Precepts to use in everyday life

1. Think for yourself, 2. Be yourself, 3. Speak up, 4. Feel free to agree and disagree, 5. Be honest with yourself and others, 6. Be open-minded, 7. Avoid being judgmental and 8. Question everything - even your own thinking.

TOK Essay Titles Nov 2024

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Examples

Human Sciences (Education)

If you haven't already come across this website - truthaboutib.com - it's well worth a visit and could make an excellent topic for a presentation.

In order to get a flavour of the website, you could look either at the 'About Us' page or read this article: 'IB - Improvement or Indoctrination?' (you'll have to scroll down the page to see the article).

The writers take very seriously the context of the economic crisis when presenting their arguments, bringing together evidence to suggest that the IBO's approach to education is flawed.  Here are a just a few conclusions the website reaches:

1. The IBO is elitist.
2. The IBO doesn't improve standards in low perfprming schools any more than state schools.
3. By following the prescribed IBO curriculum, schools forego control over what they can and cannot teach.
4. The IBO is part of a movement to indoctrinate the minds of the youth of today to adapt themselves to the coming of the 'new world order' - whether this is a socialist movement or not is up for debate.

This latter conclusion seems far-fetched, but the article references a 29 page IBO document published for an IB Latin America Conference in June 2008 entitled, 'The origins, philosophy an principles of the IB diploma and MYP', which uses the phrase 'new world order' in pronouncing the thinking behind its MYP program.

Fascinating, isn't it, that students of IB around the world could be intellectual guinea pigs at the mercy of a ruling elite wishing to bring about social, economic and political change which, presumably, will favour them.

What questions does this raise?  What actions does it promote?  What wider implicatons does it raise?  Are their any valid counter arguments that support what the IBO is doing in education?

So it seems that we are all becoming Borg drones.

Frightening, isn't it.  But just remember, questioning everything often leads you to looking more closely at the things you usually take very much for granted so that you don't becme drones.