB's in TUSD. This is a district seriously out of control. (TUSD Board members were rumored to be in hiding across state lines ;-))
IB News Across America
April 29, 2011 - TAIB has recently been inundated with news about IB from across the country. Normally, we try to place a timely article in the relevant section of the site, but for now, we want to make sure readers are aware that objections to IB are not rare, isolated incidents.
Dexter, MI - Here, the story mysteriously disappeared: Moms Talk: Should Dexter Schools Have anIBProgram? Patch.com By Daniel Lai | Email the author | 1:00pm Dexter High School may implement anInternational Baccalaureateprogram for juniors and seniors in the 2012-13 school year. Courtesy of the Association ofIBSchools Dexter High School is on track to implement...
From Des Moines, IA to Boulder, CO - http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2011/04/28/sebring/ "On a larger scale than the charter school, the amount of money, time and sweat her administration has poured into establishing an International Baccalaureate program sounds impressive, until one understands that this program was rolled out while staff and programs at the majority of Des Moines schools suffered severe and drastic reductions during the same period. The harm done by these cuts to the majority of schools will impact a much larger percentage of our student population than the new IB program will ever touch. Dr. Sebring is not to blame for the budget shortfalls, but she ignored the most serious issues in favor of flashy new programs to distract the public. Said simply, the implementation of the IB program was more show than substance."
April 20, 2011 - IB has a brand new HL Geography syllabus out. For anyone who cannot see the blatant UN/Agenda 21 - UN Millenium Goals and extreme radical transnational agenda in this instruction, please, just stay asleep. After seven years of reasearching IB, very little surprises us anymore when it comes to what is being taught in American public schools. But this ... this takes it to a whole new level. This entire syllabus demonstrates total disregard for national sovereignty of countries, not just borders, but disregard for Constitutions.
TAIB hasn't had time to read through every section because we wanted to get this out to our readers. I could write an entire thesis on the bias and anti-sovereignty theme of this course. There are many greater minds than mine that subscribe to this website, among them, The Heritage Foundation, and TAIB is counting on many of you to take the ball and run with this. Print out the entire syllabus before it disappears off the web.
Time and time again we are challenged to produce evidence of IB's political agenda as it directly relates to the curriculum. With "Mother Earth Day" (April 22) fast approaching, we showed you where IB propagandizes in its Sharing Our Humanity lessons. But that is just one of IB's "themes". HL Geography is an actual Diploma course which IB will demand U.S. universities award college credit. And if they don't get it then they will whine and complain and have Jay Mathews write another column on how discriminatory our colleges are for not recognizing this NWO call to action as - "critical thinking".
Being a bit of a wordsmith, while clicking through the "new" syllabus, the word GLOCALISATION caught my eye. Say it out loud. It sounds like someone has something stuck in their throat. Those who understand and embrace it are called glocals. Do they glow in the dark from California? Who knows. Since this word is not in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, TAIB had to resort to Wikipedia to find an article detailing what this word, first uttered and concocted in the late 1990's, really means. Note that the word uses the British 's' instead of the American 'z'. Also quite apparent are IB's efforts to put a "more Islamic face" on the IB curriculum, as per the MoU agreement with the Aga Khan's Development Network. (see photos - left)
Remember, all of their intentions are laid out before you - in plain sight. This is not conspiracy theory. They're practically shoving it in your faces - brainwashing your children with it while trying to pass it off as "rigorous" education.
In other IB news, this little blurb caught our eye. [emphasis TAIB's]
"The way International Baccalaureate (IB) head of Global Technology Dr Leong Chou Ching sees it, in the near future, everyone would expect to work on mobile devices. Enterprises would have no choice but to provide the appropriate mobile architecture as they cannot afford to be outdated."
So exactly what are the "enterprises" which would have no choice in the world of public education? YOUR SCHOOLS, of course. So on top of having to pay IB's ridiculous fees, it will soon, in the near future, change its regulations to insist that IB World Schools must provide the mobile technology (ipads) to every IB student. And who will pay for that little luxury? YOU, the taxpayer.
More IB Whining in WAPO
April 18th, 2011 - It would appear not much has changed since Jay Mathews, veteran education reporter for the Washington Post, diligently began whining in 2001 about the terrible "discrimination" by our universities against IB students for their steadfast refusal to award college credit for IB's SL (Standard Level, 1 year) exams. The overwhelming majority of U.S. universities only consider awarding college credit for IB's HL (Higher Level, 2 year) exams or the full Diploma.
But that doesn't stop Jay! Ten years worth of whining and today he released a new column in which he has the audacity to make the unbelievable claim that universities "forced" IB students to take the AP exams! Mr. Mathews seems incapable of understanding that it's a bunch of knuckleheads like himself who are forcing hard working taxpayers to pay for this inferior, outrageously expensive, anti-American program!
As if D.C. Schools Weren't Bad Enough?
April 13, 2011 - No. Mayor Gray wasn't arrested for ushering IB into Washington D.C. public schools (although the thought is appealing). Mayor Gray was protesting the budget deal which cut spending for abortions in D.C. and re-established a voucher program for the children of D.C.'s poorest families.
While our country sits on pins and needles waiting for Washington bureaucrats to figure out how to deal with the out of control $14+ trillion deficit, the incredibly horrible D.C. public school system thinks it's a good idea to waste millions on bringing IB into its fold:
April 11, 2011 - TAIB is primarily concerned with IB's intrusion on American sovereignty. IB eagerly takes advantage of Federal U.S. funding for poor (Title I) schools in our country, but for some strange reason, IB has taken a battle to the Supreme Court level in India where the Indian government requires 25% of the students in a school to be poor. This points to a major flaw in U.S. law which permits this international organization to pocket boatloads of U.S. taxdollars without ever having to comply with U.S. laws or standards.
India currently has 64 IB schools. HERE is IB's Indian dilemma in a nutshell:
The schools are of the view that domestic laws in India should not apply to them since they are affiliated to international boards. Certain institutions such as Pune-based Mercedes-Benz International School have moved the Supreme Court on the issue.
“The government is unlikely to give them any exemption. These institutions are bound to follow the rules and laws in India as long as they are operating in the country,” a ministry source said.
As per the RTE Act, unaided schools must admit children from economically weaker sections to the extent of 25 per cent of their strength and give them free education.
The government will reimburse the expenses borne by these schools for poor children at the rate fixed by it.
TAIB's interpretation of this situation is that the particular institution in question is a private school which is not exempt from Indian law. This is very different from the U.S. where private schools are not bound by U.S. Department of Education regulations. The real question is; Why would a private IB school in India be opposed to accepting up to 25% of its enrollees from an underprivleged segment of society if the Indian government is willing to reimburse the school? Do the words 'elitist hypocrites' fit this scenario?
April 8, 2011 - It seems like just the other day that IB opponents declared victory in Incline Village. Wait a minute - it WAS the other day! And now comes the news that the voices of the 50+ teachers in Redondo Beach, CA, have been recognized and Application B for IB authorization, has been suspended. This is totally awesome news. The message is finally getting through to everyone it seems, except the HS Principal:
"RUHS Principal Mary Little sent a note to faculty late last week that cited budget concerns – one of the teachers’ primary objections – as a reason to suspend the application process. “The current budget crisis in California and the impasse over the governor’s plan for tax extensions will dramatically impact RBUSD,” Little wrote. “As Dr. Keller outlined for us at Monday’s staff meeting, there may be cuts at RUHS. For this reason, after consultation with Dr. Keller, who has spoken with board members, we have decided to delay the submission of Application B to become an IB World School. This additional time will give all of us an opportunity to learn more about IB.”
Pay attention, RUHS teachers, parents and students! Your Principal seems to think this is simply a "delay". While it's a shame that the district has already wasted over $40,000 in IB application and training fees, now your Principal and IBelievers will step up "private" fundraising efforts in an attempt to overcome budget deficits. The district is trying to make the IB issue entirely about money, while dismissing the professional opinion of the teachers that AP is a superior academic offering for the student body. Do not relinquish viligence on this issue - you need a resounding declaration from the Superintendent and Board of ABANDONMENT of the IB application process. "Suspension" and "Delay" are not sufficient!
Vote for Letwin!
