What is International Baccalaureate?

The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) was formed in the 1960s to provide a western system of education for the children of U.S. diplomats. In 1996, however, IBO formed a partnership with UNESCO to create a pilot program for what the IBO and UNESCO websites describe as an international system of education.
 
 Today IB is essentially an arm of UNESCO, and when American schools join IB, they agree that IBO-UNESCO will train the teachers, write the curriculum, compose the important tests (which are sent to Geneva for scoring), and dictate the values, attitudes and worldview that will be taught to the students.
 
In order for IBO students and faculty to become world citizens, they are required to memorize the ten learner profile values of world citizenship. The Ten Commandments have been replaced with the 10 values of IBO-UNESCO. On its website IBO says: The attributes of the learner profile express the values inherent to the IB continuum of international education.
 
 
The Values of IB 

IBO says that it endorses the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 26 of UDHR says education shall further the activities of the United Nations.  This means that IBO agrees to promote and teach all the activities of the UN including treaties and documents America has not signed such as the UDHR, the Treaty on the Rights of the Child, Kyoto, the UN Treaty on Biodiversity, the Earth Charter and the treaty establishing the new UN Criminal Court, to name just a few.
           
The UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which IBO advocates, describes our fundamental human rights as follows:

"These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations." 

 
 (The IBO website says that IB is now in 680 American schools.)
 
IBs Core Curriculum Requirement
        IB schools can write their own curriculum so long as the beliefs and values of the curriculum agree with the beliefs and values of IB. The philosophy of IB must be incorporated into the schools core classes.

        When schools adopt the IB program, they agree to the following stipulations:
Program Standards and Practices:
Standard A1: There is close alignment between the educational beliefs and values of the school and those of the [IB] program.
  • 1. The school is committed to the principles defined in the IBO mission statement.
  • 2. The school is committed to developing in students the qualities, attitudes and characteristics described in the IB learner profile.
  • 4. The beliefs and values that drive the [IB] program are shared by all sections of the school community (including students, teachers, administrators, members of the governing body and others, as appropriate). [ Program standards and practices, International Baccalaureate Organization, Geneva, Switzerland
         Notice that in the IB "Standards and Practices" quoted above, the words "beliefs and values" are used three times. One has to be impressed by this extraordinary emphasis IBO places on requiring that member schools teach its beliefs and values. ...Or is it more about indoctrination?
 
What are the "beliefs and values" of IB?
         ... IB curriculum is teaching students "those human values which are recognized as universal; these are embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the General assembly of the United Nations in 1948" [A Continuum of International Education, published by IBO, p. 10, all emphasis in the original].
 
 IBO curriculum is "the best possible" for two interrelated reasons: (1) The IBO curriculum focuses on the beliefs and values it says are universal. These beliefs and values are seen by IBO, therefore, as being superior to the parochial beliefs and values of mere nations that are less than universal. That is, IB believes that it teaches the universal beliefs and values which are superior to the limited beliefs and values of the United States.
 
        And (2) IBO says its curriculum is "the best possible" because IB teaches the beliefs and values of the UN as defined in the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR]. This UN document specifically requires supporting nations to promote all the activities of the UN in its education program [UDHR, Article 26.]
 
Teaching the Beliefs and Values of IBO
        As mentioned above, IBO requires member school to teach its courses from the IB point of view. This requirement is clearly stated in the Minnesota School District # 6078 federal grant application, which says: "Units will ... integrate IB philosophy and concepts into core content curriculum." [p. 70]
 
        The IB curriculum in A.C. Flora High School in South Carolina illustrates how the IB values are incorporated into math and language classes. A.C. Flora describes its IB curriculum as follows:
At A. C. Flora the French classes have continuously integrated global concerns, such as pollution, endangered species, health issues (obesity, aging, AIDS, cloning), space research, human rights, and the death penalty...
One wonders how much French IB students are learning when they are studying AIDS and the death penalty. A. C. Flora describes its math curriculum as follows:
Math Studies curriculum explores problems concerning the weather, environmental protection, conservation, and energy. . . The statistics unit will examine a variety of problems from a global perspective, such as the disparity of wealth distribution between first and third world countries.
How much math are students learning as they study wealth distribution? (They are actually learning Marxist ideology in math class.)  IB Latin looks like this:
In Latin, [at A. C. Flora] an ancient language, students will examine the ancient world as a sounding board to measure and compare the global issues in a modern world. Students will discuss the impact on the Roman world, as well as their own, of such topics as womens rights, slavery, and national imperialism.
(A.C. Flora High School described these classes in the 2002 IB Introductory Seminar given in Danvers, MA. These classes were said to be "designed for schools from around the world interested in becoming part of the IB Program." That is, IB held up this A. C. Flora curriculum as a model IB curriculum.)

