LACONIA DAILY SUN GILFORD — The School Board last night agreed to continue its study of the controversial International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme originally proposed by Superintendent Paul DeMinico for another year before considering whether to introduce for juniors and seniors at Gilford High School.
Some board members questioned adding what Margo Weeks called “educational mumbo jumbo” to an already full regimen of programs intended to improve student performance. At the same time, several members of the public shared Doug Lambert’s concern that the international perspective of the program would undermine essential American values. “I have great concerns as a parent and a patriot,” Lambert declared. “I so fear what this program may do to our students.”
Begun in the late 1960s by teachers at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland, the IB Diploma Programme seeks to provide students with understanding of diverse cultures through the study of language, history and the social sciences as well as prepare them for higher education with offerings in science and mathematics. In addition, students are required to devote 150 hours to social work, community service, creative activity and athletic com- petition. The IB Diploma Programme is taught in more than 2,000 schools in 125 countries and is the most widely recognized pre-university educational program. [Note: This is self-described and apt to be challenged]
Although the program in popular in other parts of the country, in New England it is confined almost exclusively to private schools. Only one public school district in Maine and another in New Hampshire have introduced the program. DeMinico recalled that during the past year board members had visited the Sturgis School in Massachusetts, where the IB program is a staple of instruction, as well as Bedford, New Hampshire, which is slated to become the first school in the state to introduce the program. [2009]
Apart from these visits, board members have reviewed materials abut the program and presentations have been made to parents and faculty. However, DeMinico said “we’re not ready to recommend implementation” and recommended that the board pursue its review for another year with an eye to making a decision next June. Derek Tomlinson said that he was very impressed with the impact of the program on students at the Sturgis School. “My take was that they were taking the kids into a further realm of learning.” He reminded the board that he was among those seeking to establish an endowment to finance initiatives to improve academic performance and suggested that the endowment could fund the IB program. But, Paul Blandford was less enthusiastic. He said that after a year, the board still had no sound estimate of the cost of introducing the program. Moreover, DeMinico envisions the IB program as an option for juniors and seniors, but the Sturgis School, the only institution with a track record, applies it to all students.
DeMinico replied that he projected the cost at between $75,000 and $110,000, which would include an annual fee to enroll in the program as well as professional development, assessment and materials costs. Likewise, he said that a number of schools in New York and Virginia offered the IB program as an elective an suggested the board could visit one or more of them next year.
However, Weeks remained skeptical. She noted that despite a number of initiatives to boost test scores, “they have remained the same” and asked “how will another layer of programs, expectations and requirements improve performance? If you can’t manage what we have,” she continued, “what is another program going to do for us?”
Tomlinson said that the district should enhance the advanced placement program and introduce the IB program “to raise the bar. If we put a stop to this program,” he said, “we really put a stop to raising the bar.” When chairman Sue Allen opened the floor to the public, the discussion turned from whether the IB program would boost student performance to whether students should be exposed to international, global and multicultural influences.
Don Onofrio opened with a brief statement saying that students should be taught American history and international studies should be offered only as an elective. Lambert followed by expressing concern at Tomlinson’s suggestion that the endowment could be used to fund the program. He said that he was troubled by the prospect that a small group of people with money could introduce a program in the schools over the misgivings and without a vetting by parents and residents. Turning to the IB program, Lambert described it as “a philosophy” and read a newspaper report of high school students staging a peace march, which school officials attributed to the success of the IB program. Dick Hickok, chairman of the Budget Committee, urged the board to “look at the United Nations. It’s an anti-American place. Students,” he said,” should be proud of America and proud of New Hampshire.”
“I can’t tell you how very alarmed I am at the prospect of this program,” said Sue Greene, adding that its “philosophy is contrary to all our most important values.” Echoing Lambert’s misgivings about the endowment, Greene remarked that she was equally concerned that “when we really something, we find a way to get it,” referring specifically to the new library, which was built with a private donation after voters scuttled the project.
When the discussion returned to the board, Kurt Webber described suspicion of the “I word, international” as “outdated thinking. The ugly American is alive and well.” He said the board should have “no problem with a curriculum that would expose students to the idea that they live in a world where 5.8 billion people live in different countries.” A graduate of the United States Military Academy, he emphasized that West Point has added a signifi cant international dimension to its curriculum and training. “The I of IB doesn’t scare me at all and it doesn’t scare the U.S. Army,” he proclaimed. “And I don’t see why it should scare people in Gilford.”
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CNHT Note: Despite his training in the United States Military Academy, apparently Webber still doesn’t get it.