TAIB wants to wish Board of Education Trustee candidate Shawn Letwin, success in the upcoming Dexter, Michigan, election. Shawn appears to have done his homework. In his own words, we can clearly see the pattern of abuse and lack of transparency foisted upon the public by IBelievers at the administrative level. [emphasis TAIB's]
"With no more new money coming into the school district, the district has allocated $500,000 to be available for spending this year on the International Baccalaureate program even though the community never asked for this. There are only a couple of dozen Dexter students who are interested and the district counselors recently stated that our graduates with advanced placement classes are not kept from admittance to universities by any IB applicant. Not to mention the fact that the Washtenaw Intermediate School District is starting its own IB program that our students could take advantage of. Although the IB folks recommend that a complete feasibility study should be performed, to date, the district has done no such study and does not appear to have one planned. So, whether the students, parents and taxpayers want an IB program, it appears that the board has decided we need one."
Shawn Letwin, Candidate
Silicone breast implants
IBoobs!
As soon as TAIB saw that this "teachable moment" took place in the Henrico district in Virginia, we let out a collective groan. Henrico is where TAIB had previously encountered Mrs. Biddle, the IB Coordinator at Henrico High School. We see that Henrico also has not one IB MYP, (authorized March, 2011), but three. Surely the IB PYP can't be far behind. It would appear that Henrico is quite overrun with left-wing ideology and wasteful spending, not to mention idiots at the helm who would support having silicone breast implants passed around to 9 year olds.
It is quite clear that Henrico's Superintendent and Board of Education are completely clueless as to what they are developing in their district. Or are they? Wake up Henrico parents and taxpayers! You have a bunch of misguided, left-wing ideologues hell-bent on destroying your child's education. The time has come to take back your schools!
IB: The Progressive Program
April 5, 2011 - For many years, TAIB has heard IBelievers make claims of some study that demonstrates that IB students are more well-prepared for college than AP students. Of course, whenever we asked for a link to such a study, IBelievers like Jay Mathews would either ignore the request or dodge the issue. Our hopes were elevated when we stumbled upon the following abstract of an oral presentation to be delivered at ithaca College, NY, but alas, there are no written report references. No, this is just another useless, baseless, non-verifiable claim as to the wonders of IB. Wouldn't it be nice if we could actually look at some sourced, comparative data? Several sentences in the Abstract jumped out at TAIB, not the least being the title, which clearly demonstrate that IB is all about advancing the Progressive agenda, and nothing more. [emphasis TAIB's] The IB program is under-utilized in United States, a problem this project is intended to remedy by discussing the IB’s superior potential to grow with and complement the American education system
Interviews with graduates of the IB and AP programs, as well as school district coordinators for both, reveal that students who have taken IB generally feel more prepared for college than their counterparts who have taken AP, and they claim higher grade point averages in their college careers.
One IB coordinator disclosed that some students are apprehensive about participating in the IB curriculum because they can receive more college credits for taking AP classes. Thus, for the IB program to be successful in the United States colleges need to change their policies on transfer credits.
Propaganda, nothing more. Apprehension, feelings and claims .... great. And all of the universities need to change their policies to adapt to IB's unproven CLAIMS of excellence.
I remember back when I was in college, I used to travel down from Oswego to visit my best friend at Ithaca College. Back then, it was an expensive party university in the same beautiful town as Cornell that basically anyone got into - as long as they had the bucks. It certainly looks like it hasn't changed much.
International Baccalaureate: The Progressive Program
Redondo Beach Teachers Unite Against IB Tyranny! http://www.easyreadernews.com/23459/redondo-international-baccalaureate/ "Linda Dillard, the chair of the school’s science department, told the school board that teachers have not been allowed to engage in a “data-driven, fact-finding process” to help determine if the program is a good fit for RUHS.
“The IB program has been dictated to the RUHS teachers by the administration,” Dillard said. “…In my 25 years at RUHS, I have never seen a program of this magnitude and economic impact forced upon teachers who are expected to deliver a high quality program without being given any input in the decision making. What do you think the chances of success are?”
Click on March 22, 2011 archive begin at the 56:46 mark
What Will it Take to Stop IB?
March 24, 2011 - Teachers object. Parents object. Students object. Taxpayers object. But these three Superintendents and their School Boards in three separate states couldn't care less. They are going to keep pushing forward with their applications to IBO, the public be damned.
Redondo Beach, California About 50 teachers from Redondo Union High School attended Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting in opposition to the International Baccalaureate program scheduled for implementation at the high school in 2012. The teachers, including department chairs, said they oppose the cost of theIB programduring a time of continued budget cuts. They also said it wasn't needed at a school with an award-winning Advanced Placement program.
This decision comes two week after the district helda public presentation on its application to the International Baccalaureate program attended by more than 300 residents. Ananonymous flyer handed out within the district had raised numerous questions and concernsabout its costs and curriculum. Sullivan-Kriss said the flyer forced the district's hand, holding a public meeting about it's two-year application to the International Baccalaureate program before the time line prescribed. Yet, she said it opened lines of communication between school officials and the community. Initially, the district planned to eliminate of 12 out of the 18 Advanced Placement classes offered at Hauppauge High School, eliminating those with similar counterparts under IB. High School students will now have the choice of which class they enroll in
Cottonwood, Arizona Opposition to the closing of schools within the district was growing rapidly and becoming loosely organized. No real groundswell of opposition took place regarding Tavasci Elementary, but the idea of closing OCS was meeting strong, and vocal, opposition among Cornville residents....The board also discussed where it will place the new International Baccalaureate Candidate School, which now has been named Mountain View Preparatory Academy. Garrison said the I.B. school likely will be placed on the Tavasci campus.
Of course there was no outcry from the Tavasci parents. Why? Because there was never any prior mention of making Tavasci the IB academy!!! A note to TAIB readers, this is the district where Gene Birkeland (Ellen McClay) was prepared to speak to the Board about IB, along with fellow resident Frank Ogden, but they were subsequently "univited".
Here is what TAIB recommends. In each of these communities, we have already witnessed a "partial" win against IB. Teachers and parents need to take it the next step and demand a halt to the IB application process NOW! Do not allow these IB tyrants to pacify objectors with a false "choice" or pushing the program to another school. Do not let down your guard, keep up the pressure. In Arizona, please try writing to Governor Jan Brewer and be sure to mention that the Chair of IBNA is also a VP of La Raza. That should get her attention.
"It's like the State Department ghetto"
March 18, 2011 - Oh dear. UN diplomats aren't happy about their accomodations in Falls Church, Virginia.
With each regime that teeters, each uprising that forces a U.S. embassy to be evacuated, more American diplomats, aid workers and their families seek shelter at a nondescript Falls Church apartment complex with a nondescript name: Oakwood. The only hint of its connection to international affairs is the United Nations flag flying overhead. Most families are there to enroll their children in Northern Virginia’s smallest school district, Falls Church. “Someone asked me the other day if I speak Egyptian. They ask if we ride to school on camels. I don’t think they really understand us,” said Hadley Rose, 13, who is in the eighth grade at George Mason High School.
But how can this be? George Mason High School in Falls Church is an IB World School and has been since 1981! So is the George C. Marshall High School and JEB Stuart High School which also offers the IB MYP. Where is the IB love? Here's the kicker: The students left Cairo American College, the city’s preeminent international high school, in the middle of cross country season, a few months before Advanced Placement exams and days before the performance of the semester’s musical. Less than a week later, they started classes in Falls Church.
WHAT? So they were preparing for AP in Cairo, now they get shoved into IB in Falls Church and because many of these students are arriving in the middle of what would be the 2 years for the IB Diploma, they won't qualify for the IB Diploma? Are you kidding us? Why is there absolutely no mention of IB in this WAPO article? This demonstrates the ultimate waste of taxpayer money on IB if the children of diplomats, whom IB was designed for, are unable to assimilate into an American IB school.
Chair of IBNA Board from La Raza!
March 13, 2011 - Who knew? Thanks to one of our Texas IB watchdogs who took our recent update on IB and Binghamton and researched a step further, we now learn that Delia Pompa, who serves as the Senior Vice President of Programs for the National Council for La Raza, also served as the IBNA Board President in 2006 and 2007, is the current Chair of the Board and member of the IB compensation committee and governance committee. Her specialty is "school reform".
