IB in Gilford
The IB program will continue to be a hot topic with respect to our school system (see here, here, here, and here for some examples).
Well, I'm not going to belabor the point - just a couple of comments...
From the Citizen (6/25):
Program to receive more study in Gilford
By CUTTER MITCHELL
jmitchell@citizen.com
Article Date: Wednesday, June 25, 2008
The Gilford School Board has decided to embark on another year of study of the International Baccalaureate program.
Most members of the public who commented on the program at Monday's School Board meeting had problems with the program. The objections noted dealt with what the program would teach students and what it would really accomplish.
In discussing the program and the initial review already conducted, board member Margo Weeks noted that over the last two years there has been a lot done to improve the rigor, with little in the way of improvements to the test scores of students.
"When we put in this new program with all the buzzwords and all the educational mumbo jumbo, what is that really going to change in the classroom," questioned Weeks.
Both fellow board members and commenting members of the public alike were concerned that what really needs to happen at Gilford is an emphasis on student learning, comprehension, and high academic standards.
Weeks noted this should happen before switching focus to the next new thing.
We have spent lots - at a budget of $22 mill and a student population of 1330 (approx) and continue to spend lots. I think it is time to demand results - we spend well over the state average per pupil and get only a very small bump above the state average test scores.
While it may be impolite and not politically correct to ask - what is the current cost / benefit ratio? Are we getting good results for our support of our school system based not on nice words or platitudes, but by actual measurements. Try "Results" - the actual outcomes of the service (and the school system is a large entity providing a service to the Town).
This outburst was more than a little out of sorts:
School Board member Kurt Webber did speak against this assertion, stating he had seen "the trouble the 'ugly American' has caused first hand." He explained that for too long a perception of the unwillingness of America to branch out and learn in a global community has existed.
Mr. Webber totally missed what was trying to be said - that the foundational philosophy of IB is not that of American Exceptionalism. Rather, it is one of a denigration of the notion of a nation state and setting more of a mindset of a global citizenry.
Ugly American? No, no one wants that nor was advocating for it. We should have our kids educated in how the world really works (and it is not all kumbaya either). And yes, West Point is teaching our military leaders other cultures, and that is great. In their given choice of career, it is absolutely necessary.
But dollars to donuts, it is not being taught from the aspect of being a "global citizen" - it is as an American citizen sworn to uphold the US Constitution (whose rights are under cultural attack by that of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights - gotta love their #29 that gives the UN the right to change all the others - just what I want - despots and tyrants of various countries of the world uniting against the West).
And that is one of my heartburns over the IB program. My other issue is with the deconstructivity / humanist philosophy of the TOK class - Theory Of Knowledge. One that never seems to get a straight answer to my questions. From what I can tell, it is based in the humanist religion / philosophy which could rightly be called postmodern:
That postmodernism is indefinable is a truism. However, it can be described as a set of critical, strategic and rhetorical practices employing concepts such as difference, repetition, the trace, the simulacrum, and hyperreality to destabilize other concepts such as presence, identity, historical progress, epistemic certainty, and the univocity of meaning.
In essence, we cannot know anything, as there are no truths or absolutes (even those religious or behavioral truths that many of us try to install in our children will be question ad nauseum). Everyone has their own "truth" because everyone has their own "reality"; thus, what is true for me may not be true for you.
Sorry, but in my reality, this is sheer navel gazing and nose picking to the Nth degree. The simple action of someone coming along and sucker-punching your nose will soon disabuse anyone of "separate realities" and the truth of the matter is that hit hard enough, you will be having red fluid disgorging itself from your proboscis.
Anyways, back to the article:
The implementation of the International Baccalaureate program has an estimated cost of $75,000 to $110,000.
Not cheap. And given the other money spent so far with little to show for it, one has to wonder if it will be a good expenditure.
