‘Tis Not Too Late to Seek a Newer World’ (Alfred Tennyson)

Every 6 or 7 years the IB reviews the languages curriculum. That time is here, and the first cohort of the new curriculum is our current 5B students.

The IB course offers teachers hundreds of writers to choose from. In addition to literature, we teach something called ‘non-literary texts’. A non-literary text might be a documentary, a film, the study of an artist, or a particular journalist. The main idea is to look at a certain global issue from different perspectives. So, we may look at an issue such as inequality through The Great Gatsby, a factual documentary, and a series of articles on the same topic. This gives students an avenue to explore different issues that they will be aware of as part of the world they live in. It encourages them to consider how different writers / filmmakers / singers / artists / journalists may approach the same topic in very different ways.

I think that this new IB course also lends itself well to teaching diverse authors from different parts of the world. The IB has a rule that the texts we choose must come from different time periods and different parts of the world. This compels us to consider how we can make the course more diverse in order to cover a wider range of human experiences. We do not skimp on quality to become more diverse. Some of the authors I have taught at IB level include: Toni Morrison, William Shakespeare, Vladimir Nabokov, Sylvia Plath, Ocean Vuong, and Bao Ninh. These writers are true giants in the world of literature.

Technology, instead of opening us up to more understanding of political differences and of other cultures, seems to have closed us off to become more afraid and more defensive of our own culture and political beliefs. Because of this, I believe we must continue to allow students, openly in the classroom, to discuss issues that affect their lives and their identity, and to consider our diverse world, and their place in it. It is very important to open up this dialogue, using literature and the arts, and not to become totally dependent on technology. It is increasingly difficult to ask genuine questions online, due to the world around us becoming more polarised. Therefore, it is crucial to keep some of the human elements in our everyday teaching and learning, and encourage these types of student interactions.

At the beginning of the year Mr Chris Binge gave a talk to teachers where he quoted Hiam Ginott, who said:

I am a survivor of a concentration camp. My eyes saw what no person should witness:

gas chambers built by learned engineers. Children poisoned by learned physicians.

Infants killed by trained nurses. Women and babies killed by high school and college

graduates. So, I am suspicious of education.

In light of this quotation, our ideal education system should be diverse. History has shown us the dangers of being ignorant and hateful towards our fellow human beings. Education cannot be only about exam results and qualifications. We have to keep trying to be more inclusive and more compassionate. We can do this by learning to value different people from different places with different political beliefs. Literature often opens the door to a kind of universal humanity, and the new IB Language and Literature course offers us a step up on the ladder of this journey.

I asked some of my 5B students their thoughts on the new course. Here is what they said:

‘The IB is helpful for your development as a person’. Alonso Vargas Llosa

‘The IB requires a student to be much more independent and think for themselves’. Fernando Chirinos

‘I feel that the Language and Literature course is about quality over quantity and provides a large degree of freedom, allowing students to make their own choices regarding texts’. Nacho Espinoza

‘The Language and Literature course looks at a wide range of texts, and also non-literary texts such as documentaries. This makes you think beyond the text, as you have to relate it to global issues, which I find very interesting, as they are real life situations’. Natalia Castellanos

‘In IB we are expected to understand the nuances of the English language and what is being communicated implicitly, as well as explicitly.This helps me to understand the culture of the English speaking world, as well as the language’. Enrique Normand

‘The IB allows students to choose the piece of writing they want to analyse, thus making the programme, not easier, but more joyful. Students can decide to use works that they have really engaged with’. Gonzalo Perez

'In IB Language and Literature I think it is more important to show an original perspective. Also, students are more independent and free to decide what to analyse.' Paloma Sanchez