Are I-B Students Elitist?

[alex_omc]

Good Evening good people at I-B survival, I bring a question that needs to be answered in my books anyways. Are we Elitist? Do we think we are better than "other" students? My school is split between the I-B curriculum and the regular provincial curriculum (I go to a public school that offers IB), they are both taught in my school and it seems that we as an entity in the school look down upon the individuals that are taking the Provincial Curriculum. Does this occur all over the world or is My school in Canada like Frasier Crane and The Trailer Park Boys going to the same school?

[Survival Robot]

Automatic message

This topic has been moved from "General Discussion" to "General IB Discussion".

[Abu]

Yes I do think that we are elitist and sometimes look down upon people for following some other types of curricula. In my school we do IB and American Diploma side by side, and we sometimes look down upon them since they end up doing easier things at our level, that's not saying that they're a bit intellectually incapable, it's saying that they're lazy.

IB's more challenging so we automatically assume that everything else is less challenging and 'easy', A-Levels are just as, and possibly more harder, when you take 5-6 A2 subjects. It's a bit like doing 5 HLs if you like.

So yes IB students sometimes tend to be elitist, but we shouldn't be.

[Ashika]

Story of my life.

My school hates my class because we think we're better than everyone else. I'm not sure who ACTUALLY thinks that (although it wouldn't surprise me) but that is how we are perceived. But that's because we put off this image in which we are super human and can do everything and more than Non-IB's can with only 2 hours of sleep and therefore we are the best etc. Then again there is an "elite" within this class of "elites" but we will not go there because my class gets my blood pressure up and it is way too early in the morning.

Ugh, I cannot believe I even need to associate myself with these people.

How disgusting.

[blindpet]

I go to a danish gymnasium which offers the standard dansk studentereksamen, hf (a different type of studentereksamen) and the ib programme. The danish kids who do not take the IB hate us completely, there's a constant battle for who's best etc. It might be because danes are very nationalistic and patriotic and international education threatens that - to a degree they are even xenophobic. There are constant comparisons as to which math levels are hardest and who does the most work, which prepares you better for higher education etc. All of our teachers are danes and generally neglect the ib, they don't really know what the IB wants etc or how to communicate properly in English, it's pretty sad actually.

But yes, the IBs at our school do consider themselves elitist, believing they get the best education in the world which leads to studying at the top universities. Everything will change when the IB is a standard and there are more well-informed people walking around.

But, consider that most of the stress associated with the ib is because everything is externally assessed and that all the work we do is marked by someone else. I think that's the worst part of it all, that our teachers - realistically - have no influence on our final grades and that's not elitist at all in my opinion.

[deissi]

to a degree they are even xenophobic

That certainly is something that other Scandinavians seem to think - aren't Danish immigration policies extremely strict etc.?

Now, back to the subject, our school is a lot like blindpet's, the normal "ylioppilastutkinto" kids don't really like us. However, even though the ylioppilastutkinto line is the best there is in Finland, there's still no competition about who's better because the IB results in our school are even better.

We IBs do kind of see ourselves as better than the 'normal line' kids, since you need to go through entrance exams etc. to do the IB at our school. I guess it's kind of fair because we have to take a lot of **** from them

[__inthemaking]

The regular kids think we're snobby because we're in IB. Most of us aren't, but I think we tend to complain a little too much about our workload..we do have more work than they do but we could shut up about it once in awhile. We don't look down on them because they're "stupid" though, we're actually kinda jealous that they can afford to go out so often.

There's some elitists within my IB class that are truly snobby though. They talk in a condescending manner to everyone (regardless of whether they're in IB or not) and use big words whenever possible.

[Scade]

In my opinion the IBers in my school tend to be a bit elitist. Some people seem to take it for granted that they're better because they're on the IB. That actually isn't quite true imo since the national line students in our school are very good (and do more work than many of the IBers recognize). Then again it is rather easy to have this sort of relationship since the IB is quite small (about 25 students per year compared to about 100 students per year on the national side). Obviously the scope of people is larger on the national side and as a result there is more variation in terms of how good they are. There is the somewhat eternal probelm of rating a group based on individuals.