March 11, 2011 - It can't be any clearer. The district-wide rejection of IB in this California school district is a phenomenal reference for anyone trying to stop the implementation of IB in their own district. TAIB will reprint the entire article as this sort of news tends to disappear from the web. We also urge you to print out the Power Point presentation compiled by the district. Note that EVERY COMPLAINT TAIB has featured on this site is referenced under "Challenges" and by the students themselves. St. Helena HS has 502 students. [bold emphasis in article, ours]
High school students knock IB
Jesse Duarte|Posted:Thursday, March 10, 2011 12:00 am
More than 170 high school students are urging the St. Helena School Board to eliminate the International Baccalaureate program in favor of traditional Advanced Placement classes.
A letter signed by 177 high school students — about a third of the student body — says IB is unnecessary, impractical, and less useful to students than AP classes, which have mostly been phased out over the last few years.
The school district has been polling staff, parents, students and the community as it considers scaling back the district’s K-12 IB program. The board is scheduled to discuss IB at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, at Vintage Hall.
The letter claims that IB doesn’t benefit the majority of high school students because “only a fraction of (the) student population is enrolled in an IB class.”
Only eight high school seniors are enrolled in the IB Diploma Program for juniors and seniors, but 110 students are enrolled in at least one IB class.
“The IB Diploma Program has essentially created an exclusive prep school within a public high school, funded with moneys that should be available for the benefit of all students,” the letter argues.
Students say the Diploma Program “isolates students from one another.”
“All juniors and seniors in the (diploma) program, and the majority of students taking more than one or two IB classes, are with the same students throughout the school day,” the letter states. “This contributes to a lack of student unity, and creates apathy as well as antipathy on campus.”
In February administrators recommended replacing the K-8 IB program with a “St. Helena International Program” that would maintain the benefits of IB without all the logistical hassle.
Administrators recommended keeping the IB Diploma Program for at least another two years for the sake of students who’ve already committed to it.
Students say the implementation of IB classes “has cut other much-needed classes, many of which were geared toward a wider array of students,” including vocational courses.
“In addition to cutting classes themselves, IB has eliminated the possibility of new classes in general, e.g., an anatomy/physiology course — SHHS is the only high school in the Napa-Santa Rosa area which does not offer anatomy,” the letter states.
Students remain unconvinced that IB is superior to AP, and question whether IB is necessary to give them a global perspective.
“In reality, thanks to modern technology and a world economy, we live in and learn through a global community regardless of the IB program,” the letter states.
Supporters of IB have said it values critical thinking and analysis more than AP, but students disagree.
“Certainly, IB encourages independent thought and analysis — but only if it results in a conclusion previously prescribed by the program,” students claim. “This serves to hinder true independent thought in students for fear of a failing grade.”
AP is far more likely than IB to be recognized by American colleges and universities, students added.
The struggles of IB have been attributed to a lack of understanding of IB among parents and students. But students say that after two years, “it has become painfully obvious that the more parents and students learn of the IB program, the less they want to be involved.”
The letter concludes that the district should cut its losses rather than “continue to pour time, money and effort into a poor investment.”
It doesn't get better than this, folks. EVERY objection to IB is covered in this summary. What a waste of over $1,500,000!
IB's Emphasis on English Language Skills
March 10, 2011 - Things are heating up in Hauppauge, NY. In THIS ARTICLE, we learn that "Several characteristics of the IB program place an emphasis on English language skills and research papers." That sounds great, who could be opposed to that? Ironically, after reading that particular article, TAIB received the e-mail below. We are withholding the student's name to prevent embarrassment, but will tell you that it came from the State of Washington.
Comments: I am a junior in the IB program. I find your website extremely offensive. Honestly bashing higher education just reflects poorly on you. I find that the program is helping to prepare me to be successful in a competitive college setting. We are given work that helps us take into consideration our effect on the world aroud [SIC] us. Rather than being closed minded americans. Since you have never completed the IB program..and you have never had a child go through it, your claims are completly [SIC] irrational..and honestly. There is a whole IB class discussing how completly [SIC] stupid your website is. Good luck. Cause you have absolutly [SIC] nothing to stand on.
So instead of teaching students how to spell, capitalize and write complete, coherent sentences, they are sitting around in IB class bashing TAIB. Tip to IB student - here at TAIB, we don't bash "higher education". However, we do make it our business to point out that IB does not deserve to be classified as "higher education".
Teachers and Parents Doubt IB!
March 9, 2011 - Normally, TAIB encounters disparaging articles about IB once a week. Yesterday produced a plethora of articles which cast doubts on the "prestige" and efficacy of the IB program. IB supporters like to claim TAIB is "biased" and that we have an agenda. They should keep in mind that we are not selling IB. Therefore, the accusation of "bias" is ridiculous. We flat out think IB is a harmful, controversial, expensive program that does not belong in American public schools. That's not bias, that's a strong negative opinion, to which we, as Americans, are entitled. As a result, TAIB features those articles which demonstrate the "ugly" side of IB. TAIB never claimed to be "balanced" in our reporting. And yes. We do have an agenda. To prevent IB from further infiltrating American public schools.
March 7, 2011 - TAIB will only use first names to share the following communique's. The first, from Lauren, is absolutely brilliant. Brilliant. The e-mail from the IB student, on the other hand, well, initial reaction from one reader, to quote was, "We're doomed!" You be the judge!
Subject: RE: IB pyp
Author: Lauren Date: 3/6/2011 2:05 am EDT
Thanks again for this forum. It good to be able to get different opinions on IB.
I'm posting again because I went to an information session/open house for a PYP school last night and wanted to share.
First off, I am really impressed with the academic, whole-child, global awareness aspect of the IB program. The pedagogical stuff is really, really great. For example, (completely seriously) they don't worry about "facts" in the PYP and work instead on teaching how to think *about* facts. The example the hosts gave was a recent 1st grade geography lesson about continents. They discussed what defines a continent (can Antarctica be a continent if no one lives there? Is Asia and Europe 1 or 2 continents? What about the "Americas"? US Americans tend to say "2" while South Americans tend to say it's only "1" continent. Good stuff, I think. The kids aren't memorizing (imo) subjective "facts" (because everything has to be simplified at their age anyway). There do learn some facts, of course. I saw lots of great student-created Venn diagrams in the 2nd grade classroom dealing with poetry and prose, ie poetry can be bits and pieces, prose has complete sentences, but both have themes.
Also, the handouts about their "program of inquiry" -- which is as close to a curriculum as I can find-- was impressive. There are 6 blocks taught each year:
1. The Artist Whithin [sic], focusing on "we express feeling and thoughts through the arts" 2. Where are we? (humans place themselves in time differently) 3. We are not alone (communities are organized so that members can interact and co-exist) 4. Roll up your sleeves (people establish practices for preserving the Earth's natural resources) 5. My world, our world (cultures have unique traditions and beliefs 6. Lights on (light: a natural and manmade phenomena that impacts our surroundings)
I think these are great academic starting points that I could do a lot with.
But there are some serious problems. For example, the social skills that the PYP advocates during these blocks are compromising, cooperation, fairness, listening to others, obtaining consensus, stating opinion so you don't hurt others, assuming responsibility, being sensitive to others, being courteous, etc. to the exclusion of standing up for oneself or others, asserting pride, making sound judgments, having independent thought, or going against the grain. Their global citizen is someone who is always willing to do whatever their neighbor wants them to do. It didn't sit right with me and I realized what the "social skills" set needed was a thorough review of Sun Tzu's, "The Art of War." As advanced as humanity is culturally, we are biologically still animals who are greedy, lazy, sneaky, violent, and frequently anti-social. But war is anathema to the IB, which means--since war is very much a reality--IB is creating kids who don't understand reality or know how to react to it. The IB defenders are delusional to believe peace is the only solution for life, and that they'll somehow eliminate all of those nasty human traits by the IB program.
Second, I assumed that with the global citizenry rhetoric, they would honor their home culture first, but they absolutely do not. I asked if they said the US or Texas Pledge of Allegiance (no and no), or celebrate any US holidays (not the Federal ones, except for Thanksgiving). While they don't explicitly celebrate other national holidays (such as Cinco de Mayo), they also don't celebrate Christmas. But they do discuss how people in other places celebrate winter, Diwali, Hanukkah, etc. Personally, I love the variety of the world--I'm an anthropologist and linguist by trade and training--but I think the IB is homogenizing the cultures. The classic saying, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" came to mind. The global rhetoric makes it so there is no differentiation--no Rome-- at all. It seems a bit Brave New World-ish for me.