 IBO website states:
The Global Teaching and Learning Project of the UN in New York accepted an IBO tender to produce two teaching booklets about UN global issues. ... The project has been undertaken by the International Baccalaureate Curriculum and Assessment Centre in Cardiff using experienced curriculum writers from around the world, principally in IB World Schools, and having UN input and approval of the 20 units completed. They will be copyrighted by the UN, with acknowledgement to the IBO for its work, and disseminated to the governments of all member states for use in schools. The content of the booklets reflects the structure and philosophy of the IB programs ...
Undermining the Beliefs and Values of the United States
....Free enterprise is not a universal value according to IB. In contrast, IB says that it teaches values that are universal. This theme -- that our beliefs and values may be good for some people but not for everyone, while IB provides the universal beliefs and values -- is the unifying theme around which the IB beliefs and values are constructed.

 IBO and Multiculturalism
         IBO frequently says that its curriculum is organized around "multiculturalism." IBO defines multiculturalism when it says, "These programmes encourage students ... [to] understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right." IBO means that the American creed may be right for many Americans, and the Iranian creed may be right for many Iranians, but the IBO creed is the universal creed that is right for everyone.
 
        Every subject in the IBO curriculum is taught from this same unifying perspective. Students are asked "to be familiar" with their own "traditions," including their own history, government, religion and the like, but students are taught to view these subjects as merely their own cultural "traditions," while other countries see and do things differently. No country's traditions may be seen as superior to the traditions of any other nation. They are all equal and limited to their particular culture. IBO, in contrast, provides the beliefs and values that are universal and, are, therefore, good for everyone.
 
    The issue of the IB curriculum is not primarily a matter of the subjects being taught. The question is not, for example, whether the U.S. Constitution and U.S. history are taught -- the question is how they are taught. Are the beliefs and values of American history and the Constitution taught as containing universal truths and values and being, therefore, good for everyone? Or are they taught as being good for some but not others? And, are the beliefs and values of IB-UNESCO promoted in the classes as superior to the beliefs and values of the American creed? These are the questions we must ask.
 

Undermining Christianity
          IBO also attacks Christianity. ....IBO lumps Christianity as defined above into the category of what it calls "fundamentalism" -- along with the Taliban and various terrorist groups, saying that these "fundamentalist" groups are all "dangerous." It would be difficult to imagine a more clear, and repugnant, attack on Christianity.

The Religion of IBO
          While IBO undermines Christianity, it also advocates its own religion. IBO promotes the worldview of New Age-Pantheism guru William Butler Yeats (see the link just above). Another New Age leader, Joseph Campbell, is often required reading for IBO students. Like Yeats, Campbell aggressively promotes "inclusive" New Age-Pantheistic doctrines while undermining Christianity.
 
        Campbell argues that New Age religion provides the universal doctrines of the unifying world religion. He argues that no religion which claims exclusive truth should be followed -- the position of IBO as noted above. Truth, says Campbell, can only be found in the common themes of all religions -- which gives us a common world religion -- exactly what IBO desires.
 
        IBO also teaches the beliefs and values of the Earth Charter.* The Earth Charter requires schools to engage in what it calls "spiritual education"; and how is spiritual education defined? Spiritual education is explained by the numerous religious symbols on the "Ark of Hope" which houses the papyrus copy of Earth Charter and is promoted by the Earth Charter website. These religious symbols, without exception, are New Age-Pantheism symbols. The Ark of Hope website describes the Ark of Hope as being decorated with the symbols of " 'Spirit' that honors the children and young animals of the world" (Pantheism).
 
        The Ark of Hope is an antitype of the Ark of the Covenant. It is often carried about by priestesses in long flowing white gowns. When not on tour, it often resides in the Temple of Understanding in New York City, a temple the UN Chronicle headlines as being the "Spiritual United Nations." [Spring, 2000, edition]
 
        IBO subverts Christianity while at the same time advocating New Age religion -- a clear violation of the separation of church and state. This is not a problem for IBO, however, because it does not recognize the separation of Church and state. Both Christians and non-Christians need to be concerned about IBO religious indoctrination because IBO is inculcating New Age-Pantheism in all its students, not just Christians. (When IBO speaks of teaching "beliefs and values," it clearly includes religious beliefs and values as part of the mix.)
 
 So Does IBO allow schools to write their own curriculum?
            IBO schools can write their own curriculum in the same sense that Cubans have freedom of speech -- you can say anything you want so long as it agrees with the party line. This party line is really all that matters to IBO.
 
*For public relations reasons, IBO had itself removed as a signator of the Earth Charter in 2006. IBO stills teaches the beliefs and values of the Earth Charter, however, and is committed to doing so by its subscription to UDHR, Article 26. The beliefs and values of IB have not changed.