I Want to Be in the IB Program.
After attempting to enroll Dylan in public school again, I met – one more time – with the IB coordinator, to check the plan for Dylan’s four years.
In order to get in all of the requirements – four years of English and math, three years of social studies and science, one technology, one P.E., one arts and one-half health credit – there is little room left for anything else, even though Dylan is going into 9th grade with two high school credits.
Add in two years of a foreign language for college admissions purposes, and the seven IB requirements, and we are left with 2.5 elective credits.
And Dylan just got into Chamber Choir – which he’d like to do for four years.
So I met with the IB coordinator to make sure we had everything we need in the schedule – and was reminded why he was so suited for IB in the first place.
“IB rewards you for what you know,” said the IB coordinator. “AP punishes you for what you don’t know. An IB test asks questions that are open-ended and give you a chance to explain your answers. An AP test zaps you – bzzzt! – if you don’t know the answer, and there’s no chance to explain why you chose it.”
Dylan explains everything. He is such an IB kind of guy. His brain has been lightyears ahead of mine since he was two, in that he can understand and explain huge complexities of the world. He may not be able to remember to wear shoes when he goes outside in the winter, or to turn in a major project that he’s worked on for three weeks, but that is a different type of brain issue.
Dylan has reviewed all the options, discussed the IB components with me, questioned the important things – like whether to take Net Sports or General P.E. for his physical education requirement, and whether or not to take Health class online in the summer.
He’s decided to take video production over both engineering and law, two things that semi-interest him. He’s also decided that he’d like to take computer coding classes if it’s offered as an IBCP pathway… but that he will give them up in order to stay in IBCP (and take video production instead).
In spite of the flexibility of the non-IB schedule, Dylan has frequently said, “I want to be in the IB program.”
So my new job is to stay notified about the possible computer coding pathway – and to stay in touch with the IB coordinator to see if it takes off. They are mere minutes away from allowing it to take off – but if the minutes lean toward Dylan’s sophomore year, he may end up being left out of the pathway because he’s taking video production instead of the intro class for computer coding.
Is anyone else following this? Even my brain is fried.
I talked to a woman yesterday and mentioned that I have one son going into high school, and another one going into middle school. She said, “I don’t remember anything except college.”
I can’t believe that will ever happen to me.