Dear That Kid That Wants to Know Why I Teach IB

Way back in the year 2000, when I still had hair (and hopes and dreams)I did my student teaching at Flower Mound High School. I loved the experience and the school, and I was thrilled to start my career there the next year. I thought I would never want to leave. Fifteen years later, fate had other plans for me.



In April of my 15th year as a teacher I received an email from Susan Rollins Creighton. I worked with Susan for a number of years, and I was always impressed by her teaching. I tend to sort of try to trick kids into reading something (Oh! What's this? A poem? Should we read it? IDK...let's give it a try.) while Susan made her students tackle demanding literature by sheer force of will. So, naturally, when she emailed to tell me about a job opening at Coppell High teaching in the IB program, I had no choice but to hear her out. The biggest question mark floating over my head was related to IB; I had never heard of it.

Susan and I back when we worked together.
Yes, I thought that everything happening 
in this picture  was a good look for me.

Susan described it as the greatest teaching experience of her career and she assured me that she would still be doing it, but her husband wanted retire and sail around to various ports on a lovely boat. (Which, I mean, who's going to turn that down?) Her enthusiasm for the program intrigued me, so she had me contact the program coordinator, the universally beloved Mr. Brock. He graciously sent me an exceedingly detailed email running down the pros and cons of IB. I was especially taken by his description of what students in IB are required to do: "Ultimately, they are challenged not just to come to an understanding of what they think and believe, but to constantly examine/re-examine and articulate WHY they think and believe what they do." This struck a cord with me because I have always felt that I left high school with a multiple-choice intelligence. I was great at taking test and writing papers where I regurgitated what the teacher said in class, but I did not know how to think for myself.

The work of these persuasive, intellectual titans had me actually considering leaving the only teaching home I had known and loved, but I still wanted to know more so I hit the internet. First, I learned that IB stands for International Baccalaureate and is held in high esteem around the world. I continued to read through a great many interesting takes on IB, but it was when I came across this that I was sold:

The words that won me over.

The ten attributes that IB learners strive for inspired me. To be around a group of people aiming to live up to these ideals seemed like everything that I ever wanted out of teaching. The end goal of an education should be to show students how to think for themselves; how to examine the world from all ways and try to improve it. IB is about looking at the world and figuring out your place in it. I'm rambling now and this is starting to sound a bit cultish.

I'm ok with cultish. The weird cult feeling is exactly why I teach IB. What is a cult, but a strange family cobbled together by shared beliefs? I've only just joined this cult, but I am already chugging the Kool-Aid. 

        Kool-Aid by doomingdavid

Should you take IB? That's a conversation for another post, but you can check out what a top IB student named Maggie wrote about it in her piece for Coppell Student Media.