Internationalist Curriculum Infiltrates U.S. Schools
By Seana Cranston, J.D.
NEW YORK, November 18 (C-FAM) A sign nailed to a tree trunk in a family’s front yard reads, “NO IB, Stop Wasting Money, Keep the UN Out of Our Schools.” Across the Arizona town, a school board member criticizes a curriculum she says surrenders local control to a foreign organization that promotes world government.
The debate means one American community has awakened to the International Baccalaureate, a study program quietly embraced by nearly 1,000 U.S. campuses and 139 countries worldwide. While found mostly in public high schools, the curriculum has touched middle and elementary schools, and even a number of Catholic schools.
“IB is the biggest educational scam perpetrated on American schools today,” says Lisa McLoughlin, a Long Island mother and leading critic. She says schools shouldn't spend tax dollars on the program, and questions if Catholic schools are aware of its underlying, liberal internationalist philosophy.
“IB students learn diversity, multiculturalism, and international-mindedness, but can they do math? Do they learn grammar? Can they write a paper?” says McLoughlin.
The IB comes from a non-profit educational foundation of the same name founded in Switzerland in 1968. Its early money came from the United Nations, as well as the 20th Century Fund and Ford Foundation.
The baccalaureate foundation maintains close ties to the UN through its cultural and education agency, UNESCO. It regularly participates in UNESCO meetings and comments on its proposals in education. UNESCO still funds some IB projects, as does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite its direct relationship with the UN, IB denies any UN influence on its curriculum.
But critics say IB is anti-American, undermines national sovereignty, and promotes radical environmentalism. Until recently, IB endorsed the Earth Charter, which supports population control and socialism. The Earth Charter argues that all nations should implement its principles in an international treaty.
Some also criticize IB’s non-traditional curriculum and lack of transparency. To discover the actual curriculum, outsiders must buy course guides from the foundation itself. But even then the course guides are vague, McLoughlin says.
McLoughlin became interested in the curriculum after it arrived at her family’s public high school. She created the website, www.truthaboutib.com, described by a Washington Post column as “remarkably fair” despite its clear anti-IB agenda.
She says IB promotes moral relativism and undermines familial values. An IB director, for example, said in a speech that questions about ethical obligations, human rights, beliefs, and moral responsibility have “no right or wrong answers.”
A document on IB’s website contains a curriculum model that emphasizes “Sharing the planet.” It promotes world citizenship, and says students need a greater understanding of internationalism because of the “prevalence of discrimination, racism in all its forms . . . and environmental destruction.”
Whatever its official relationship to the UN, the IB's personal ties run deep. The foundation's chair is Carol Bellamy, who formerly led the United Nation’s Children’s Fund. During her tenure, UNICEF promoted abortion rights, sex ed for children that encouraged promiscuity, and a radical feminist agenda.
And its close relationship to UNESCO draws the IB into another education controversy. As recently reported by the Friday Fax, UNESCO promotes sex education for children of all ages. UNESCO also supports legalized abortion, homosexuality, and the abolishment of traditional gender identities.
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