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Really? Here is a quote from their web site:

The Primary Years Programme (PYP), for students aged 3 to 12, focuses on the development of the whole child, in the classroom but also in the world outside, through other environments where children learn. It offers a framework that meets children’s several needs: academic, social, physical, emotional and cultural.

Now, I looked at their site for 2 seconds and will go back and look more thoroughly. But all the liberal buzzwords make me suspicious.

I've looked through the web site some more and am still seeing a lot about "exploring" and the teacher eliciting what the children know, but not much of what they plan to teach (well, except concepts about what makes a family and how we should preserve our resources).

I think programs which can be designed to allow children to explore concepts concretely can be good. The problem is that public schools are under tremedous time constraint. We cannot sit around and have endless discussions eliciting what kids know and don't know and extending their knowledge because Johnny brought a book to share.

The devil is in the details - the implementation, more specifically. IB can be overwhelmingly liberal in its viewpoint, or it can be not much different from standard American high school fare - it really depends on the people implementing it in a given school.

Anyway, what this article isn't telling you is that the real reason that Woodson High in Fairfax dropped IB is not because of any politics or political views in the curriculum, although that may have played a small part for some parents. The real reason it got dropped is that parents discovered that it simply doesn't translate into as many college credits as a similarly structured AP program, particularly at UVa. and other in-state schools. That's it. No grand political agenda or anything, really.

Tasting foods from around the world, learning about world economics,art,history, customs, music, languages---really that is not subversive--I served on the Bd of a premier IB school for years and my son was educated there--Kids from 60 different countries went there--everyone of them, to my knowledge, you could obtain citizenship here, did so asap...(Where do you think you will get DoS and CIA officers and CEOs of companies who must deal internationally from--kids who only study English and know nothing of anywhere but the US?)It is not, as I said a traditional American curriculum but is not subversive..

Many state universities also think it is the best education possible--Florida,i.e. gives tuition scholarships to students who have the IB diploma...

Group 3 - individuals and societies Subjects included in this group are: business and management, economics, geography, history, Islamic history, information technology in a global society (at SL only), philosophy, psychology, and social and cultural anthropology.

This is from the Diploma Candidates level: Curriculum.

Pay attention to what is NOT offered.

Also, a LOT of emphasis on 'touchy-feely' and 'global community', etc.

Based in Switzerland.

Read the ENTIRE site, and it is very enlightening.

Note to those opposed to national standards:

Assessing student work and awarding the diploma Classroom teachers and IB examiners work in partnership to ensure that students have ample opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned. Grades reflect attainment of knowledge and skills relative to set standards applied equally to all schools. Top grades are not, for example, awarded to a certain percentage of students. Responsibility for all academic judgments about the quality of candidates’ work rests with some 4,400 IB examiners worldwide, led by chief examiners with international authority in their fields. Each year approximately 80% of candidates who attempt the diploma succeed in earning it. Examinations are offered in May for northern hemisphere schools and in November for those in the southern hemisphere.

This takes standardized achievement testing not only out of the district & the state, but out of the country!

I guess you have to be union teacher or administrato to understand why national testing is bad, but INTERNATIONAL testing is good.