One of the strange feelings that seem to dawn on new-parents (and non-parents will not even be aware of) is a sense of helplessness and panic about deciding on the right school to enrol their new-born offspring in. Yes, you read that right – school to enrol their “new-born” in.
I’ve had people come up to me and suggest I should enrol my 6-month-old infant in the “right” school…which he’s supposed to start at age 4! And while I was using all my efforts to not laugh out loud, I saw that they were dead serious. (I can only imagine what they must be made of my contorted expressions changing from ha-ha-that’s-a-good-one to oh-my-you’re-serious and finally settling on ok-let-me-pretend-to-be-concerned). Apparently, even the pre-play-school (or whichever new group they invent next) is considered to be important because you need to know which playgroup has inroads into which playschool has inroads into which nursery has inroads into which school has inroads into which college, and so on. Phew! I heard them out back then, but it was too much for me. We decided to postpone this life-changing decision to somewhere around the “he’s almost-four” age.
The decision, whenever you do eventually take it, is not an easy one of course. And even before you get to the brass tacks of picking the right school, there’s a big-picture question that needs to be answered. Step one is deciding on the right schooling system. There is the traditional CBSE, ICSCE and State Boards that our generation has grown up with. Then there are international curricula like IB, IGCSE and Cambridge CIE. And last, but increasingly relevant, are alternative schooling philosophies like Waldorf, Montessori, and Home Schooling.
Each system has its pros and cons. We evaluated all of them by vigorous google-searches, multiple talks with other more experienced parents and even attending a few orientation sessions. While some easy to dismiss outright, we spent more time in understanding other curricula and finally arrived at the one which works best for our family.
Here’s a summary of the reasons why we picked the International Baccalaureate or the IB curriculum for our son’s schooling:
1. It’s not a very old system; the International Baccalaureate in its current form has evolved between the 1970s to 1990s. Formal schooling, the way we have been used to, was established in the early 1900s and there are no cross-generational studies that prove that learning facts and spewing them out is the best thing that children need. Enough and more anecdotal evidence though does talk about success stories who were ‘drop-outs’ from formal education, or about those who succeeded despite their schooling, not because of it. I would rather trust a new system that is capable of understanding & adapting to changing societal needs, than an archaic pedagogy with dodgy credentials.
2. There are no exams and no text-books in an IB school. Ever. It may sound sacrilegious to us millennials who have grown up eating-sleeping-breathing competitive exams, but think about it – when was the last time you gave an exam in your work-life? Were you evaluated on your written and oral skills in a 3-hour slot on a defined day? Or was there a process of evaluating various projects & tasks over the course of the year? Are exams closer to real life, or are continuous evaluations?
3. Moore’s Law predicted that computing doubles its speed every two years. Imagine the implications for the world that our children will grow up in. The careers and paths that are most sought after today – data analytics, social media marketing, digital design etc – did not even exist 5 years ago! The fact is that the world is moving at an astronomical pace. I know that engineering aspirants need to prepare for the JEE today, but all the signs around us are point towards the easing of competitive pressures on young adults in the years to come. Who’s to say what the scene will be like 15 years from now when my little one crosses the threshold? According to me, education should therefore be focusing on the “how” and “why” rather than the “what” and “who”.
4. The IB program is based on an enquiry-based learning pedagogy which helps the learner to absorb concepts better for the long term. My 3.5-year-old in Nursery, for instance, knows that a Venn diagram helps to organise data into sets and identify commonalities. The concept of sorting is the focus here, not that it is “a diagram representing mathematical or logical sets pictorially as circles or closed curves within an enclosing rectangle (the universal set), common elements of the sets being represented by intersections of the circles.” He won’t be competing to replace Wikipedia anytime soon, and I’m happy for this!
5. Equip them with the tools to learn, rather than force them to rote learning. It’s the one thing I hated about my own schooling. There was too much of an emphasis on mugging up details and concepts, and hardly any application of the learnings in real life. Even at a young age, knowing one’s tables was more important than understanding the logic of math in the world around us. I knew that schooling for my child has to focus on better things.
6. We have no qualms about accepting that the internet and connectivity are going to be a major part of our lives. The IB curriculum doesn’t diss technology, rather technology is used to enhance learning and becomes a normal part of the children’s life. Much as it is a part of our lives as grown-ups; we can’t live without technology so might as well make sure we live well with it.
7. A focus on intercultural understanding and respect is the final link that completes the circle for us. The IB curriculum makes an effort to expose children to languages, festivals, customs from various parts of the world. They are being groomed to be sensitive to differences that exist across cultures and that works perfectly in line with my life philosophy – to each his/her own.
Beware though, in the interest of full disclosure, we know that the IB curriculum is not a perfect system. Perhaps, none of them are. The key drawbacks, which we considered and decided we were okay to live with, include:
1. It is expensive. IB schools often cost 2x or more than what other schools do. We are a double-income-single-child family and know that the higher cost of his education is something we can afford. Be real with yourself – families with multiple children and/or single income earners should be careful about the financial commitment involved.
2. Your child will be living in a privileged bubble. Perhaps because of the first point above, there will be significant peer pressure which needs to be mitigated. The messages you give to your kid/s at home need to be strong enough to break any delusions that get formed in their bubble-like existence. It’s more work for parents to keep the child grounded in reality.
At the end of the day, we first had to look within ourselves to understand what we want for our child and which factors are most important for us as a family. The IB curriculum works perfectly for us, more so now as we traverse life as an ex-pat family. But even without the benefit of this hindsight, the conversations we have with our son always reinforce the fact that his mind is being exercised rigorously in school.
Oh, and he always has a big smile on his face as he happily looks forward to school mornings!
What more can one ask for?
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