To better understand the various objections to the International Baccalaureate “Programme”, one must understand the indisputable facts gleaned from their own documentation at www.ibo.org and from interactions with practicing schools and examples of materials being used by them.

1. Fact: Bedford HS and MVSD both PAY EXTRA for the International Baccalaureate Programme, to the International Baccalaureate Organization, which is an NGO of UN/UNESCO and is based in Geneva Switzerland.

Objection: All legal disputes, behavioral or academic, must be settled under Swiss law. Tests are sent abroad to be graded. Schools give up local control. http://www.ibo.org/documentlibrary/rules_ibworldschools/index.cfm

2. Fact: The IB Organization states in its disclaimer that they are NOT responsible for your child’s education.

“5.2 Schools are responsible for the quality of support provided for students and for the teaching of the Diploma Programme, and they undertake to hold the IB Organization harmless with regard to any legal action taken by candidates or their legal guardians as a result of any shortcomings.”

http://ibo.org/become/guidance/documents/DPRulesforIBWorldSchools_e_FINALFILE.pdf

Objection: If your child fails to realize the IBO’s purported benefits, you have no recourse.

3. Fact: If a school becomes an “IB World School” and implements the program school or district-wide as they plan to do in Merrimack Valley, and you don’t agree to the mission, you will have no choice.

Objection: You’ll be forced to either home school, or to pay extra for a private school.

4. Fact: The program uses methodologies that are considered to be fads and abject failures since the 1980s. Teachers are instructed to use these methods for the majority of their teaching as ‘best practices’.

Objection: There is no need to pay anyone to use the ‘constructivism’ or ‘inquiry’ methods as there is no copyright on them. Read about the fallacy of ‘best practices’ here: http://www.illinoisloop.org/whatswrong.html

About Constructivism: http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/2012/04/10/why-constructivism-didnt-help-mvsds-failure-to-meet-ayp/

5. Fact: IT IS A REQUIREMENT of IBO that all school officials, teachers, students, parents, and the community are in agreement with the “mission” of IB, which is internationalism and globalism, the main objective of the program (per IBO). This is all that IBO cares about. They rarely mention academics, and only care about that one goal — to make globally obedient citizens of our students. They use the DELPHI psychological method on the teachers, and when that fails, teachers are asked to leave. Parents are kept in the dark, or dismissed outright, as if they are the ‘only’ ones complaining.

Objection: Some school officials will outright lie and claim IB has no connection to the UN, or say that the school won’t be following the IBO’s mission. This happened when MV School Board member Laura Vincent made that very assertion to a participant who was meeting with school officials. However, it is a clear requirement that schools accept the “mission”, and no school can implement IB without it or the materials and guidelines that help deliver it. Remember, IB is NOT a curriculum; a list of academic goals and objectives; it’s a “framework” that slants the direction in which those subjects are taught.

http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/2012/04/09/how-ib-sets-up-your-child-for-political-activism/

6. Fact: In order to spread the mission of IBO (which is the same as the mission and agenda of the UN), teachers are required to FRAME ALL subjects with a connection to globalism/internationalism, which often entails asking children to ‘take action’ on political issues. This could mean writing to the government to ask them to send money for more foreign aid, or for a cause, or taking up a collection, or even traveling to a foreign country to help them in some way.

Objection: This is pure political activism, best left up to charities and political clubs, and has no place in an educational program.

http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/2012/04/11/scenes-from-a-grade-three-classroom-in-mvsd/
http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/2012/03/20/political-content-of-ib-explained/
http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/2012/04/03/ibs-mission-showing-the-way/

7. Fact: Children are asked to question their values, and their parents’ values. In the lower grades, students are checked often to make sure they follow and demonstrate ‘international’ values on a chart diplayed in the classroom. A program called Theory of Knowledge is used at the high school level.

Read about TOK: http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/russell1.htm

Objection: This is highly intrusive and impositional.

8. Fact: Students often complain of the burden of excessive homework loads, the triviality of the discussions, that they are not learning the proper basics of subjects like math and history, and that because of the excessive work, they have no time for anything else which makes them feel isolated from the rest of the world. This is ironic when you consider the attitudes that IB purportedly claims to want to instill (open-mindedness, risk taking, etc). Adults warn that you will be treated poorly if you dare to question IB. Proponents will publicly ridicule and call names about anyone who dares oppose it.

Objection: In many ways, IB resembles a cult that doesn’t allow any outside thinking or questioning.

http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/2012/04/12/is-ib-an-expensive-cult/

Here is what one student thinks about IB: http://www.thevanillacigar.com/philosophy/august/ib.html

Conclusion: There is absolutely NO reason to send our local tax dollars to an organization that is basically a club of foreign entities, which then advocates the use of pedagogical methods that have been proven to “dumb down” learning (collectivism and egalitarianism), and even MORE objectionably, requires our schools to infuse their political dogma of “internationalism” and “global government” (with strong themes about redistribution of the wealth among nations throughout) into every subject in the curriculum.

Please ask your Senators to support HB 1403