Welcome to stress

Murderous/Suicidal. That is how I’d describe how the majority of people in our IB2 class have been recently. Most of us had three papers due (which is three papers to do over the weekend), two of which we really couldn’t work on ahead of time because they were just assigned on Thursday and Friday. Add to that the other homework assignments our ever considerate teachers decided to assign us, university apps, chronic sleep deprivation, and “life” in general and you have a bunch of stressed-out and quite possibly chronically depressed students. That is the reality of it all. I am not trying to be funny here or anything.

I’m beginning to believe that our instructors are really bent on destroying even the tiniest bits of mental health which we have been trying to retain. Well to be fair, we have been in this programme for years and should theoretically be acclimated to the stresses of student life, but sometimes it just gets too much. Some of us, while we claim to “not care” about grades so as not to seem like those annoying overachievers in IB seem to be neurotic to the point that we measure our self-worth in grades. And the reality is that most of us do not cope well with the stress and sense of inadequacies and turn to self-medication…if you know what I mean.

The three of us who contribute to this blog aren’t masters of coping well with stress, but we have found (erm) rather “interesting” ways to survive…more on that later.

Finally the weekend

But I have three papers due two days from now.

Fun.

IB Does NOT Foster Creativity

First off, we have been absent for what seems to have been awhile because school has once again managed to suppress our creative urges. Now I will begin my rant.

I am so glad that I began this blog. Whenever I feel like spouting off about the failures and flaws of the IB Programme, this blog is a welcoming channel through which I can release my rage as to the amount of suppression I have been forced to experience under IB.

What I am about to write are words that have been brewing inside me for a long time.

You see, IB, for all its hifalutin terminology and its rigorous nature, has failed to foster the creativity that its proponents claim to want to nurture. It has failed, throughout these years to truly engender original thinking. And what thoughts, for that matter, can truly be said to be “original”?

What my peers in IB and I have been trying to point out through ALL these years is that this programme has instead entailed the constant regurgitation of information. Why is it only now, when someone these IB sheep fear expresses the same exact argument that such a point is valid? Because they are the authority?

My IB Educators, you have failed us in this aspect. Yes, it may take stages for us to mature to such a point that we are able to articulate our ideas in a more intelligible manner. And yes, not everyone can create “original ideas” from the initial phases of our young academic lives. But to suppress even attempts at creation of original ideas, implicitly or otherwise, intentionally or otherwise, is not the way to nurture creativity in students. Guidelines and limitations are necessary, of course, but what I’ve found in this programme are rigid laws, not even rules or guidelines.

You can argue that this is what the real world is like, that cruel world out there that’s just waiting to pounce on the “original ideas” you create. Perhaps in that respect IB is trying to prepare us for the rigours that come with trying to pitch “original ideas” to more established authorities. Perhaps in that respect IB is a microcosm of the “way the world works”.

But in order to facilitate creative thought the potential thereof should not be suppressed.

If you, IB Educators, are to be successful in developing creativity in your students then damnit, encourage them to think of new ideas from the outset of their IB education. Don’t leave that point out until the last year of your student’s academic career in secondary school.

Bottom line: I can’t wait to get out of this programme. IB has finally driven me off the deep end.