How the Politics of the United Nations is Delivered Through IB (Part One)

How the United Nations is spreading its message of political activism through our public schools with a "programme" based in Geneva, Switzerland for which YOU are paying.

The pathetic treatment of parents and taxpayers who dare to appeal to their local school boards to get answers about the nature of the International Baccalaureate "Programme" in NH's public schools is sadly reminiscent of a time when some of the more disreputable Bedford High School proponents immorally and unethically bullied others in a number of ways for the mere "crime" of attempting to expose what the real costs of the original building project would be.

One person quipped, rather prophetically, that if a high school were ever built, they would probably allow the UN to run it... 

The more honest among the school proponents admitted we were deceived. After the school was built and the tax bills arrived, residents discovered we would not be levied a mere $.30 (3 dimes the postcard said!) per $1,000 of property valuation, but much more, resulting in a $2000-$3000 yearly increase!

So, insult on top of injury, the joke about the UN turned out not to be such a joke... 

First the Tax Bills, Now the UN

After the shock of the tax bills came the outrage over IB. UNESCO lauds the International Baccalaureate which it says promotes their agenda of "human rights, social justice, sustainable development, population, health, environmental, and immigration concerns." 

"We’re living on a planet that is becoming exhausted," said George Walker, IB’s former director-general. "The program remains committed to changing children’s values so they think globally, rather than in parochial national terms from their own country’s viewpoint."

And yet, we are told IB has no political agenda.

A 1949 UNESCO textbook, "Toward World Understanding", states, "As long as the child breathes the poisoned air of nationalism, education in world-mindedness can produce only rather precarious results. As we have pointed out, it is frequently the family that infects the child with extreme nationalism."

But don't take our word for it. Everyone should do more independent research on this program, specifically its values-based mission, and its methodologies. You will find that the overall philosophy of IB is to promote the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (redistributionism for UN pet projects), and to create acceptance among our youth for "global citizenship" and "global governance" under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Official IBO website: http://www.ibo.org/

Interesting articles, some from 2004, that dissect IB:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/jan/17/20040117-112841-6750r/

http://www.wnd.com/2004/01/22917/

http://educationviews.org/2011/10/17/why-parents-should-reject-ib/

It's Not Just IB 

As a teacher for the better part of 35 years, I noticed that my job was increasingly subject to the influence of some sort of strange ideology that dumbed down the curriculum and focused instead on infusing social values into the students. Until I started investigating the problem, I hadn't known that John Dewey was a Fabian Socialist. Considered the father of "progressive" education, his influence is why schools are rife with deliberate dumbing down tactics that dominate today. He and his colleagues planned to use the US educational system to plant the seeds of democratic socialism. Many believe they have succeeded.

A good example is the use of a book called "Nickle and Dimed" in a personal finance class at Bedford High School. The book first became controversial because some students objected to its foul language. The bigger (and more offensive) issue was that the book was being used to support a class about how to manage money, but it was not written by a financial expert. The author is a member of the Democratic Socialist party with no financial background per se, who in telling her story, raled against capitalism. No political infusion there. Really?

More info on author Barbara Ehrenreich: "A lifelong member of the Democratic Socialist Party, Barbara Ehrenreich has never been circumspect about her politics. Even critics at the opposite end of the political spectrum have found this directness refreshing: Writing for The American Spectator, Andrew Ferguson said of her frequent essays on the back page of Time magazine, "her unabashedly left-wing views make a pleasant contrast to the abashedly left-wing views found in the pages preceding it." Ehrenreich, sometimes with co-authors, has written about the world-wide student movement, health care, poverty, politics, feminism, and most of the other social and political issues of the second half of the twentieth century."

Failing Methods

I have observed over the years the failure of many new educational fads. Thanks to local control, and the fact that teachers and administrators exhibited common sense, schools always returned to teaching academics.

But one generation later, the Dewey influence has finally taken hold and is strong. At one point, my school flew the UN flag higher than the US flag until I instructed the custodian to take it down. Many these "upside down" changes are usually hidden inside Federal and State "reform" mandates. Most are nothing more than mandates for "fads" that failed miserably, some of which are still advocated as part of IB teaching. 

When parents inquire, they are often lied to; they are told that IB is not an NGO of Unesco, that its sole mission is not to spread the UN philosophy to school children, and that schools will NOT promote the social agenda of "internationalism". But "internationalism" is the core mission of IB which requires that teachers embed that philosophy into all subjects. You will often see lesson plans that are centered around "taking action" on UN pet projects, via global government, even in the earliest grades. 

