Lethal Mutation
Last year, a grand experiment in education was completed. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) was used as a 'magnet' programme to attract a cohort of more than 350 specially-selected students from within the top 10% of a specific population. The results of that experiment are now a matter of public record, and they were outstanding by almost any measure of quantitative excellence.
Recently, however, a paper was written in which the words 'lethal mutation' were used to describe this kind of highly elitist approach to the deployment of such a programme. The author, an alumna of the IBDP herself, compared the ostensible objectives of the IBDP and some of the writings of its founder with certain tendencies and practices in US education. She concluded that such an elitist approach was not congruent with the basic principles of the IBDP, since access to all students was a founding principle.
This discussion is an open one. I am not sure that the IBDP can at all be deployed within the local context without some form of elitism involved. After all, the country in which I work has one of the most highly streamed populations in the world and is generally very proud of that fact. It also has both the political will and the political strength to ensure that most things work as well as possible in terms of measurable results.
So... is a highly elitist approach to the IBDP indeed a lethal mutation? Or is it a beneficial one in the short, long or middle term?
Recently, however, a paper was written in which the words 'lethal mutation' were used to describe this kind of highly elitist approach to the deployment of such a programme. The author, an alumna of the IBDP herself, compared the ostensible objectives of the IBDP and some of the writings of its founder with certain tendencies and practices in US education. She concluded that such an elitist approach was not congruent with the basic principles of the IBDP, since access to all students was a founding principle.
This discussion is an open one. I am not sure that the IBDP can at all be deployed within the local context without some form of elitism involved. After all, the country in which I work has one of the most highly streamed populations in the world and is generally very proud of that fact. It also has both the political will and the political strength to ensure that most things work as well as possible in terms of measurable results.
So... is a highly elitist approach to the IBDP indeed a lethal mutation? Or is it a beneficial one in the short, long or middle term?
etched with acid at 4:51:00 pm
2 Comments:
(Man, why do I keep posting under my sister's account.)
I didn't do very well under the O-level system, and was hoping to be in the IB programme to escape the rigidity of the O-level system. For a while I had a rather sour grapes sentiment to the GEP because my thoughts were, "no fair! I want to do that kind of work too..." (Speaking to all those I have offended in the past, I wish you guys would forgive me for any erroneous/hurtful statements I've made against the GEP in the past.)
To me, it was because the IB was of a different calibre than a lot of education systems and because of its different philosophy and attitude (or at least, it was supposed to have different ones) from most education systems, it seemed rather self-defeating to pick your pool out of those who excelled under the current system and didn't feel stifled by it.
When I temporarily returned to the US and found myself with peers who loathed doing literary analysis, I could only be jealous of you guys doing EE and TOK. Philosophy and epistemology isn't available until the senior year (under a course entitled 'Struggle for Meaning', which I never took because I used up all my other slots. Thanks, inefficient American block scheduling!) The only time I got to cover Kant in school was in debate (concerning the categorical imperative).
To me, the Singapore IBDP is giving up potentially great advantages, because there are many aspects of Singaporean education which I miss -- at least on the high-school/sec-school level, and many aspects of American education which I loathe, and to me it would be ideal if only a new education system could be synthesised from the best practices of both. In sec 2, I was kind of looking forward to this in the IBDP.
But alas, no.
I suppose at this moment it doesn't matter now -- I just received my acceptance letter from UVA a few days ago. I got waitlisted at Chicago though. :/ Maybe it sorta does.
Hello! I'm posting from JAPAN! Although I'm returning to Singapore today.
Hope you're doing well! Hope to see you sometime soon!
Sorry about this totally irrelevant comment, heh.
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