Anyway, I'm truly horrified by how many schools consider IB a wonderful way to go. It's like they've drunk the kool-aid, and if they had their way, kool-aid would be the only beverage available.
So, that's my experience. I think I'd like to homeschool with an altered version of this curriculum. However, I would be an idiot to pay someone else to teach my child this brainwashing garbage part (even though I actually like the academics).
Thanks again for allowing this forum, and letting me say my piece.
-Lauren
ps. I noticed a student wall display of white pieces of paper glued to Popsicle sticks with peace signs drawn on them (surrender flags?) surrounding quotes from kids about how people should always protest peacefully because you "can't be good communicators if you're screaming at each other". IMO, they are creating an army of anti-militancy, militant pushovers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ First Name: Erin Comments: People make me laugh. I am an IB senior. Now, I am not going for the diploma anymore. As a junior I was planning on achieving the diploma, however I found the program is not for me. I hate IB, but some people commenting on this article are completely moronic. And yes, that probably makes me close-minded, opposite of what IB teaches, but if you truly believe that the IB program belongs to some sort of New World Order conspiracy, then please, so us all a favor, and go back into your cabin in the hills. The world has moved on from basic Christian indoctrination. And yes, I am a liberal and an atheist, but have been long before I ever came into the program. Let me explain why I hate IB. I am at a time in my life where I am not positive on what career path I want. I have many interests, but thus far cannot see any being the one true path for me in life. The IB program makes students take the six basic areas, and as a senior I wanted to take more electives to explore my other interests. I am horrible at math, and horrible at science, so taking those classes was both not enjoyable and inefficient. I know for a fact I will not be pursuing something that requires high math or science capabilities, so why should I waste two years building up knowledge in those core areas when I know down the road, yes I can say I am well-rounded, but I won't be using them? I also hate the workload. I have read that students in other countries have the ability to turn in major projects or research assignments on any given day of the "assigned week" without penalty. They also have excused days in which they can catch up on sleep. No such thing occurs at my school. In fact, I stayed home today in an effort to finish a large English assignment on 'The Guide' by R.K. Narayan (a horribly written book, if you ask me) but I have only been procrastinating. For me, and many of my friends, IB has turned us into bulls**tting experts. I really believe this is the case because my IB English teacher is new and completely incompetent, so she just assigns huge homework assignments in an attempt to "teach". My TOK class is awful. I was so looking forward to this class. I was told we would discuss philosophical questions and look deeper into our moral thinking, however, before the first report card even came out we were no longer allowed to have discussions because the teacher wasn't intelligent enough to keep up, so she banned them. Mind you, this is a teacher who cries everyday, and should not be teaching. I blame the horridness of my TOK class on the teacher, not the program. Overall, for where I am in my life, IB is not right for me. I must say, it is very challenging, as west as interesting material, however I believe my school has gone about it the wrong way. I am a seventeen year old girl who is going to graduate in about one hundred days, and I want to have a life. That also played a huge role in my decision to pull out of the program. Is it un-American? No. That claim is absolutely ridiculous. Unless your definition of un-American means that something doesn't teach that America is great and perfect and has no faults. Well then, yeah, I guess it is. All the program does is say, "Hey! You all have been learning from a one-sided perspective for many years, want to learn something different and interesting? Here's how Europe, China and the USSR viewed post-1900 events." Uh-oh! We might learn about people who believed in communism! What are we going to do? Maybe put some faith in children and understand that learning about something else does not mean you will actually come to believe in it. Indoctrination? Isn't the pledge of allegiance indoctrination? I don't say the pledge anymore because standing in a room with a bunch of kids reciting the same thing to a piece of fabric with my hand on my heart is kind of creepy to me. I love America and am so grateful for having been brought up in such a nation. That does not mean I have to be blind to America's mistakes. Some people are turning national pride into something scary, which is actually pushing me away from it. If I ever become "un-American" it will be because of the people who oppose to IB program because of your stupid ideas, no because of the IB program itself. Also, please stop associating Christianity with national pride. Many people in this country are not Christian, does that mean they should not be allowed to call themselves American? While separation of church and state may not be fully implemented in our government, we should still stand behind the philosophy that there is, indeed, a freedom of religion granted to us by the Constitution. Aren't those who oppose the right to question their religion opposing the Constitution, then? I'm sorry if some kids choose to no longer blindly follow how they were brought up. Hell, most of them, even after questioning, stick to their original beliefs, so what is there to fear? Let people think for themselves. It seems to me that those who are scared of kids falling for a world government caused by IBO are actually those who are truly trying to indoctrinate the children with false patriotism and blind Christian followings. I am in no way bashing Christianity, I believe the morals offered are important to my way of life. However, don't just hear and accept, look deeper. And if you're afraid to look deeper, build a time machine and go back to the 1800's. I hate IB, but not for your reasons. You know what I hate more? Crazy people.
Idaho School District Wastes Money on Non-Existent IB HS for Five Years!
Hard to believe? TAIB has the proof. Please read the full story HERE.
TAIB Gives Cottonwood, AZ School Board the "Finger"
February 15, 2011 - Jason Finger must have sensed something in the air when the issue of creating an IB charter school was unanimously approved by the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School Board last week. What he was unaware of however, is that Gene Birkeland, aka Ellen McClay, happens to be a taxpaying homeowner in the district. Gene has submitted the letter below to the local paper.
(.pdf available upon request)
Good News, Bad News
February 15, 2011 - Good News - TAIB always prefers good news first. In 2010, TAIB carefully watched the much larger growth of PYP and MYP IB programs in the U.S., compared to its supposedly premier Diploma program(me). It is therefore of great interest that the Glynn County Public Schools in Georgia are considering eliminating IB from two schools which were just authorized by IB in 2010.
International Baccalaureate was part of former superintendent Michael Bull's vision to offer themes and magnet programs at the schools in 2005, a time when the economy was booming. The program first began at Needwood Middle in 2006 with a self-study. The following year, the application process took place. In 2007, C.B. Greer jumped on board and officials began their application process. When the school system's budget took a huge hit in 2010, administrators were forced to cut millions out of programs, salaries and positions. Officials expect the next school year will be even worse.
Bad News - Last year TAIB removed a page titled "Is IB a Cult?" after being harangued by IBelievers and an IB teacher from Wales who insisted that the tragedy of teen suicide was just as prevalent in AP or the A-Levels. Since that time, TAIB has received numerous letters from parents regarding students in IB schools who were either suicidal or who became seriously depressed while in the IB program. Unable to verify through the press a direct correlation in some of those cases, TAIB has preferred to focus on the outrageous cost and misguided philosophy of IB, rather than assign a "deadly" warning label to the product.
THIS STORY however, forces TAIB to change its mind. What is deeply, deeply disturbing is the fact that not one, but two MYP IB students commited suicide within such a short time span. TAIB also questions the decision to use the money from this fundraiser for a scholarship geared specifically towards a student interested in pursuing further education in psychology with a focus on suicide prevention. Wouldn't it have been far more meaningful to present and future students and the poor families who lost their children to have created a beautiful memorial on school grounds dedicated to those two young lives lost? In four short years, HS students won't know or care who Caroline or Harrison were if their names are only associated with a scholarship awarded to a single student or two in their senior year. But if they have to walk past a memorial daily, just like those we erect for our veterans, perhaps it will serve as a reminder that there is life beyond IB if you "don't surrender".
Student: So I was wondering... Why aren't we allowed to take five HL classes? IB Coordinator: Because it looks bad for the IB program when students commit suicide.
How Very Odd
February 10, 2011 - TAIB decided to do a check on IB's IRS filings for the year 2009. No, IB still has not filed for 2009, but when checking on 2008, instead of the forms which were on the site for approximately a year, we came across the notice below.
So here's the question; If the documents which were filed with the IRS were scanned, how could they "not include" the information submitted by IB?
screenshot of IB's 990 form from Guidestar
Beaufort Gives IB the Boot
February 5, 2011 - THIS ARTICLE out of Beaufort County, SC, shows there are some right-minded, fiscally responsible Board of Ed Trustees left in this country. The Board hired a cost-benefit analyst to come in and take a hard look at its district. the consultant's recommendations are as follows:
The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program at Battery Creek High School would be eliminated over two years and the program at Hilton Head Island High School put on probation if the Beaufort County Board of Education adopts a recommendation it received this week.
