<p>parent1986, I’m sorry you felt attacked. Not my intent. I pointed out that the IB program my kid attended made things a LOT harder than they needed to be. S2 developed migraines midway through senior year. When the docs asked him where he went to HS, they ALL nodded their heads – every one of them had seen other kids with stress-related illnesses from this program. It was pretty damning evidence to me that there are better ways to run IB, and I am glad your kids’ school took a saner approach. </p>
<p>OP had said that his S’s school doesn’t have AP. If it did, that’s what I would suggest a math/science student who wants a strong grounding in bio/chem/physics do instead of trying to all of them via IB.</p>
<p>I also agree with you that IB works better as a balanced education. The hard-core math/science kids we knew did not do IB, but went elsewhere so they could take courses that tracked better with their interests. S2 was always a kid who liked to connect the dots across a number of disciplines, and that part of IB really appealed to him. OTOH, my math/CS son wanted deep, not broad and would have died a thousand deaths before taking five years of a foreign language (unless Java or Haskell counted as such). :)</p>
<p>S2 thought TOK and IB Philosophy were two most useful classes he had in HS. TOK made him a better debater, thinker, analyst and writer. He was not sorry he took IB.</p>