Radical Unschooler becoming an International Baccalaureate student
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I know the words "international" and "baccalaureate," and they could make sense without knowing more, but I looked.? This refers to a specific organization, with a history, and a present, and likely a future. :-) The first page of the site has links to programs for kids from the age of three, and the picture is all about testing.? Before I saw that, I had guessed that a fourteen year old was wanting to enter university in France, following unschooling.?? Maybe he wants to enter the program now, at the Diploma or Career-Related level? I thought I knew what the question was about, but now I don't.? IF this particular 14-year-old unschooler is only talking about university and dental school, then lots of people might be able to advise.? ? Please clarify, original poster. Here's some history.? I'm curious about a group with the website "" changing their name from "International Baccalaureate Organization" to "International Baccalaureate" but still having the "o" in the URL.? I'm always curious. Sandra |
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-=-He has decided he wants to become an International Baccalaureate student, score a 43 (out of possible 45) on his IB test and move to France to become a dentist (with minimal expense compared to US student debt) and live there.-=- It sounds like a plan. It could be a problem that the plan is so particular and limited to a single outcome.?? It might be a kindness by helping him soften any absolute language (if he's using "will" or "when" or "have to") to things like "might" or "if" or "could." When homeschooling was new and unschoolers were not separate for their own discussions, there were a couple of parents who described how they were helping a child achieve a goal by charts on the wall with particular milestones.? One was about getting into Harvard at a certain age, and the other was an Olympic Gold Medal. Neither parents nor aggressively intent kids can guarantee either of those outcomes.? Those kids were set up to fail, by too pinprick-sized acceptable ends.? The college chart was on the wall over the kid's bed, I'm pretty sure the parent said.? This was in AOL days, or one might've even been before that, on the Microsoft User Group where homeschooling was discussed before AOL. :-)? Long time back, and neither family was unschooling.? But I am haunted when I remember those stories.? ? Graduating from a university other than Harvard would be failure, and betrayal of the parental assistance.? ?An Olympic silver medal?? Ditto. Those now-adults must have clear memories of those charts, and of conversations about them, too.?? ___________ A phrase that has worked magic in my life is "That would be nice!" I learned it from my son, Marty, when he was a young adult.? We had a mutual friend, between our ages.? He would come to visit me to discuss philosophy and his doings and status in a club we were all in.? He would hang out with Marty sometimes, to go places, to do things (in the club or out).? He was lots of fun.? ? This fun friend was not reliable, and would not always show up, even if he had proposed the arrangements and time and such.?? I was frustrated with him, but Marty was not.? I asked why, and Marty said he assumed Ben might fail to appear, so when a plan was proposed, instead of saying yes, okay, I'll be here/there waiting, Marty would say "That would be nice!"?? Categorizing something as a "might happen" could be the difference between success and failure. Choices all along the way could change the outcome without failure, if the choices are more important than the goal.? It shouldn't keep someone from reaching a goal, if it's still his "dream" or intent, but he would have gotten there by 90 decisions instead of by ONE. Any place else the 90 decisions led would be a win, too. Sandra On Tue, Jan 4, 2022 at 12:57 PM Dena Morrison <morrjoy2012@...> wrote:
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Hello from the UK where the IB is increasingly becoming an option used by ¡®prestigious¡¯ schools. I thought I¡¯d offer a perspective from a UK unschooler familiar with the exam through friends and my own children¡¯s explorations.
My children both went to a local college where the IB is taught (International Baccalaureate). They were unschooled from about aged 8 but at about 15 got caught up in the crazy exam obsessed culture in the UK - my impression is that its a bit looser and freer in most other countries - and convinced themselves they needed to do GCSE¡¯s and A levels in order to be fully engaged in the world¡ but that¡¯s a post for another day! The ¡®IB¡¯ students are the most academic, focused bunch in the college, and the IB is very demanding. More demanding and respected than A levels. It was unclear to me from the post whether you were planning on doing this course yourselves from home or whether you had access to some place that runs the course. If it was the former I would say it would be a really really massive undertaking for a young - mid teen and they would need a lot of support. But in my experience this comes with it¡¯s own problems. When my unschooled 14 year olds wanted to do GCSE exams (fairly easy just masses of stuff to cover) I got caught up in the end goal. I wanted them to ¡¯succeed¡¯ as looking back I realise I didn¡¯t trust them to be OK if they failed the exams because they proclaimed that they were so important to them, they had all sorts of future plans pinned on them. (¡®My life is over if I don¡¯t get into college¡¯ etc). They were also really expensive to take and difficult to arrange and this was clouding my thinking. This investment of mine in the outcome of their exams was a huge rabbit hole we went down and was, I think, damaging to our relationship. I say this only because their desire to do exams seemed initially to be totally fine to me as it was their idea and a project I was helping them with like any other. But it turned into a struggle in the end, and I am still not sure exactly what happened or how I would do it differently, just that there are a lot of ways we can, as unschoolers, get snagged by exam goals and unwittingly get invested in their journey. They have a stronger ¡®pull¡¯ than other goals a child may have if we are not sufficiently deschooled ourselves, or we have partners or grandparents who get excited that finally we are doing something ¡®proper¡¯. Approach with love and curiosity - and caution!!!! |
Sandra Dodd
belinda dutch