The analyst's figures do not include costs for the primary- and middle-years I.B. programs, offered at Hilton Head I.B. Elementary School, Broad River Elementary School, Hilton Head Island Middle School and Robert Smalls Middle School. The consultants also recommended those programs be discontinued.
By TAIB's estimates, Beaufort County schools could save between $1.2-1.5M a year if all six (6) IB schools are eliminated. Someone recently referred to this drawn out elimination process which mandates that students already in IB are allowed to complete it as IB's "poison pill". TAIB's apologizes for not being able to properly credit that incredibly apt phrase.
IB Lies Exposed! The True Cost and Purpose of IB
February 4, 2011 - TAIB has recently been inundated with fabulous information from primary sources which clearly expose the lies being sold to unsuspecting school districts. We are pleased to bring you the following budget document out of Tuscon, Arizona and an editorial written by IB teacher, Tom (last name withheld upon request) of Prince George's County, MD.. When Tom (a Calculus teacher) complained to Superintendent John Deasy about his dissatisfaction with IB, he received the following e-mail, "Yes I received your essay. I have no comment except to disagree with your position. If you feel you can not teach in the program you should seek a transfer or resign. We value your teaching and have no intention of changing direction with respect to students gaining access to IB."
TAIB urges anyone fighting the implementation of IB in their district to print out this page and distribute copies to their school board. A big thank you to Debra Niwa, author of IB Unraveled, for forwarding the finance information from AZ to TAIB.
Posted by tmilz on Monday, September 01, 2008 9:55:14 PM
I entered the seminar room about 15 minutes before the lecture began, aware that I would miss the night’s fireworks but interested in hearing how International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) would expound on "International Mindedness," one of the organization’s stated goals. At my early-July teacher training in beautiful Montezuma, New Mexico, this seminar opened my eyes to the fact that IBO is more ideological than educational. Moreover, it sent me on moral and ethical quest as I began to question the role of public education, the morality of a program such as IBO in ourpublic schools, my appropriate response to the program in my school, and how I will handle the schooling of my own children.
Dr. Steve Hreha, a physicist from Montreal and an IBO lecturer, spoke. His presentation was rooted in moral relativism, the worldview that morality is relative, or what is true for one person/group is not necessarily true for another person/group. He instructed that we cannot make value judgements regarding cultural practices. Rather, we must seek to understand the cultural backgrounds and reasons for such practices. This worldview has indeed become popular in our current post-modern age; but it is not the validity of moral relativism with which I must contend. Instead, my concern lies in the fact that a single worldview is given to IBO teachers (all IBO teachers must attend conferences such as this) as necessary instruction in their respective IBO classes.
It is a shame when education in skills and thinking is replaced by the presentation of a single worldview. Indoctrination cannot, in a society which truly aspires to individual liberty, be substituted for education. Author David Horowitz says it this way:
"In authoritarian and totalitarian societies schools exist to indoctrinate students in the orthodoxy of the state. In a democracy, by contrast, we teach studentshowto think, notwhatto think. In other words, in a free society the very purpose of education is to open students’ minds and encourage future citizens to figure out what conclusions to draw by themselves. It is not the purpose of a democratic education to force-feed students opinions on controversial issues that the teacher deems ‘politically correct’."
InMein Kampf, for instance, Adolf Hitler stressed "the importance of winning over and then training the youth in the service ‘of a new national state.’ The government school system would be the means to the end. "When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ he said in a speech on November 6, 1933, "I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already . . . What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing else but this new community.’" And on May 1, 1937, he declared, "This new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing."
The irony of values-based curriculum instruction is not wasted on this observer, for as a nation, we have spent the last sixty years trying get rid of the teaching of solely one set of values, attempting to clearly delineate, for example, the boundary between church and state. Yet, under the guise of global citizenry, IBO now does the exact same thing, preaching a gospel of its own values, its own religion.
IBO operates with the stated goal to develop global citizens, taking stands on everything from environmentalism to international diplomacy to population control. At my training, in a subject as seemingly objective as Calculus, I was encouraged to fill my curriculum with word problems that demonstrate an underlying agenda for the program – declining animal populations, the dangers of pollutants, global warming, etc. Would this technique be viewed innocuous by the school board if I were to give word problems that focus on the percentage of international terrorists that is Muslim or examine the statistical the correlation between higher gun control and higher crime levels?
Furthermore, IBO as a whole ascribes to the tenets of the Earth Charter, at one point even giving its full endorsement to this political movement. The Earth Charter initiative includes, among other things, calls for "universal health care," the "equitable distribution of wealth," and "responsible reproduction." (How is that working out in China?) IBO also has strong ties to groups like the United Nations and several of its subsidiaries, again ideologically partisan groups. For instance, the UN Population Fund has defended Chinese population control. Another example is how IBO and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization have collaboratively formed a "curriculum framework for peace education." Peace, in itself, is a desirable goal; however, educating about peace can be a very political and ideological task. There are, after all, strongly competing views on how best to achieve peace; one may promote peace through negotiations concessions, another may promote it through strength. Teaching such a thing is indeed values education.
Each is entitled to have his/her own opinion. Each is more over entitled the right to free speech. However, as Thomas Jefferson noted, "To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." In other words, it is morally wrong, even "tyrannical" for a program such as IBO to be in the public school systems, paid for by those who fully disagree.
It is unethical for public education to support curriculum that promotes a single worldview to the exclusion of others. In order to be informed citizens, students must be taught to think analytically and logically, as opposed to merely parroting ideas. Therefore, I cannot, in good conscience, support the International Baccalaureate Organization, which favors the indoctrination of students at the taxpayer’s expense.
February 3, 2011 - IB is ramping up efforts to infiltrate high schools out on the east end of Long Island, NY. TAIB alerted our readers to the presentation made in the East Hampton district, and many of you joined in with wonderful comments. Today we bring you a story out of Sag Harbor which we encourage you to add your two cents to, as well:
When TAIB last checked, the CCHeadliner had disabled comments following Sgt. White's opinion piece. Perhaps it was just a technical glitch, but if anyone else is able to comment, please do!
GREAT NEWS!
January 29, 2011:
TAIB isn't sure which news item makes us happier, so we will celebrate both! First, out of the beautiful State of Virginia:
Testing-fee prohibition shot down in legislature RICHMOND — Local legislators have agreed to kill a bill that would have eliminated student fees as part of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate testing requirements inVirginia schools.
You can read all of the Liberal whining that follows the opening sentence, if you wish. As you can see, this was an attempt by a Democrat legislator to force ALL Virginia taxpayers to pick up the tab for IB exams. It is a disgusting example of IB attempting to ride on the back of the more recognized, less expensive AP, to worm its way into our public schools. Bravo, Virginia Legislature!
Nevada Patriots Take to the Radio to Fight Secret Meetings
Comments:It's sad when people are afraid of education. How cowardly and ignorant. I'm going to begin my IB courses next year. The majority of my class is enrolled in the IB programme. We are the Honors kids that are involved in the community, we are individuals, we are intelligent and we are creative. We are the generation that will be taking care of your kind when you're old and dependent on us. We are the generation ready to learn through new innovative ways. Move aside. ~ No name, no return address
The American Legion Officially Opposes IB
January 25, 2011 - TAIB would like to take this opportunity to commend MSG Ronnie White for contacting the National Headquarters of The American Legion with his concerns about International Baccalaureate. TAIB is proud to be the first to publish the following e-mail:
On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 12:15 PM, Novak, Michael<mnovak@legion.org>wrote:
Dear Comrade White,
Thank you for contacting The American Legion National Headquarters.
We appreciate your effort to bring this International Baccalaureate Program to our attention. In fact, the national organization is on record of our opposition to just this sort of attack on the U.S. education system. Resolution No. 31 (NEC October 14-15, 1992) states The American Legion Policy on Education. Specifically: "A major result of our educational process must be to provide people with the finest training in the world in basic skills of communication, and in knowledge which will enable individuals to think for themselves, to reason with facts, to comprehend with understanding."
We strongly encourage Departments to embrace the mandates stated by this resolution, and work with their state Department of Education to incorporate solid instruction in American History, civics, English, mathematics and science in their schools.
Students with an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma earn an average of 25-28 University credits, including 3 hours of credit in Philosophy for completing the Theory of Knowledge course
Once an IB student applies and is admitted to UNL, their IB Diploma may be worth a$44,000 scholarship(out-of-state students only).
