International Baccalaureate: A Major Movement to Change Students' Values

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free," Ronald Reagan.

Patriotic Americans view our American system of rights, government and freedom, although imperfect, as the best system. Many scoff at those who believe our citizens will willingly accept global government. If the education establishment continues its agenda of undermining the American system through programs like the International Baccalaureate (IB), our young people will have no objection to global governance.

IB's support of global governance and promotion of world citizenship over U.S. citizenship is made clear by the words of its directors. "International Baccalaureate school curriculum remains committed to changing children's values so they think globally, rather than in parochial national terms from their own country's viewpoint", retired IB director-general George Walker said. {The Washington Times, George Archibald, 1-18-04}.

This fall Monique Siefried, the current director said, "We should not be seen as an organization steeped predominately in Western Culture." {IB website} This multiculturalism viewpoint is condemned by David Horowitz who notes, "Multiculturalism is the banner of the hate-America Left." {David Horowtiz, "Up From Multiculturalism", January 1998, p.2} Chester Finn, former assistant to Bill Bennett, Reagan's Secretary of Education, said the program is "not going to have any signs of patriotic Americanism." {The Washington Times, George Archibald, 1-18-04}.

The IB program grew in the 1960s with grants from governments and the liberal Ford Foundation. In 1996, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) formed a partnership with IB to create a universal curriculum. Reagan pulled us out of UNESCO, but that was reversed by George W. Bush. In 1999, UNESCO announced the "IB curriculum would promote human rights (thus IB's support of the superiority of the UN Declaration of Human Rights), social justice, the need for "sustainable development" (thus IB's support for the Earth Charter), and address population, health, environmental (thus IB's support of Kyoto) and immigration concerns." {The Washington Times, George Archibald, 1-18-04} Federal and Michigan legislators currently use millions of tax dollars to subsidize the IB program.

IB-approved curriculum, currently taught to 42,000 U.S. high school seniors plus many more in lower grades, boasts that it is a constructivist curriculum. Constructivism means the student constructs his own truth and meaning. The 1999 IB background papers state the curriculum is a multicultural approach that differs from traditional direct instruction of facts and historically learned knowledge. "Most national education systems at the moment encourage students to seek the truth, memorize it, and reproduce it accurately. The real world is not this simple. International education has to reconcile this diversity with the unity of the human condition," the paper said. {Ibid.} The IB promotion of truth as existing only in the mind of the beholder is also revealed on the IBO website, containing a power point curriculum entitled, "A Shared Set of Values: Freedom Fighter or Terrorist?"

Author and Patrick Henry College Provost, Gene Edward Veith evaluates the IB philosophy: "[Theory of Knowledge] employs a 'hermeneutic of suspicion' that undermines the very possibility of accepting any kind of objective truth." {World 1-13-07, p.11}

The IB Mission Statement given to TroyMichigan district parents where the curriculum is mandated concludes, "These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right." Right about what? Simply stated IB-approved curriculum teaches no absolutes exist. Contrast this to the words of our Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self evident." One of the foundational pillars of the United States is recognition of objective truth, real truth for all people. IB undermines this principle by teaching that our creed may not be acceptable to some Americans and certainly not all nations. IBO endorses the UN Declaration of Human Rights, differing from our Declaration with the absence of the right to bear arms, limited government, natural law and most important, God given inalienable rights.

IB philosophy mandates what students should be like to accomplish the stated goal of developing the attitudes, values and worldview of citizens of the world by requiring and monitoring students to perform as the "Learner Profile" dictates. Per numerous IB documents, the Learner Profile mandates characteristics of "Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced and Reflective". {IBO website} The majority of these attributes are subjective character traits; what students should be like, not academics.

Locally IB is taught in over a dozen elementary, middle and high schools. A school district may deny these facts. The real truth is that every school teaching the IB must sign a contract with the Geneva organization. They agree to use IB approved curriculum and, important tests, even reading lists. Student assessments are sent to Geneva for grading. IB trains the district teachers and authorizes and evaluates the schools. Schools must uphold their contractual obligation to teach the IB approved curriculum, philosophy and values, thus federal and state standards are superseded. They must teach courses from the IB point of view.

The foremost organization reporting on IB curriculum is Edwatch, There you can find more information on IB curriculum and the latest on other education movements important to conservatives.