IB Schools and "Global Citizens"

[Anonymous]

Does this apply to local IB schools? Every other sentence in the materials I've seen about IB talk about turning kids into "global citizens," and I've always just dismissed it as hype.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-global-citizen/2013/12/06/2924cae6-5d0a-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html?hpid=z6

[Anonymous]

I happen to think the author of that piece is narrow minded, but to get an idea of how the IB program is implemented, you should ask your school. If you share that author's perspective, I suspect that you might find it a bit "liberal," but if you've spent 5 minutes actually living (not vacationing) outside of the US, you are more likely to see the value.

[Anonymous]

I'd tend to think an associate professor at Hopkins/SAIS is better informed about global realities than some of the IB educators. One thing I've started to realize is that the IB coordinators at local schools are all reading from the same playbook. It's very much a marketing pitch full of fuzzy phrases like "global citizens" and "critical thinking." The irony is that when someone does bring a realistic perspective to matters of national policy and geopolitics, he or she is branded as "narrow-minded."

To speak to your latter point, we have traveled extensively in our family, although we've never had a full-time international assignment. Are you saying a program like IB can only be fairly evaluated by parents who have lived and worked abroad? That would seem to be a relatively small number of local families.

[Anonymous]

I get what the author of the aritlce is trying to say, but don't think that has any bearing on the IB program. Local IB schools may use the term global citizens, but in fact, the program doesn't teach that there is one global answer, but rather gives students a better grounding in different cultural perspectives. How WW II affected and was viewed by the U.S. and Latin America, for example. Or an English class focusing on a more wordly variety of authors than the standard American/British lit perspective that many of us were brought up on.

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt. This involves not only learning to view things through the local cultural prism, but a great deal of explaining about why Americans view things the way we do. In addition, children of expats might have attended an IB school like mine did, so when they move back to the US that is all they know. A PP saying that those who lived outside the US are more likely to get the IB isn't being snotty or elitist, it's simple fact.

As other have noted, the best thing to do if you want to know how the IB program works is attend an orientation at one of the local high schools.

[Anonymous]

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

I agree that they can be, depending on the country and the issue. The thing that living overseas does is introduces you to the harsh reality that the US is not the "best" at everything and that there is more than one way to do things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

I agree that they can be, depending on the country and the issue. The thing that living overseas does is introduces you to the harsh reality that the US is not the "best" at everything and that there is more than one way to do things.

You are kidding, right? You really needed to live abroad to understand this? Sorry, but this seems like such a junior-year abroad mindset. Makes me feel like the perfect IB candidate would probably be Gwyneth Paltrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

I agree that they can be, depending on the country and the issue. The thing that living overseas does is introduces you to the harsh reality that the US is not the "best" at everything and that there is more than one way to do things.

You are kidding, right? You really needed to live abroad to understand this? Sorry, but this seems like such a junior-year abroad mindset. Makes me feel like the perfect IB candidate would probably be Gwyneth Paltrow.

Maybe to someone who hasn't lived abroad, but PP is exactly right. And the thing is the majority of American's, plenty of them very well-educated, don't understand this, jr. year abroad or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

...and it wouldn't be good to know this? or should we be as narrow in our thinking as those countries you're talking about? or we shouldn't adapt? what's your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

I agree that they can be, depending on the country and the issue. The thing that living overseas does is introduces you to the harsh reality that the US is not the "best" at everything and that there is more than one way to do things.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

I agree that they can be, depending on the country and the issue. The thing that living overseas does is introduces you to the harsh reality that the US is not the "best" at everything and that there is more than one way to do things.

You are kidding, right? You really needed to live abroad to understand this? Sorry, but this seems like such a junior-year abroad mindset. Makes me feel like the perfect IB candidate would probably be Gwyneth Paltrow.

Maybe to someone who hasn't lived abroad, but PP is exactly right. And the thing is the majority of American's, plenty of them very well-educated, don't understand this, jr. year abroad or not.

Yuck. It's so presumptuous to profess to know how and what the "majority of American's" (sic) think. If the point of an academic program is to equip students to wax eloquent on how "provincial" other Americans are, I'll pass.

[Anonymous]

Wonder if they are teaching the fact that so many other countries are intolerant in the IB program? Kind of doubt it.

[Anonymous]

I've lived over half my adult life overseas for work (Japan, Thailand, Korea, England, and Germany).

Is the US best at "everything"? nah.

But almost everything that matters to be sure.... I can't think of a single country that is as free and tolerant as we are. None close really.

[Anonymous]

I've lived over half my adult life overseas for work (Japan, Thailand, Korea, England, and Germany).
.
Is the US best at "everything"? nah.

But almost everything that matters to be sure.... I can't think of a single country that is as free and tolerant as we are. None close really.

Totally agree. I've lived abroad, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who have lived overseas may more readily see the value in the IB program because at a very visceral level they know what it feels like to live in a place where a culture other than their own is dominant -- and learn to adapt

I've lived abroad. The irony of the above statement is that other countries are generally more narrow in their thinking than we are.......

I agree that they can be, depending on the country and the issue. The thing that living overseas does is introduces you to the harsh reality that the US is not the "best" at everything and that there is more than one way to do things.

You are kidding, right? You really needed to live abroad to understand this? Sorry, but this seems like such a junior-year abroad mindset. Makes me feel like the perfect IB candidate would probably be Gwyneth Paltrow.

Maybe to someone who hasn't lived abroad, but PP is exactly right. And the thing is the majority of American's, plenty of them very well-educated, don't understand this, jr. year abroad or not.

Yuck. It's so presumptuous to profess to know how and what the "majority of American's" (sic) think. If the point of an academic program is to equip students to wax eloquent on how "provincial" other Americans are, I'll pass.

Perhaps. Having some statistical measure would be better. But you lost me at your second sentence. Who said anyone was provincial? I think point was folks who have lived in another country often get this in a visceral way because they've lived through it. Sounds like someone just wants to take another cheap shot at the IB program.