Superiority complex: I was told to read your article by a senior at North Canyon. I graduated last year, but she and I are both examples of students who did not participate in the IB program, but chose of our own volition to take classes that IB requires (like ToK). My closest friends were in the program, and I like to think that during high school I was able to reap the advantages of IB without being forced to adhere to the pitfalls (no CAS, no problem).
The idea of elitism that your article attributes to the IB program is understandable, I guess. There are countless times I've witnessed mockery toward the regular kids (my favorite being walking into the cafeteria, seeing my friend turn up his nose and mutter, "It smells like regular kids in here"). Perhaps even beyond harmless joking, though, there are kids in the program who give the impression that they are somehow superior to everyone else.
But then again, I think you give high school too much credit. No one goes through high school with a perfect grasp on their identity and self-worth. In the case of the IB kids versus other high school cliques, I think the story is as old as adolescence itself. Insecurity could lead just about any teenager to find her strength and use it as a reason to declare herself superior. In most cases, this is just a façade of superiority meant to hide how extremely (and inherently) insecure a teenager can be. As for Astrid's remarks that the IB lunch table doesn't want to make conversation with anyone outside of their group, I'd say this is an example of rampant high school paranoia rather than any IB superiority complex. All cliques tend to "keep to themselves," if you think about it; there was, after all, no description in your article of young Astrid making an attempt to befriend the IB table.
You tend to make a clear-cut separation between the IB participants and other students. I understand this was to illustrate the point you were trying to make, and that you were using North as your prime example, but I can at least vouch for North Canyon that that sort of segregation is not as clear-cut. Of course the IB students are mostly separated from mainstream students in the classroom, but the IB students I know participate in an eclectic range of outside social groups. Last year's girls' soccer team was composed of half regular and half IB students; no separation was blatantly apparent, and the girls who were in IB were just as able to juggle their academic and athletic responsibilities (no pun intended). Clearly skipping P.E. wasn't an issue for all the IB students.
Of course, some are the stereotypical brains you portrayed in your article. But only a minority. And I could identify similar students, both brainy and egotistical, in regular classes.
Carly Hoogendyk
Via e-mail
Vintage whine: You students cry like a bunch of kindergartners on their first day! Suck it up, you think it's hard now?
You're so pretentious and full of yourselves. You don't alienate others, or make them feel less than equal, you just show how small-minded you are. With everything you write here, it shows how conceited and hollow you are. With that extensive vocabulary, and intuitive mind, all you know is what's right there. A person truly interested in learning wants to know everything, and takes the time to study any subject at length before coming to a conclusion. You write off your mainstream schoolmates before you even know them. How dreadfully ignorant of you.
Amarise Roberts
Phoenix
Fuzzy math: After reading this article, I am utterly horrified at the attitude you relayed about the IB students and other private schools in the Phoenix metropolitan area. I realize that you only quoted another person saying how the IB program is better than Brophy because "Brophy students don't even take calculus," but that is ridiculous. You took no steps to rectify the poor woman's error, not even noting that Brophy has one of the largest numbers of students in calculus, nearly half the senior class is taking it in one level or another. There are even 30 juniors in BC calculus this year, which means they will be taking differential equations next year.
At any rate, your selected choice of interviewees biased the article and I felt myself becoming angrier and more put off as I read through it.
Sonya Seif-Naraghi
Via e-mail