International Baccalaureate George Beadle Scholarship Students enrolled and complete the IB curriculum and score a minimum of 27 on the ACT or its equivalent on the SAT are eligible for $11,700 per year up to 135 credit hours or completion of a degree, whichever happens first.
TAIB wonders why Mr. Beadle or UNL doesn't see fit to reward students from the home state of Nebraska with this generous scholarship? Is that a dumb question or does anyone else think it's a fair question? Don't a lot of kids like to go to their home state's university? This is certainly a good reason to halt any IB implementation in the State of Nebraska.
Aside from the residency issue, upon admission, readers will be interested to learn that those IB students UNL accepts will be placed in a "Small Learning Community". Hmmm. For the ability to group IB students together, students are billed an extra $95 per month on top of regular housing expenses.
With me so far? Okay. So in order to earn the $44,000 scholarship, you have to be from out of state, have an IB Diploma and pay an extra $95 a month to be grouped with other IBers. Would UNL give this to an IB Diploma of any score? (24-45)
IB COURSE CREDIT The specific number of earned credits you receive from UNL will depend on your IB course performance. The University awards credit in most IB courses with scores of 5 and above. (6 IB courses x 5 = 30)
Let's summarize the conditions that must be met for an IB Diploma student to actually be able to take advantage of that $44,000 advertised by UNL:
1. Must NOT be from Nebraska 2. Must have scored 30 or higher on the full IB Diploma. 3. Must have a score of 27 or higher on the ACT or its SAT equivalent 4. Will be placed in a "Small Learning Community" 5. Gets to pay $95 more a month for housing.
Guess it sucks to be an IB student from Omaha, Nebraska, eh? TAIB thinks KFAB needs to be updated on this bit of IB propaganda.
Is that right? WOW! The student who passes AP Calculus BC (score of 3, 4, 5) and Physics B (5) (each one year courses) can earn 20 credits for just those two courses!!! Meanwhile, the IB student who takes two (2) years worth of HL Mathematics and HL Physics, with scores of 5-7 will be awarded a measly 11 hours of credit. Keep in mind that "passing" for IB is a '4', while "passing" for AP is a '3'.
TAIB hopes the UNL model debunks IB lovers claims of instant scholarships and sophomore status to anyone who earns an IB Diploma with a score of 24-29 (average for most U.S. public high schools is 28) and the incredible disparity in credits awarded to AP's one year courses vs. IB's HL 2 year courses.
Can You Say Racist? Lisa E. McLoughlin
As an NYU student, my daughter subscribes to e-mail updates for scholarships. I told her to stop making stuff up when she told me she couldn't apply for the Gates Millenium Scholarship because she was white. She said, "No, Ma - LOOK!" Who’s Eligible?
Students areeligibleto be considered for a GMS scholarship if they: Are African American, American Indian/Alaska Native*, Asian Pacific Islander American** or Hispanic American
So how does this relate to IB? http://www.ibo.org/ibaem/documents/AthensOct06-ALucard_000.pdf At the top of the pyramid are the really big funders and the really big projects. For the time being, the major relationship that we are working on, and the major project associated with it, is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the MYP/DP continuum.This program is in line with the particular interests of the Gates Foundation: to help students in the United States be successful in high school regardless of their socioeconomic background.
The Gates MS requires students to be financially eligible for a Pell Grant, which is only awarded to the poorest families. Unfortunately, poor whites and poor white Jews are not eligible.
Example of IB Brainwashing
January 15, 2011 - It's a shame this "Concerned IB Student" was too chicken to include a working e-mail address for a personal reply. So instead, we'll paste it here. TAIB's replies are in blue.
First Name: Concerned Last Name: IB Student Address Line 1: ... City: ... State: ... Zip Code: ... Country: ... E-mail Address: ....@gmail.com
Comments: People are afraid of IB because it teaches people how to think. Incredibly, this student manages to include not one but two IB "concepts" in their opening salvo. The first, is that those of us who oppose IB are "afraid" of it. Labeling opponents as fearful immediately categorizes them as weaker. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those of us who oppose IB must come to the table armed with facts, figures and research and be prepared to withstand the onslaught of Alinksy driven insults which will inevitably be hurled our way by IB supporters. The second, is that IB teaches students "how" to think. We have heard this talking point used in almost every single IB presentation ever given - "IB teaches students how to think, not what to think". Let's go to the Merriam-Webster's definitions of "how" and "what":
Definition ofHOW
1
a:in what manner or wayb:for what reason:whyc:with what meaning:to what effectd:by what name or title
Definition ofWHAT
1
a(1)—used as an interrogative expressing inquiry about the identity, nature, or value of an object or matter<whatis this><whatis wealth without friends><whatdoes he earn><whathath God wrought>(2)—often used toaskfor repetition of an utterance or part of an utterance not properly heard or understoodwhat>
As demonstrated above, it is impossible to define 'how' without using the word 'what'. TAIB is going to take IB at its word that it doesn't teach children "what to think". So let's eliminate the word 'what' from the definition of 'how' and substitute it with 'a' or 'an'. We can now see that IB's method of teaching actually eliminates inquiry and delivers education in a dictatorial, non-questioning manner leaving no room for individual identification of 'what' they are being taught.
People are afraid that courses such as TOK will make people question concepts such as religion, conservativism and turn innocent biblebelters into radical liberals. This is why America is concerned. People who oppose IB in American public schools are not afraid that IB will force students to question religion. It is inappropriate and unconstitutional to force students to question their personal religion in a public school setting. TAIB is repeatedly using the word 'force' because TOK is a mandatory core component of the IB Diploma and a student cannot attain the IB Diploma without completing TOK. Let us remember the three components of the Lemon Test and the fact that public schools in the United States are government schools.
While the ACLU has actively used the Lemon Test to make sure the name of God and the Ten Commandments must never be uttered in our public schools, the same test can be used to insure that government does not infringe on our childrens' right to hold religious beliefs without being forced to question them.
IB is better than AP, which is essentially memorization. Here we see how this student has been indoctrinated to believe that AP is inferior to IB because it requires students to actually remember the facts, theories and content they were taught. Now we know this may sound terribly silly, but if you don't remember what you were taught, then you didn't really learn it in the first place, did you?
IB instead teaches people how to apply concepts within the actual world, making these people who take IB much better prepared for the rigour of university (I havent even talked about the EE yet). Concepts based on redistribution of wealth, junk science, Keynesian economics, social justice and those preferred by global elites may well prepare students how to "go along to get along" with the 70-80% of Liberal university Professors, but they will not "better prepare" students to become engineers, doctors, mathematicians and scientists.
The fact that America has started to embrace IB, means that it has embraced the education of the future. The "fact"? TAIB hardly calls the adoption of IB in less than 700 American public high schools an "embrace". As we have demonstrated here at TAIB, many American communities consider IB a disgrace to our founding principles and American values.
AP is a throwback from 40 years ago, when educators thought that memorizing was the way to learn, people have to now learn things properly... And IB is a throwback to 1948 (63 years ago) when Fabian socialists like Marie Therese Maurette, the "Mother of IB", (or as George Walker calls her, someone with "strong left-wing political views") decided that "international mindedness is not acquired by some instinctive process of cultural osmosis. It requires specific interventions; a carefully designed programme of educational activities. It is taught, not caught."
IB's definition of proper learning involves undermining one's religious beliefs and brainwashing students into becoming Progressives who believe themselves to be superior, devoid of any of those pesky little facts and history that would make them truly understand how they have been manipulated. IB's relativistic methods combined with its constructivist pedogogy seeks to undermine American founding principles, traditions and core knowledge. To this end, IB must be soundly rejected, not embraced.
IB Semantics
January 6, 2011 - From TAIB's first exposure to IB, we have noticed how the programme deliberately plays games with the English language by attempting to twist, distort, negate and emphasize certain words to use to its advantage. For example, it is almost impossible to find an article about IB that does not include the word rigorous. IB uses 'rigorous' to selectively mean either "scrupulously accurate" or "very strict". But what are the synonyms for 'rigorous', according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: austere, authoritarian, flinty, hard, harsh, heavy-handed, ramrod, rigid, stern, strict, tough.
How about the word baccalaureate? Interestingly, Merriam-Webster doesn't even have a synonym for baccalaureate, and the only one we could locate called it a bachelor's degree. A high school diploma is not the equivalent of a university bachelor's degree here in the United States.
