5 years of IB. 5 years of endless hours producing BS, making links, sounding more knowledgeable than we really are, putting up with the stress, and I digress before you develop the need to see a shrink.
You'd think some people after all this time would have learned something more than just how to make professional sounding sentences and digging up grey matter to find even the darkest of links. Everytime you get through a difficult project, sleepless nights, a stressful and disastrous presentation, something should click. You should learn from it.
One thing you could have learned, among the innumerable—except maybe the lesson about procrastination (let's keep it real eh)— is to not give up. We hit a few walls, and every time, we dug a hole, put up a ladder, blew the wall up. Proof: all of us are still here aren't we? It'll be easier and easier to give up as the end approaches. But you shouldn't. Think of it as a test of character. 5 years of hard work, and you're going to take a nap before the finish line and let the tortoise win? What the hell is this? What are you worth then?
Yet, there are indeed people giving up in various classes and being a general ass in class and ignoring class etiquette.
Worse, it's not "stop working harder and working smarter". Letting go of the ones that you don't need and focusing on the ones you need in CEGEP is a passable excuse in certain cases. But no, they're letting go in every subject and predictably, preventing others from learning because of their disruptions in class.
Going through IB isn't just about the BS. If it was, it'd be long gone by now. I'd like to think it's also supposed to build a little moral character no? A little development on the personal side?
In this sense, some people have failed the IB. They gave up right after their *conditional* acceptance into CEGEP. Giving up before the end. Needless to say, they might impact the bottom rather spectacularly. You don't want to be one of those people.
I'll leave you to ponder on this:
A parachute seller once said: If it doesn't work, bring it back and I'll give you a new one.
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I love the message of this. It's true, some of us are going a bit crazy.
ReplyDeleteMy personal case started in about November, when it really hit me that this is my last year. If a teacher leaves the classroom for more than 5 minutes (Cavallo does a lot) I would leave too. Go chill with Mme. Vinette. I've learned to skip class with or without my parents consent. I can't be asked to abide by the rules in my final year. So, in my defense, it's not always up to me to not bother others. It's up to others to loosen up. We spend what..5 hours a day in class, not to mention a 9-10 hour day (before we get home) for most. How many of those hours are used productively? It's safe to say under 2 (3 including lunch/morning) hours for the average student.
Now, saying we've had to put up with the IB for 5 years is pretty whinny. We've had IB work for a year and a half. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. A few projects last year, a couple this year, along with some easy tests, and of course, the personal project. The IB is only a fraction of our work. We have to do the basic education shit, as well as do it the enriched way, because we're at Saint-Louis. When we're staying up late, it's rarely for an IB project.
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ReplyDeleteSome clearing up is in order.
ReplyDeleteOf course, the article is not trying to downplay your "sufferings" from areas other than IB, and in fact, IB is somewhat more enjoyable than the reform and I have no problem with the IB contrary to what some misinformed comments say around here. Nevertheless, IB is what makes us special, so I opened with that.
(MTI is an IB requirement, and we've been doing that for 5 years)