IB programs elsewhere also attacked as going against American values

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06053/659139.stm

The elimination of the International Baccalaureate program in Upper St. Clair is the latest in a series of similar attacks against the program alleging that its curriculum is contrary to American values.

In recent years, the school program, which was developed by a 68-year-old organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, has faced at least nine other challenges based on similar arguments.

The IB program aims to give students a world perspective and develop critical thinking skills.

Critics of the International Baccalaureate program in those nine districts all used "similar language and similar underlying reasoning," said Paul Campbell, director of outreach at the U.S. regional International Baccalaureate office in New York. The critics can be found at conservative Web sites, including www.edwatch.org.

Supporters of Upper St. Clair IB classes organizing to fight back


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06053/659140.stm

Parents in the Upper St. Clair School District are mobilizing for what could be an extended battle.

They've engaged lawyers and are forming committees and organizing protests to fight a decision Monday night by the school board to discontinue the district's International Baccalaureate program.

<snip>

That's why many of the parents of the more than 700 students in the district who take International Baccalaureate classes are seeking legal advice.

"There's such a groundswell of anger of how the process was perverted in this case," Mrs. Ambroso said. "When people are angry, they don't talk, they go to lawyers."

:mad:

And letters have been running against the board. As a poster said in Pennsylvania forum USC residents need to do a Dover on this board.

Upper St. Clair GOP voters, thank yourselves for the IB decision

My letter is directed to the registered Republican voters of Upper St. Clair. If you are angered by our school board's decision to eliminate the International Baccalaureate program ("Board Unmoved by Crowd: Upper St. Clair Kills International Baccalaureate Program," Feb. 21), then you need to direct that anger to your local party officials.

Let me remind you that your Republican Party officials endorsed William Sulkowski, Daniel Iracki, Carol Coliane and David Bluey during the primary election last year, and it was by a majority decision that the Republican voters in our community chose them as their candidates for the general election.

The Democratic voters of our community, of which I am proudly one, voted by majority and chose Amy Billerbeck, Russell Del Re, Vicki McKenna and Dennis Phillips as our candidates for the November election.

Most registered voters in our community are Republican and voted the Republican side of the ballot in November. If you are now unhappy with the board we are stuck with, speak up to your local party officials.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06053/658914.stm

And from reader comments

The USC School Board has missed the point completely regarding the IB program. The "I" stands for "International", which means teaching a worldview, not an intolerant local culture. They should be ashamed of themselves for their ignorance. I wonder how many of them believe the Earth was created 10,000 years ago?
Roy J. Matway, Tarentum

It is unbelievable to me that a school program can be ended because it does not necessarily reflect Christian values. Our government intsitutions (including public education) should not be considered a vehicle for any religion. While the people who have eliminated this program may say that it costs too much, say that it is "radical", etc, it is clear that the real reasons are that it presents a world view contrary to popular christian ideology.
Has our country become so conservative that it is now acceptable to openly support no separation between church and state? I wonder how the people that openly push for their religious view of the world to be taught would feel if they were in the minority and had to put up with a majority religion like theirs telling them what they should and should't be allowed to learn. I myself am not a minority and probably hold many of the same religious beliefs as these opponents to the curriculum, but it seems wrong to me that church and state have unapologetically come together.

Tait Tomb, Shadyside

Now that the Upper St. Clair School Board has cut its IB program, I've decided I want nothing to do with Judeo/Christian and/or American values.
Apparently, those values suppress critical thinking and/or the exploration of multiple points of view. Such thinking reflects an America that values sophistry over intellectual pursuit.

What would they have done to that "foreigner", Socrates?

Bob Hartley, Lawrenceville

We will give up IB when they pry it from our cold, dead fingers

Being that USC is rich and I'd guess very Republican I bet there are a lot of disillusioned voters in that district this week.

I do salute the kids (who are wearing black armbands) and the parents who are fighting back.

This bunch of idiots earlier tried to outlaw students and faculty getting involved in politics inside the school.

A number of students have been wearing black armbands to express their opposition to the board's effort. "They symbolize the death of democracy," said Dan Capone, a junior at the high school.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06052/658673.stm

A little more background.

Andrew, and many other IB students and their parents, feel they are being retaliated against by school board member Dr. Daniel Iracki.

At Monday's board meeting, Dr. Iracki, repeating comments he made while campaigning for a school board seat, said that the United States was founded on "Judeo-Christian values, and we have to be careful about what kind of values our children are being taught."

Andrew Savinov said he was among a group of about 20 International Baccalaureate students who campaigned against Dr. Iracki after they heard about his views of the baccalaureate program. They made fliers and passed them out in neighborhoods and at the polls on Election Day.

Dr. Iracki won the election and now Andrew and others who support the International Baccalaureate program believe he is going after those who campaigned against him.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06047/656217.stm

My daughter starts kindergarten in the fall and we visited a bunch of magnet schools, trying to decide where to apply. A few of the elementary schools here in Houston have an IB program (it's just the philosophy in grade school, nothing like the rigor that goes with IB diploma that's the end result of the high school program) and they're at the top of our list. Why anyone would want to get rid of that is beyond me. :crazy:

That's what I've been thinking for years, now.

The anti-intellectualism in this country is sickening, and it's one of the sources of our current problems.

Many of them are IB programs. What they are doing is ignorant. Here in the Tampa area, the two public high schools that were ranked in the top 50 in the country are both IB programs.

I don't know much about the IB exam, but its unfair to deny students a chance to take it, as it will look look on their college transcripts. BTW for those who don't know, IB is like AP on steroids.

enslavement. Remember, Slaves were not alowed to learn to read or write BY LAW on penalty of mutilation and/or death. I remember my grandmother telling me how the old slaves flocked to schools just to learn how to read and why it was so important to take advantage of education. If one controls your knowledge, one controls your outlook and thought process to a large extent.

It's very rigorous and a great example of a liberal education, in the age old sense of the word. I suppose someone heard that phrase and decided to be against the IB just because of that.