Eksperci i uczniowie IBDP: I believe in open minds - speech jednej z uczennic IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi

Dziś prezentujemy Wam speech, który stworzyła i zaprezentowała jako zaliczenie komponentu matury IB (Further Oral Activity) z przedmiotu - English A: Language and Literature jedna z uczennic IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi, pod tytułem: "IBO - I Believe i Open minds". Przeczytajcie:

IBO - I Believe in Open minds

[logo - część zaliczenia]

So IB Math student says to another student:
Aw man, another proof… WHY do we have to do this?
And the IB math teacher says:
Hey guys! Stop it. Math now, TOK later.

This is one of many jokes I came across while surfing the net. They are made by people all over the world, by IBDP participants themselves as well as people who are not the part of IBO community. People talk about it. People notice it . But do they know what it actually is? Do YOU know what it is? Because many people ask me exactly the same question as it was in the joke. WHY? Why do we have to, why should we take up IBDP? How do we know this program is better than standard educational programs?

So, today let me tell you why…

I was planning to become a lawyer. After graduating from IBDP, I applied for Harvard and my offer was accepted. I was a very good student. Again I graduated from Harvard. Now I have a great life.

One may say:
“Come on I can do this without taking up IBDP”.
And I answer:
“Of course you can, you can achieve all this things after graduating from standard educational program”.
However you have to know that those are just perks of being an IB student. So what is the real welfare you will ask…

It’s different perspective on people and world around us.

An ability to look through different lens on people and world around us.

Different approach to people and the world around us.

Different.

Extraordinary.

IB program gives you irreplaceable opportunity to choose what YOU want to study, what YOU want to develop YOUR interest in. It is THE ONLY program which put philosophy, drama, music in the same position and at the same importance as humanities and mathematics. This is the program which motivates YOU to act in school as well as outside the school.

Today, in the 21 century I get an impression that children and teenagers are educated to become professors or teachers. They are taught how to absorb information, pass tests rather than apply knowledge to everyday life. They think only theoretically not practically. Now the mistake is the worst thing which a student may come across . We lynch mistakes instead of teaching how to learn from them. We convert our children from being active and critical thinkers to being passive and bland imitators. And finally we dam their innate need for create, act and serve.

But there is a very simply way to change it. All you have to do is to take up IBDP, to become IBDP students, to become international students, to become international people, the citizens of the world

Why I tell you this today is because I believe in you, I believe in open minds In today’s world there is very little things a person may have faith in, may believe in. Today for me also there is very few things to believe in. But certainly there is one I believe in people, so I believe in you, so I believe in open minds

But let me finish the story I started, the story of my post-IB life. As I said before, I graduated from Harvard on law degree and I assure you that I had nothing to do with law since then. I’m a written. But I don’t think those were wasted four years. At university you do not study only to get a job. At school you do not study only to pass the test. It is all about developing yourself, getting know yourself, creating yourself. That’s the right path to go. That are right steps to follow. That’s the right chance to grab. So grab it!

Just stay open. With a little help from IBDP, stay open. Say: I’ll be open, I’ll be open-minded. I know you want it and I know you can do it. I believe in you, as much as I believe in open minds.

Thank you very much

Agata, uczennica IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi


Jak Wam się podoba?

Eksperci i uczniowie IBDP: Written Task jednej z uczennic - przeczytajcie!

Dziś prezentujemy Wam speech zainspirowany 'I have a dream' M.L.Kinga ( przedmiot : English A: Language and Literature, komponent matury - Written Task 1) jednej z uczennic IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi:

Ladies and gentlemen, honourable supporters of Female Rights Movement and distinguished guests, as a member of this movement, I am grateful to be with you in what will certainly become one of the most prominent moments in the history of feminism.

Let me start with some simple yet striking statistics. The geographer Garrett Nagle states that seven out of ten world’s hungry are women and girls. According to Newsweek, female employees earn even 23% less than their male counterparts. Experts estimate that because of gender-biased abortion, India has lost 10 million female foetuses.

