The Foreign Service Journal, December 2006

D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 107 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT them well for college. It is, however, very challenging and the full diploma is most appropriate for bright students who are good writers and highly moti- vated. Motivation is critical because of the add-ons such as the Extended Essay and CAS.” Kristin Pollock, an 11th-grader at Frankfurt International School, says, “At my school we’re almost required to take the IB.” When asked about how difficult the program is so far, she reports: “While you are required to take three high-level courses, you can make it hard or easy. Lots of students take art, music, or drama as a high- level at my school. On the other hand, I decided to take history and English ‘high,’ which require a lot of essays. I also take biology high; and I haven’t taken it since 9th grade in the U.S. So far, it really isn’t that bad.” “It seems very much worth it,” agrees Faye Hammond, who’s in 11th grade at George Mason High School in Falls Church, Va. “I have fantastic teachers, am interested in all my sub- jects, have met very interesting class- mates, and haven’t had to stay up late to do homework yet,” she says. Perhaps Hammond and Pollock will feel differently in 12th grade, although Aaron Curtis at Cambridge is still glad he completed the IB: “The strongest aspect of the IB program is that it is really designed to let students think for themselves. The curriculum seems devised to avoid needless memorization of facts and to encour- age individual thought.” But he adds a caveat: “To some extent, IB does drop you off in the deep end. If you can’t motivate yourself to study, you may not realize how far behind you are until it is too late because IB offers little in terms of quizzes, tests or progress reports. Other than the one- off ‘mock exams,’ there’s nothing to stop you from slacking off and bomb- ing the exams at the end of two years. You could call it the ‘sink or swim’ diploma.” Rebecca Grappo urges both par- ents and students to weigh the deci- Continued on page 109