A recent discussion in Jay Mathews' Admissions 101 forum in the Washington Post with several IB zealots regarding IB's TOK requirements, has erupted into a no-win battle over the meaning of the word 'belief' and whether or not TOK requires students to question their belief in God. Thanks to Ann Marie Banfield of Bedford, NH, we have hard evidence that IB does . Yet, faced with the actual "text resource" used in an actual IB World School, IB zealots vehemently deny the truth of this evidence.
Today TAIB received an e-mail from a concerned parent from Novi, Michigan. He asked TAIB if we have any idea what the following means:
A school language policy is derived from the school’s language philosophy and is a statement of purpose that outlines the goals for language teaching and learning. It is constructed around pedagogical and learning beliefs and therefore is a statement of action describing practices for achieving and evaluating goals. Novi High School is in the establishment phase of a school language steering committee which will be responsible for overseeing the procedures needed to develop the language philosophy and policy of the school, and for communicating with those they represent.
To answer this parent, TAIB must cite Ellen McClay's book, In the Presence of Our Enemies, pg. 13:
"Broadminded, open-minded Americans raised on such slogans as "A man is as good as his word", fail to comprehend "to the Communists, words are tools to achieve effects, not means to communicate, in the search for truth." (28) Slogans have been created to create rational thinking. Hoover wrote about the Communist use of language as a weapon in their subversive activities, a study which is important in reading UNESCO material: "Mention must be made, to understand this double talk, of a communist deceptive device called Aesopian language. This is a roundabout presentation. So it is with the word democracy. Communists still use Aesopian language - they say one thing and mean another. In this manner, they fool non-Communists, encouraging them to believe that Communism stands for something desireable. The word 'democracy' is one of the Communists' favorite Aesopian terms. Full democracy, to the communist will come only when all non-communist opposition is liquidated." (29) 28. Dr. Stefan T. Possony, expert witness before House Committee, March 2, 1959 29. Masters of Deceit, The Story of Communism in America - J. Edgar Hoover, Henry Holt & Co. 1948
TAIB urges parents everywhere to be aware of IB's attempts to corrupt and co-opt language to further its globalist agenda. Forewarned is forearmed.
Chicago IB Community Rift
January 5, 2011 - THIS ARTICLE popped up on TAIB's Google alerts and we had to read deep into the article to learn that the cause of the "rift" is the designation of this newly built high school as an IB World School. There are two facts which the article excludes, which are very important. 1. South Shore HS is not yet authorized by IBO. 2. According to IBO regulations; 3.4 New schools should normally have been in existence for at least three years before they can be authorized.
So - with potential IB authorization at least five years down the road, why is the Chicago school system causing unrest in this low income community? (hint: Cloward & Piven)
IB Boot Camp
TAIB received an e-mail from a concerned Mom in Stockton, CA, who was unable to attain answers to her questions about the IB program in her HS. While searching for info on the IB operations at Franklin HS, we came across a detailed page on its IB Boot Camp. TAIB is guessing that this Boot Camp fulfills IB's definition of "rigorous".
#1 Story of 2010!
January 4, 2011 - TAIB agrees. The outrageous attempt by WCSD, along with the private interest non-profit IBIV to force IB into Incline Village public schools K-12 was not only the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza's #1 story, but TAIB's as well. TAIB was welcomed into the IB debate in IV at the tail-end of 2009 by John Eppolito. Our year-long communication and collaboration has resulted in what TAIB considers a memorable friendship and hopefully, a victory for freedom.
Unfortunately, THIS STORY does not have a final conclusion, as yet. Eppolito and 335 other signers of a petition against IB anxiously await the outcome of the 1/4 and 1/10 meetings scheduled between WCSD, IBIV and Eppolito's group. Unresolved is the matter of who is picking up the tab for money already expended on IB by WCSD, a complete accounting of those expenses, and a final decree abandoning pursuit of IB by the district.
TAIB expects the "final answer" to those issues by mid-month. It is inconceivable, in light of the unprecedented popular uprising, negative publicity and poor economy, that WCSD will press the IB issue in 2011. The IB issue consumed Eppolito's life in a way he never thought possible. God bless Eppy and his lovely wife Teresa for coming forward to lead the charge against IB in IV. The time has come to allow them to return to their lives as teacher, Realtor and parents and to be able to send their children to their public schools free of UN indoctrination.
WELCOME!
TAIB is pleased to welcome members of Citizens 4 Freedom, a Tea Party resource in Orange County, New York, to our readership! TAIB respectfully requests that Citizens 4 Freedom attend 2011 budget meetings for the Pine Bush school district and find out why Pine Bush HS, (which allegedly discontinued its IB Diploma program), is still listed as an authorized IB World School.
Thanks to one of TAIB's friends at USPEIN for bringing the three videos below to our attention. Charlotte Iserbyt has gone well beyond just our focus on International Baccalaureate. Now, some may find Alex Jones a bit loud and abrasive and disagree with his 9/11 Truther position, but this interview is worth spending a half hour on.
Two references jumped out at TAIB which specifically relate to IB. The first was regarding "identify the resisters". Iserbyt spoke of how she was "trained" to do this when she served on her School Board and how to cozy up to the community "leaders" to get them to oppose the resisters. Remember the IB Playbook? The other day on The Blaze, TAIB read about the possibility of Jon Huntsman Jr making a run for President in 2012. Where had we heard that name before, other than his famous philanthropist father? Oh yes, HERE. Scroll down to the bottom for IB's Case Study: Opposition in the Media:
Conclusion The accusatory op-ed piece against the IA was out of the blue, but principal Bert Okma was prepared for it and moved quickly and efficiently to squelch the opposition. He recommends to fellow principals the following steps: • Create, cultivate, and maintain relationships with parents, students, local government, business leaders, and other community groups. • Don’t wait for conflict to arise to decide how to respond. Have ready answers for many of the common complaints lodged against the IB and distribute them to your colleagues. • If you face opposition in a public forum, immediately notify your colleagues, your community, and the IB North America of the nature of the opposition and your proposed course of action. • Respond quickly and thoughtfully and enlist others, such as parents, to respond as well.
Sounds like a pretty solid plan to shut down the "resisters", eh?
The other area of relevance discussed was the Chicago school system and charter schools. Interestingly, Iserbyt refers to 1998 which was the year Obama and Ayers sat on the Annenberg Challenge and Woods Foundation, but didn't mention how, along with Arne Duncan, they also grew the number of IB schools in Chicago from one to 26. TAIB analyzes the Chicago system HERE.
The recent signing of an MoU between the Aga Khan's Development Network and IBO, stands as an official agreement by IBO to promote a pro-Muslim, anti-Judeo/Christian agenda. TAIB has found IBO's Global Engage "projects" offer a wealth of evidence to support this claim. Below are a few choice excerpts from the lesson: Intercultural Understanding: Extending Muslim contexts to extend learning. The full .pdf can be found at (left). What was a "pilot project" in 2008, most certainly has become standard fare for IB World Schools in 2010.
Given the current learning gap resulting in a “clash of ignorances” between Western and Muslim cultures, it is important that IB students have the opportunity to learn about, and appreciate, the diversity of Muslim histories and cultures, “a hugely diverse collectivity of civilisations that have developed, and continue to evolve, in response to multiple societal influences—agricultural and rural, commercial and urban, scientific and philosophical, literary and political. Just like other great traditions, the Islamic world cannot be understood only by its faith, but as a total picture whose history is closely tied to that of the Judeo-Christian world.”
The focus of this pilot project is not to teach about Islam as a religion but rather to illustrate how understanding both historical and contemporary Muslim cultures can contribute to, and enhance the understanding of, central ideas and significant concepts taught in IB World School
We purposefully time our unit to straddle the mid-year break, so that students have an opportunity to either explore their host country in greater detail, or contrast where they live with a place they travel to for the holidays. At a time when many of the classes are trying to work out where Father Christmas lives and how they can tell him where they will be on Christmas Eve, we find a natural link to introducing the globe and finding where Oman is in relation to the North Pole and to many other places in the world.
Isn't that special? And TAIB is "purposefully" timing this message five days before Christmas to wake up Americans who are considering enrolling their children in an IB school. Islam IS a religion. Do NOT let these globalists attempt to sell this snake-oil under the guise of Islam being a "culture".