[Tyro]

It my school the struggle is between the AP students and the IB students. It's not that big since IB is low key and just getting started (our class is the biggest yet with about 25 diploma candidates). For the most part students are either in IB or don't know anything about it. I've had a few discussions with different people about which is harder and it's hard because they were ill-informed about IB - it came down to depending on the class and the teacher as to which was best. As for students that take the normal curriculum I don't know because we are so isolated and have been for so many years that we never really even talk to each other. It is generally thought that AP and IB are superior (and for good reason I might add). My few friends that don't do IB or AP think we are weird and really smart. But all in all there is no be competition over who is better.

[ibkid]

In my school, the kids with the regular provincial curriculum think that IB is a waste of time. Personally, i think that they think we are better than them, thats why i get teased sometimes by my "non-IB" friends" hahaha but i dont know.

[Shorty]

I'm not sure if this counts but my chem teacher likes to think we get better marks and often refers to us as an honors class. Thats the closest experience I have had with being an elitist.

[Forester]

IB is better than the national curriculum. Anything is better than the national curriculum.

[lorenzo]

Well my school only offers IB and we were the only students admitted in the state of queensland so I guess you could say our egos could do with a little deflating. But no one i know actually talks condescendingly about anyone doing the state curriculum. However, having said that, we do hav a bit of a laugh sometimes at the "hardest" stuff they hav to do.

[Ib_slave]

In our school, we only have students taking either the IB diploma or certificate. It doesn't seem like a very elitist system to me. Maybe it's just your school.

[robertomx]

in my school there's FOUR different programs, IB being one of them . Personally, none of us thinks we're better than the others (we even envy the fact that they aren't in IB). The problem is that some teachers think we're better and they call you a mediocre IB student if you get 89/100 in anything or something, and they tend to compare non-IBers with us. So, the general thought in my school is that IB students are better. Teachers think that, non-IBers think that. It seems that we're the only ones that think of IB as horrible hell instead of some idealistic heaven.

[cereja]

In my school it's IB vs AP. Regular and honors kids hate both AP and IB quite equally. We don't think we're better, but it's hard not to think they're lazy when they complain about an hour of homework when we get 5-6 every night. AP has a lot of ex-IBers, so they make fun of us for staying in IB and doing the extra work (we do everything AP does and more). We're a class of about 75 right now. But we do get to skip on projects that are just a waste of time and they don't.

[Stereoisomer]

The regular kids think we're snobby because we're in IB. Most of us aren't, but I think we tend to complain a little too much about our workload..we do have more work than they do but we could shut up about it once in awhile. We don't look down on them because they're "stupid" though, we're actually kinda jealous that they can afford to go out so often.

There's some elitists within my IB class that are truly snobby though. They talk in a condescending manner to everyone (regardless of whether they're in IB or not) and use big words whenever possible.

OMG I ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU!!!!

In my school. The students are divided into 3 groups.

Group 1: The IB-ers

Group 2: The NCEA-ers (which is the local NZ High School Qualification)

Group 3: The kind that rarely come to class and falls asleep in one when they eventually show up at noon

We tend to stress/worry too much! Which is quite normal I guess..

There are a few people in my year who thinks they are oh-so-cool 'coz they are doing IB. Whenever they talk about IB they don't just say IB this and that. They say: "International Baccalaureate is this and that" Emphasizing on the phrase: 'Laureate'

They also suffer from constant verbal diarrhea especially when they meet the Group 2/Group 3 students.

Edited July 24, 2008 by MistyRose

[irenesme]

Haha. Yes.

I know what you mean. My school is also a public so we have the IB program, the TLC (Technological Learning Center) Program, and the regular curriculum.

I am fairly certain that many non-IB students truly despise IB students and think that were stuck up and uptight.

Although, I think these bad feelings also come from the fact that my school is located in the "ghetto" of my city so you can REALLY tell the IB students from the regular students. Plus, a lot of the time it is the IB student who has the extremely big backpack and is running down the hallways barging into people to make it on time to their next class.

I personally don't see myself as being better than the people who chose not to take IB. Sure I am probably more focused on schoolwork and to going to college but that doesn't make me any different from them. Yet, sometimes you will be able to catch some little side comments made by other IB students in class where the non-IB students are just refered to "those people".

[laneolaneo1]

We don't get looked down on, or looked up to, but rather stared at much as a visitor to a zoo might admire a giraffe.

Edited August 7, 2008 by laneolaneo1

[hamani]

Now that I think of it, some people in IB at our school do seem to think that we are not necessarily better but much more smarter as only selected students are allowed into IB. I do not speak on behalf of my IBers therefore I might be entirely wrong or entirely right.

Edited August 7, 2008 by hamani