As promised, I am going to write more often on my blog.
So this brings me to today's thoughts about the International Baccalaureate program (IB). I'm probably one of the few in my class who truly like it, which is somewhat of a shame, because I think it's a genuinely good program. So today I think I'd like to discuss a little about why people are apprehensive about IB - and I'll talk about why I like IB on another entry (because I have homework - kind of ironic? Maybe, but I still like it). Anyways, I think that one of the daunting aspects of IB is spelling it out. I mean, really. Even I go to google to check if I spelled it correctly. And of course "Advanced Placement" is alot easier to type out than "international baccalaureate" (see, I just copied and pasted that from google). Maybe that's just a symbol of American culture - and the impression that other countries have of our lack of intelligence. Maybe they're right. Or maybe we're just lazy. And fat. Either way, international viewpoints of Americans are probably right in one aspect or the other. But I digress. I know alot of students are scared of IB because of the workload (which is hyped up), and things like that. I get conflicted here, because it seems like a bad excuse. Well, let me back up a little.
I generally see good excuses and bad excuses for dropping out of the IB program. A good excuse is something like - I want to be involved in Tennis, ASB, Yearbook, and Journalism, and IB won't allow me the scheduling times to do those, but taking AP courses will. That's fine, that's a great reason not to do IB. However, I see a reason like "I don't want the work" or "I want a real social life" as not so good excuses for dropping IB. But then maybe that's just my outlook and what I value in education. Maybe it's because I see students dropping out and I know there are students out there who would love the opportunity to take part in our IB Program, but lack the access or quality or some other factor that doesn't allow them to take a class at that caliber, and I see people pass that door of opportunity without a second thought.
Anyways, that's all the time I have allotted for tonight's writing, I'll come back to talk about pros of IB (and address cons - which I probably didn't talk about. Sorry for my digressions, but you should read this blog with the disclaimer that I'm just writing stream of conciousness for the most part).
So this brings me to today's thoughts about the International Baccalaureate program (IB). I'm probably one of the few in my class who truly like it, which is somewhat of a shame, because I think it's a genuinely good program. So today I think I'd like to discuss a little about why people are apprehensive about IB - and I'll talk about why I like IB on another entry (because I have homework - kind of ironic? Maybe, but I still like it). Anyways, I think that one of the daunting aspects of IB is spelling it out. I mean, really. Even I go to google to check if I spelled it correctly. And of course "Advanced Placement" is alot easier to type out than "international baccalaureate" (see, I just copied and pasted that from google). Maybe that's just a symbol of American culture - and the impression that other countries have of our lack of intelligence. Maybe they're right. Or maybe we're just lazy. And fat. Either way, international viewpoints of Americans are probably right in one aspect or the other. But I digress. I know alot of students are scared of IB because of the workload (which is hyped up), and things like that. I get conflicted here, because it seems like a bad excuse. Well, let me back up a little.
I generally see good excuses and bad excuses for dropping out of the IB program. A good excuse is something like - I want to be involved in Tennis, ASB, Yearbook, and Journalism, and IB won't allow me the scheduling times to do those, but taking AP courses will. That's fine, that's a great reason not to do IB. However, I see a reason like "I don't want the work" or "I want a real social life" as not so good excuses for dropping IB. But then maybe that's just my outlook and what I value in education. Maybe it's because I see students dropping out and I know there are students out there who would love the opportunity to take part in our IB Program, but lack the access or quality or some other factor that doesn't allow them to take a class at that caliber, and I see people pass that door of opportunity without a second thought.
Anyways, that's all the time I have allotted for tonight's writing, I'll come back to talk about pros of IB (and address cons - which I probably didn't talk about. Sorry for my digressions, but you should read this blog with the disclaimer that I'm just writing stream of conciousness for the most part).
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