How IB Ruins Schools & Real Estate by Lisa E. McLoughlin
In the summer of 2010, my husband and I decided we have had enough of NY and would be looking for less expensive southern pastures. We explored most of the eastern portion of the state of South Carolina and found a beautiful area called Summerville, about a half hour inland from the wonderful city of Charleston and fabulous Folly Beach. Taxes, 1/10th of what we pay on Long Island, are a major consideration so we had decided not to look in any school districts which had the IB program which would unnecessarily drive up school taxes.
On our first day of looking around, we met a nice man at the local gas station who struck up a conversation. He told us, "Oh, you folks will love Sumnmerville, just steer clear of North Charleston, that's where all the drugs and gangs are."
Of course, this gentleman had no idea that we were already steering clear of North Charleston because it had IB. South Carolina just released the AP/IB exam results for the state. Having explored the Summerville area in depth first hand, I was excited to see the comparison of scores for the three high schools in the Dorcester County district. As you can see in the charts below, the two non-IB HSs blew away the IB Fort Dorcester HS in North Charleston when it came to AP pass rates. In fact, Fort Dorcester's AP pass rates are in the same 33-36% ballpark as Locust Valley IB HS, NY!
This requires some analysis because all over the U.S., IB advocates claim that making a school IB will "draw" new students. Let's be perfectly clear. Home values are directly tied to the quality of the schools in the neighborhood. In case after case where schools have implemented IB, the pass rate on AP exams rockets downward. Why? The answer is simple. Administration discourages AP enrollment and assigns the better teachers to IB in order to try and justify the outrageous expense of the program. I personally think this constitutes educational malpractice when a school puts 254 AP students at a disadvantage in order to favor 36 IB students. You be the judge.
California Teachers Fight IB
December 16, 2010 - It would appear that the economy is finally beginning to trump ideology, even in California. Unfortunately, school board trustees and administrators (who probably, if the public were polled, would have the same approval rating as the 111th Congress of 13%), don't "get it". The administration tries to use the tired old faulty logic that IB will "attract" new students which will cover the cost of the program, making Redondo Beach, an education "destination". Now where have we heard that phrase before? Oh yes, Incline Village, NV.
A newly adopted diploma program aimed at giving Redondo Union High School students a more international and rigorous educational alternative has come under fire from a group of teachers and department heads who are asking district leadership to delay its implementation. ...[SNIP]... Amy Santa Cruz, the president of the Redondo Beach Teachers Association, questioned why the district would spend so much money for a program that will only benefit a small number of students at a time when teachers have effectively taken pay cuts and health care benefit reductions.“We are clearly in an economic crisis,” she said. “All the staff in RBUSD has had to absorb ever increasing health care costs without having had any raise in over two years or a [cost of living] increase. There are employees in Redondo who have dropped their children off of their health care plan because they cannot afford to keep them on it and pay their other bills.” Five of the eight department heads at RUHS have also expressed opposition to the implantation of the IB program at this time. “Primarily, we feel we really have not had the process of looking into how and why this program would be a good fit for RUHS,” said Linda Dillard, a teacher and the chair of the school’s science department. “And I think we are also concerned about the cost of the program.”
Based on this article, TAIB is awarding Superintendent Steven Keller the IB Grinch of the Month Award: “This is what I say to teachers who are dissenting to the IB program and the IB approach – change is hard, isn’t it?” Keller said. “Well, guess what? We are not asking you to change at all. You don’t have to teach IB. So move on. This is another opportunity for kids – that is what it is, and if you don’t want that, it’s okay.”
And a bah humbug to you too, Mr. Keller!
Is this Dr. Steven Keller?
or is this?
"SHIFT HAPPENS"
Isn't that cute? No? I didn't think so, either. TAIB encountered this delightful propaganda when further researching the IB TOK lesson on Global Poverty which you can read more about HERE. Teachers are told to send their students to You Tube and search the phrase "Shift Happens". What comes up are a number of videos like the one to to your right. I almost fell out of my chair when the following statement popped up on the screen:
"We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist, using technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet."
This pearl of "wisdom" was preceded by the statement:
"The top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2004."
Now words that absurd and prophetic are hard to forget. I'm pretty sure it was in 2005, I was in attendance at a Locust Valley Board of Education meeting (authorized as an IB World School in 2004) when I heard those exact same words proudly spew (with no citing of the source of the quote) from the lips of LVCSD Board President, Ronald Walsh. I was sitting with my dear friend Cathy Carusi. We turned to each other and said, "What the F is that supposed to mean?!?" We thought it was something this rather less than endearing man conjured up himself.
So now I know where Walsh got his propaganda from. For those who are interested, I searched for the Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010. From the smarterspend website, they are: I. Biomedical Engineers II. Computer Systems Analyst III. Physician Assistants IV. Biochemists V. Dental Hygienist VI. Computer Software Engineer VII. Veterinarians VIII. Environmental Engineers IX. Survey Researchers X. Physical Therapists
Did IB prepare students for ANY of these professions, which obviously existed in 2004 and for which technology also existed? You be the judge.
UK Blog Mocks TAIB
December 7, 2010 - When a blog defending IB has to refer to "opposition to its potentially ‘anti-American’ focus plagues school districts across several states" and "administrators in areas like Bedford, New Hampshire have faced parents objecting to the ‘United Nations agenda’ and its alleged ties to radical environmentalism", we know we are making a difference. The Progressive writer of this article yearns for the "pre-Balls" (sorry, but if that isn't funny, I don't know what is) philosophy of the UK's Labour Party under Fabian Socialist Tony Blair while referring to those of us at TAIB as outraged patriots, with the word patriots appearing in what can only be construed as fear quotes:
As an American researcher working for ISC, I found the New York Times’ article to be fascinating and frustrating in equal measure. Luckily, it appears that common sense and strong pedagogy are louder than the outraged ‘patriots’ who started ‘Truth about IB’, a website detailing its many evils. But if the IB strikes you as a hotbed for anarcho-communist, radical-environmental, UN-funded plots, dopop on by.
Locust Valley TOK Consultant
Every now and then I get bored and decide to look to see how the Locust Valley school district is wasting my taxdollars. The October, 2010, Board of Education Actions reveals that the district has hired a Mr. Russell Reid as a "consultant" for TOK (IB's Theory of Knowledge course). Of course, LVCSD doesn't spell out how much Mr. Reid will be compensated for his services or how that would compare in price to sending a teacher to IB training. I wonder if 70% of the 43 IB Diploma candidates scoring a 'D' or worse on their TOK essays had anything to do with this decision?
Recommended Reading
TAIB was honored to be contacted by Ellen McClay (nom de plume), author of the book "In The Presence of Our Enemies". She describes herself as the last surviving Minutewoman of the U.S.A. Active in the 1950's and 60's, the Minutewomen warned of UNESCO's evil intentions for American public schools, long before IB was invented. Ellen was horrified to learn of the existence of IB which surfaced shortly after her departure from political activism into the mundane world of earning a living as a medical transcriber, or as she describes, "while she was sleeping".
The sub-title of the book is "A history of the malignant effects in American Schools of the UN'S UNESCO and its transformation of American society from the lips of those who did it".
Union Ugly
December 3, 2010 - THIS ARTICLE came to TAIB's attention because one of the teachers was giving a presentation on IB, but TAIB wanted to share this to demonstrate how our spoiled Long Island teachers behave during contract negotiations.
What was it that caused these teachers to give up watching House on a Monday night in order to don their black wardrobe and dour expressions? A request from a resident to make providing extra help to students part of their contract:
"In the letter, Stewart stresses the need to help middle level students who could use the extra help: "Please make extra help mandatory in the next teacher's contract and make a reasonable amount of time mandatory as well, left up to your expertise. This contract provision will give the principals of our school district the power to ensure that all students are assisted equally and not left behind."
Oh, the horror! Let me point out to others across the United States that Northport teachers are on a very similar payscale with Locust Valley teachers, meaning the average salary is around $86,000 a year with 20+ year teachers earning over $120,000. God forbid they should be forced to provide extra help to students without additional stipends.
Brazilian Blog Calls McLoughlin "Brave Lady"
November 21, 2010 - TAIB is grateful to the Catholic Families for its recent article about IB. It is hard to predict what sort of reach an interview of that nature will have, but TAIB can report that we have received hundreds of hits from the article's link to this website. A number of hits originated in Brazil and we found our way to a blog called
