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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 8/7/2012 2:03 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:EB9CBDFE-F514-408C-9DB7-9875459B814E@moscow.com"
type="cite">
<div><span>Question, V-Peeps: Are any of you fine folks familiar
with the </span><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469); ">International Baccalaureate program?</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
A few years ago I became aware that the University of Idaho accepts
International Baccalaureate program credits for advanced placement
and credit transfers for undergraduate degrees. This is hardly
surprising or unusual because many accredited colleges accept these
usually higher-quality credits for student academic advancement.<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:EB9CBDFE-F514-408C-9DB7-9875459B814E@moscow.com"
type="cite">
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469); "> If so, would you be so kind as to provide us
with your opinion after reading this article? It will be
deeply appreciated.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br>
This reads as a traditional Idaho post-boomer education
mismanagement and deconstruction article. The political perspectives
of frightened feral rural rodents digging deeper their noxious nests
to avoid actual cultural contacts with wiser sapient societies
boggles belief, but bears notice, nay, demands deterrence.<br>
<br>
(Damn, that sentence was just too much fun. Time for some coffee.)<br>
<br>
My impression of the International Baccalaureate program is that it
requests some critical thinking skills be applied to the common
knowledge and belief structures of one or more social cultures other
than one's own in an educational context that requires foreign
language competence with at least one additional language.<br>
<br>
It's not hard to understand that traditional Idaho isolationists
would find this just sufficiently scary to want to kill it before it
spreads, especially to considering the local lore and lunacy,
resulting in divisive disrespect.<br>
<br>
The contemporary facts of the matter are that the Internet and
modern, individually-controlled, communication devices are making
interpersonal, intercultural contacts easy, efficient, and effective
ways to engage in the most human of activities -- talking. That the
locals along the lake up north are taking steps to keep their
children less prepared for success with such inevitable contacts is
generally undesirable, and those locals should know it.<br>
<br>
Just for fun, here is a video of two people talking with one another
in multiple languages they share. Needless to say, these people are
not graduates of Idaho educational institutions.<br>
<br>
Cristina -- Norwegian Polyglot<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og8yBwSrKkw&feature=context-gfa">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og8yBwSrKkw&feature=context-gfa</a><br>
<br>
Time length: 12:49<br>
<br>
<br>
Ken<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:EB9CBDFE-F514-408C-9DB7-9875459B814E@moscow.com"
type="cite">
<div><span>Courtesy of today's (August 7, 2012) Spokesmam-Review.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>-----------------------------------</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial,
sans-serif; font-size: 14px; -webkit-tap-highlight-color:
rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color:
rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469);
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0.230469); line-height: 21px; ">
<h1 style="overflow-x: visible !important; overflow-y:
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both; line-height: 1.2; background-position: initial
initial; background-repeat: initial initial; ">CdA board
ends IB program</h1>
<div><br>
</div>
</span></span></div>
<div><span>A controversial advanced learning program for high
school students will be pulled from the Coeur d’Alene School
District.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>The school board voted 4-0 Monday night to end the
district’s affiliation with International Baccalaureate, an
optional course of rigorous study intended to give students a
deeper understanding of world affairs and help them prepare
for college.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>It was an expected outcome for a program that has come
under increasing scrutiny and criticism by some that its
lessons are tinged with leftist and un-American ideas.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>IB classes ranging from chemistry to Chinese language to
art and music will be eliminated at Lake City High School
after juniors and seniors currently enrolled complete their
studies.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>The school board previously spared IB, but turnover on the
board left it vulnerable this year. Two new members were
elected last year, and two others were appointed in recent
months to seats vacated by resignations.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Board members said the IB program falls short in its
enrollment, test scores, available college credit and costs.
The Advanced Placement program at Coeur d’Alene High School is
a better value, several said.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>“In times of diminishing funding, it has to be recognized
that we may not be able to afford to be all things to all
people,” Board Chairman Tom Hamilton said. He added, “I’m not
a believer of choice at any cost.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Several teachers and one former student urged the board to
spare International Baccalaureate and commit to improving it.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>“This program is an exceptional educational system. It is
the best that I’ve ever encountered,” said Derek Kohles, a
Lake City social studies teacher. “I am concerned that we are
moving backward if we take away this program.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Kohles told the board that students in IB go on to better
schools and have better success than those in the AP program.
“Different programs work better for different students,” he
noted.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Dr. Alison Granier, a 1998 Lake City High graduate, said
she was far less prepared for college than fellow students who
took advanced education courses not available to her. The
district should find ways to boost the enrollment and
performance of IB, she said.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>“It’s very short-sighted and very crippling to our
community to do otherwise,” Granier said.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Some critics of IB have attacked its lessons for promoting
what they see as a liberal or socialist agenda influenced by
the United Nations.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Hayden lawyer Duncan Koler, a leading opponent, told the
board Monday that IB is full of “concepts that are politically
charged, such as social justice, sustainability. These are
code terms.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>He also said IB is a waste of tax dollars. “Never has so
much money been thrown at so few students to produce so few
results,” Koler said.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>The district has spent nearly $1.35 million on IB in the
past nine years, including for curriculum costs, training,
subscription fees and staffing. Last year the program cost
$50,630.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>“We’ve spent a lot of money on very highly motivated, very
capable students and put them in very small classes,” Koler
said. “We’ve practically tutored and coddled the best and
brightest of our kids.”</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Whatever misgivings school board members may have about
the IB curriculum, they sidestepped that debate Monday and
focused on lackluster student performance and enrollment as
reasons to toss the program.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>Just 54 students in the district were enrolled in IB last
year, half as many as in AP. Courses with exam results above
the worldwide average were 31 percent in IB and 58 percent in
AP this past year.</span><br>
<span></span><br>
<span>An IB “primary years” program started a year and a half
ago at Hayden Meadows Elementary School may be in the
crosshairs next. School board member Terri Seymour asked the
district to “take an objective look” at the value of that
program, in a process similar to one that led the board Monday
to kill IB at the high school level.</span><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br>
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