Allan Quist: Terrorism as Taught by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO): EdWatch

"Issues and Action in Education"
February 19, 2007

"Issues and Action in Education" is an e-letter produced by EdWatch, a nonprofit organization.

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Terrorism as taught by International Baccalaureate

by Allen Quist



Is terrorism real? Not according to the globalist education program known as International Baccalaureate (IB). To explain its “theory of knowledge” which is at the “core” of the IB curriculum, the IBO website provides the following power-point slide (See slide # 17 here.)
The Learner Profile: A Shared Set of Values:

Freedom Fighter or Terrorist?
“Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.” [Mahatma Gandhi]

“Whenever two good people argue over principles, they
Are both right.” [Marie Ebner von Eschenbach]

That is, according to IBO, terrorists only exist in the mind of the beholder. Terrorists do not exist in a real or objective sense. Is this significant? IBO’s views on relative truth and morality are central to its curriculum. The IBO website also explains that its purpose is creating “world citizens”­meaning that IBO exists to create students who hold the attitudes, values and worldview dictated by IBO. The kids who are in the 680 American Schools that have adopted IB are being indoctrinated in its relativistic and globalist worldview.

To be specific, The IBO website describes its mission as follows: “The International Baccalaureate Organization … [consists of] programmes of international education … [producing] learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.” Gene Edward Veith evaluates the IB philosophy this way: “Theory of knowledge … employs a ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ that undermines the very possibility of accepting any kind of objective truth.” [World 1-13-07, p. 11]

As such, IB is hostile to the foundational principles of the United States. Our Declaration of Independences says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident… ” One of the foundational pillars of the United States is recognition of objective truth, real truth. IB undermines this principle and aggressively teaches the contrary view.

What is International Baccalaureate?
The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) was formed in the 1960’s to provide a western system of education for the children of U.S. diplomats. In 1996, however, IBO formed a “partnership” with UNESCO to create a pilot program for what the IBO and UNESCO websites describe as an “international system of education.”

Today IB is essentially an arm of UNESCO, and when American schools join IB, they agree that IBO-UNESCO will train the teachers, write the curriculum, compose the important tests (which are sent to Geneva for scoring), and dictate the values, attitudes and worldview that will be taught to the students.
In order for IBO students and faculty to become “world citizens,” they are required to memorize the ten “learner profile” values of world citizenship. The Ten Commandments have been replaced with the 10 values of IBO-UNESCO. On its website IBO says: “The attributes of the learner profile express the values inherent to the IB continuum of international education.”

The Brooklyn Center, MN, Earl Brown and Evergreen Park elementary school IB grant application even calls for each school to have a “General Assembly Room designed to resemble and simulate the general assembly room at the United Nations.” A UN history room is added for good measure. No similar request is made for a U.S. Congress room or a Minnesota Legislature room, of course. This grant application also promises to integrate the IBO-UNESCO philosophy into its “core content curriculum.”

The Values of IB
IBO says that it “endorses” the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Article 26 of UDHR says education “shall further the activities of the United Nations.” This means that IBO agrees to promote and teach all the activities of the UN including treaties and documents America has not signed such as the UDHR, the Treaty on the Rights of the Child, Kyoto, the UN Treaty on Biodiversity, the Earth Charter and the treaty establishing the new UN Criminal Court, to name just a few.

The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which IBO advocates, describes our fundamental human rights as follows: “These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations” [article 29]. Compare that UN view of human rights to the American view contained in our Declaration of Independence. The Declaration insists that human rights, including life, liberty and property, are “inalienable” and “God-given.”

The big question is which has greater standing and authority--our God-given, inalienable human rights or the policies of the UN? The Declaration of Independence, the philosophical foundation of the United States, insists on the former. The UDHR insists on the latter. Let us be perfectly clear on this: Our Declaration view is the foundation of liberty; the IBO--UN view is the foundation of tyranny.

The Real Issue
It should not be surprising that IBO denies that terrorism is real. The values of IBO are hostile to the foundational principles of the United States including real truth and morality. [See America's Schools: The Battleground for Freedom, Chapter 16.] The question for the United States is this: Do we have the moral courage to reaffirm our foundational principles, the principles of freedom, and teach those values to our children? Or will we welcome our own destruction by allowing our children to be indoctrinated in the worldview that is diametrically opposed to everything we believe in? And, yes, this is the real battle for freedom of our time.

Allen Quist is adjunct professor at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota. He served three terms in the Minnesota legislature and has authored three books on education: The Seamless Web ; Fed Ed: The New Federal Curriculum and How It’s Enforced; and America's Schools: The Battleground for Freedom .
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