Citizens blast IB-PYP

COEUR d'ALENE - More than 100 people crowded into the Community Room at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library on Monday to attend a meeting hosted by opponents of the International Baccalaureate programs in Coeur d'Alene schools.

Several speakers shared information they have gathered regarding the IB's advanced learning option offered for juniors and seniors at Lake City High School, and the IB's Primary Years Programme, a full-school program at Hayden Meadows Elementary School.

"We are pro-teacher, and we are pro-school, but the IB program came to our attention over the past year or so," Duncan Koler said. "As we looked into it, we became very concerned with what we found."

Koler, an attorney from Hayden, and others have spoken at recent school board meetings on the subject.

"Our interest is as parents, not as politicians. We're not members of any radical right-wing organizations or left-wing for that matter," Koler said.

Koler and the other speakers oppose the IB's presence in district schools because of the organization's connection to the UN and UNESCO (United Nations Education Service and Cultural Organization).

They say IB and PYP are programs of indoctrination that promote anti-American principles and socialist theories, including global warming and redistribution of wealth and resources through community activism.

"We've got great kids. We've got bright kids. They want to learn, and we've got effective teachers. They know how to get the message across, and our kids are getting the message," Koler said. "Right now, that message is an IB, UN, UNESCO message that we strenuously disagree with. We think that there ought to be more focus on the basics, and our heritage and our founding."

Founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968 as a nonprofit educational foundation, the IBO claims its original purpose was "to facilitate the international mobility of students preparing for university by providing schools with a curriculum and diploma recognized by universities around the world."

"They want to change the way your child thinks, not feed your child's mind with information, and information about our history, heritage and why we believe what we believe," said speaker Luke Sommer.

Leah Southwell spoke about "semantic deception," and the way she sees it embedded throughout the IB curriculum and teaching methods.

"I choose to not believe that any of our teachers, school board trustees or anyone else who helped bring IB was aware of this," Southwell said.

She encouraged the crowd to "take a look a little deeper beyond the flowery semantics and try and understand the depth of what this is really all about."

Southwell said this is a nationwide problem.

"Let's not spend any more time on creating global citizens. Let's return back to the foundations of reading, writing and arithmetic and understanding who we are as Americans before we try to impose these things on young children," Southwell said.

"Indoctrination and exploring other aspects of thinking and more open-mindedness, that's what college is for, that's what higher level thinking is for."

Shelley Woodard, an audience member and parent of two children who graduated from Coeur d'Alene High School, said after the meeting, that he thinks it's important for all parents to take a look at this, no matter which side of the issue they're on.

"You need to find out about the IB's practices and the values it teaches, so you know, because as a parent, it's your responsibility to know what your children are learning," Woodard said.

His own children went on to become an aerospace engineer and a nuclear engineer, without the benefit of IB.

"So you can't tell me they need IB here," Woodard said.