Think global, teach local

Forty years after its inception, the International Baccalaureate program sets the bar worldwide, drawing motivated students and shaping the whole person, not just the scholar

CATHRYN ATKINSON

Sept. 22, 2008 12:00 AM EDT

VANCOUVER —

Thirty-two national flags flutter outside Meadowridge School in Maple Ridge, B.C., each representing a country from where one or more of its students hail.

Report on Private Schools: International Baccalaureate

Grade 12 student Ashley Becker is a mentor to five-year-old Natalie Weins at Meadowridge School in Maple Ridge, B.C.

Report on Private Schools: International Baccalaureate

Grade 12 student Ashley Becker is a mentor to five-year-old Natalie Weins at Meadowridge School in Maple Ridge, B.C.

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They provide a vivid snapshot of the school's global ethos, which has been closely guided by its involvement in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program.

More than 500 students from pre-kindergarten to Grade 12 pay about $12,000 a year to attend Meadowridge, their numbers coming from metropolitan Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia, as well as overseas.

While the International Baccalaureate is renowned for its diploma program, which prepares teenaged students for the academic rigours of university, what is less well known are two other curricula geared toward much younger pupils.

Meadowridge is one of the few private schools in Canada to offer an International Baccalaureate education to students as young as four. It has embraced the Primary Years Program (PYP), which runs from junior kindergarten to Grade 5, and the Middle Years Program (MYP), for students in Grades 6 to 10.

The school began sending its teachers to IB workshops in 2001 and was authorized by the international governing body to offer PYPs and MYPs in 2006.

The International Baccalaureate Organization was created in Geneva, Switzerland, in the 1960s as a not-for-profit educational foundation with the aim of teaching the children of diplomats, military personnel and business executives based in foreign climes.

The goal was greater continuity in high-quality educational standards between countries, and the emphasis was, and still is, academic.

But 40 years on, the program is far broader in scope and draws highly motivated students who gain an education meant to shape the whole person, not just the scholar.

Now, more than 2,400 schools in 129 countries offer the three IB programs, reaching more than 656,000 students ages three to 19 years.

Meadowridge's headmaster, Hugh Burke, says his school's mission — "Learning to live well, with others and for others, in a just community" — has meshed well with IB objectives of "learning through inquiry."

He is a passionate advocate for offering the program to even the youngest children, saying that it provides a framework that meets academic, social, physical, emotional and cultural needs whatever the age.

"If you think about a young child, how do they learn? Not because we sit them down and talk to them and give them information," Mr. Burke says. "They learn it through play, through exploration, asking questions and pursuing those questions. The International Baccalaureate is an inquiry-based program with active learning.

"Children who are four, five, or six are part of a community," he adds. "They might understand it as a family, or a neighbourhood, but the notion that we are all in this together globally is also part of the heart and soul. You begin with them at that age and they learn about interdependence, and they learn to be independent inquirers and develop themselves as global citizens."

Individual schools also adhere to local educational requirements, says Terry Donaldson, co-ordinator of the PYP program at Meadowridge.

"IB schools throughout the world can speak to each other on the same terms. We can't always in terms of curriculum, but we can in the language of IB. In our school, we have students from age four all the way to 16 who have a sense of the same kind of value characteristics. I think that's really important," he says.

While Meadowridge offers both the MYP and the PYP up to Grade 10, the final two grades are taught via the Advanced Placement (AP) program, a popular — and rigorous — university entrance method.

Mr. Burke says the school favours adding the IB. diploma program for Grades 11 and 12, replacing the AP program.

"We do extremely well in things like government exams and university entrance, and when we brought in the PYP and MYP, there was less of an appetite for change at Grade 11 and 12, but our intention is to be an IB school."

Grade 12 student Ashley Becker took the MYP program until completing Grade 10, but wishes she had had the option to continue with the IB.

"When I was doing the IB program, I found I did programs with a lot more components to them, and [was able to] go back and reflect upon what we were doing," says Ms. Becker, 16. "They want you to explore the topics we study in a more well-rounded way. It affects the way you go after information and will stay with you the rest of your life."

Her father, John Becker, who is also a member of the Meadowridge board, says bringing in the IB program three years ago helped the school redefine its mission.

"Prior to the full adoption of the IB program there were questions about whether we were going to be just an academic, sausage-grinder type of institution, or what role physical education, arts and humanities would have within the school," he says.

"By adopting the program it ended the debate because it is focused on the well-rounded individual. We are focused on post-secondary education anyway, but the IB program creates the best kind of citizen."

Special to The Globe and Mail

THE INS AND OUTS OF IB AND AP

International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement programs are dedicated to academic excellence and are widely respected by top universities. University and college credits can be gained in either program, depending on provincial standards. Here's a quick look at the two programs:

International Baccalaureate

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