Schools are supposed to write their own curriculum, (scope of subject matter and sequence of learning) while using the IB framework. Anything goes, so long as they insert "internationalism". There is very little about academics mentioned on the www.ibo.org website.

Because IB in Bedford was planned before/during the time the school was being built, the program could not have been fully vetted by the community as the IBO claims it should be. Numerous residents have opted to send their children to private schools, at extra expense. Parents who are just now discovering that IB will be  taking over the whole Merrimack Valley School District (most had no idea) are starting to remove their children because they feel they have no other choice.

The Mission Explained

According to http://www.ibo.org/programmes/profile/ and http://www.ibo.org/mission/index.cfm

"The IB 'learner profile' is the IB mission statement translated into a set of learning outcomes for the 21st century."

"The learner profile provides a long-term vision of education. It is a set of ideals that can inspire, motivate and focus the work of schools and teachers, uniting them in a common purpose."

Most of us always thought the common purpose of education was the acquisition of skills and knowledge, not profiling our kids for their attitudes. Thus the "common purpose" is defined by the IBO.

Read the full IB learner profile here (174 KB PDF) http://www.ibo.org/programmes/profile/documents/Learnerprofileguide.pdf

From this document we also learn that "Successful implementation of the IB learner profile in a school will result in a learning environment in which the aims and values of the IB programmes are strongly evident and embraced by all members of the community."

By that measure, IB is unsuccessful in both Bedford and MVSD since "all members of the community" have NOT agreed to its right to promote its mission of internationalism in our public schools.

IB is supposed to create inquiring, open-minded "citizens of the world" who are supposed to be able to "recognize that people with their differences can also be right". And yet, adult bullies don't recognize the right of anyone to inquire about IB, even those who pay for it.

HB 1403

After MVSD parents discovered IB was in full swing, and were not getting any answers from school officials, they asked their Reps, some teachers, and other educational experts to meet with school officials to find out what was going on. 

At this meeting which I attended, we were told that IB was NOT a curriculum (although I have gotten varying responses on this, even from IBO itself who I have spoken to on the phone).

When school board member Laura Vincent was asked directly about whether MV would carry out the mission of IB by embedding its internationalist philosophy into all of the curriculum, she claimed (adamantly I might add) that MVSD would neither be using the materials from the IBO nor committing to their mission statement. Seeing as carrying out the mission is a requirement and the whole and sole purpose of IB, we then wondered, what is it that they would actually be buying? We were not allowed an answer to that next logical question as the meeting was then abruptly terminated.

Parents also did not know they had already been using the program for 3 years in their childrens' classrooms until they saw evidence of it. A  website called "MV Lab Rats" (what a nice thing to call your kids), was apparently put there by employees of the MVSD, and proudly shows photgraphic "proof" that the mission and materials are indeed being used to carry out lessons based on some of the UN's pet projects, where students are encouraged to take action. 

http://mvsd-lab-rats.wikispaces.com/Evidence+of+IB+in+MVSD!

http://mvsd-lab-rats.wikispaces.com/Books+on+Learner+Profile+and+International+Mindedness

So much for the truthfulness of Laura Vincent. And thus HB 1403 was born at the request of parents, and some teachers who do not want to have to deliver a political message with their academics.

At this meeting we also discovered that teachers were sent out of state to be trained by IB for the sole purpose of embedding this creepy "internationalmindedness" (a word created by IBO) into their teaching.

IB Professional Development: http://www.ibo.org/programmes/pd/

"... gives educators an opportunity to engage with universities around the world that offer pre-service and post-graduate experiences that embed the IB philosophy in teacher practice and earn an IB certificate in teaching and learning or an IB advanced certificate in teaching and learning research."

Parents in MVSD decided to put up their own website with facts taken from the IBO’s documentation regarding requirements, frameworks, materials, lesson plans, and rules and laws governing the program so that the public who seemed to know nothing about it, could learn. (Everyone they asked was clueless) Once again, why did Laura Vincent feel the need to lie outright to parents, taxpayers, researchers, and legislators?

http://www.mvsd-ib.org/ib/

These parents wish to remain anonymous so their kids will not suffer any backlash or bullying that is often so prevalent when one dares to question this program.

And so the questions remain...

1) Is IB a 'curriculum' that offers lesson plans and content material that you will use?

2) Is following the mission of IB (framing everything in globalism) a requirement of the programme and are you following it?

If the answer to both the above is NO, then we ask once again: if IB's political philsophy — its sole reason to exist and the ideological lynchpin of the program — is not going to be followed, WHAT then is IB, and what are schools actually PAYING for?

So far not one of us has been able to get an answer.