Plainly, the pervasive problem of gender discrimination still perseveres. Due to tormenting traditions and cultural constraints women are the ones most adversely affected by hunger and poverty. It is evident that, although the modern world has recently seen substantial advances in gender equality, many still suffer from different forms of discrimination and experience deeply ingrained prejudices. Certainly, measures must be taken to implement and perpetuate equal opportunities for women.

Those brave who battle with gross inequalities encounter insurmountable problems. Notwithstanding years of social and cultural changes, the aim of women rights activists is still only looming on the horizon. There are places around the globe where female rights are not only violated but have never even been implemented: South Asia, Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa… The list is long! Long and tarnished with tears silently cried by women chained in the malicious manacles of oppression. Females find themselves hopelessly trapped in the vicious circle of discrimination that is gradually clenching until its victims find themselves stifled and too far from any helping hand. Their sorrowful situation is further aggravated by limited access to land, restricted education, lack of healthcare and no legislation against gender inequality.

However, these are not only African and Muslim countries that are notorious for gender discrimination. In the highly developed USA that venerate the virtue of equality and that has endured a long journey along the rutted path to justice, gender inequality preservers. In 2010, president Obama announced that women are paid 77 cents per every dollar that men do. Female are like desolate islands of deprivation amidst vast oceans of national comfort and prosperity.

But women are not helpless. They account for half of the world’s population and they are not at men’s mercy. Half of the population can no longer live pitiful lives in the sinister shadow of the persecutors, half of the population can no longer be oppressed by the flames of scorching injustice and this magnificent half of population will not play the grotesque role of servile and subordinate servants.

Let us not wallow in despair and depression!

It must be stated firmly that it is incumbent on the government to alter the howl of injustice into the merry sound of sisterhood. There is a vast number of solutions to be used, starting with the implementation of new legislation, through defying gender stereotypes by educational campaigns, ending with the help centres for persecuted females.

But above all, honourable friends, these are the women themselves who must set the examples for their sisters. We – the women cherishing our freedom, should act like a beacon of hope lighting the rutted road towards gender equality for those females afraid to leave dark caves of injustice.

We are the motivation, the incentive, the evidence of the success of our struggle.

Let me present an example of a lawsuit from 2010. A group of brave women sued Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation for forcing them into a corporate culture that tolerated sexism and gender discrimination of pay. Such an attempt may have looked ridiculous since the female workers were expected to lose the case. But they won! Against all prejudices, against unfair competition, against exploiting and abusing by the company much stronger than themselves – they won.

Honourable friends, it does not involve complex reasoning to deduce that if a small group of determined females won with a much larger group of oppressors, the half of world’s population has enough power to abolish gender discrimination. The simple rule is: if they could, we also can.

Because we can and we have a right to be given fair reward for our job because the prices are all the same.

We have a right to be judged not on the basis of our gender but the might of our minds.

We have a right not to worry about our daughters’ future

We have a right to justice, equality and safety for the simple reason of being a human.

Imagine the world in which females and males live in harmony and their intertwining existences contribute to a colourful mosaic of their opportunities and achievements. Bear in mind that women and men are inextricably linked with each other. They are the two halves of one mankind, therefore do not seek to empower women by weakening the position of men and clipping male wings under which a female may also find a shelter.

This is the bright future towards which we strive.

However, if we do not commence any action, there is a crouching catastrophe coming. The vicious circle of hideous inequality will engulf new innocent and unaware women, who will have been devoid of any illuminating beacon of hope by this time. The longer we let the injustice rule over our societies, the more lives are crumpled under the onerous burden of discrimination.

Let us not be naïve that these reigns of terror will be abolished without our arduous struggle. Open the eyes of the oppressed women before they become too blind to see their own pitiful position.

We are standing on the threshold leading to the paradise of justice but we stay transfixed - afraid to go forward, unwilling to turn back. Treat my words as guidance, as a warning and as an encouragement. Make the freedom of women, achieved by women and for women, flourish like a flower on the grave of gender inequality.

Agata, uczennica IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi

Eksperci i uczniowie IBDP: O języku ojczystym w programie IB

Od kilku lat pracuję w programie IBDP ucząc języka polskiego. Moim zdaniem specyfika nauczania języka ojczystego daje zarówno mnie, nauczycielowi, jak i uczniom, ogromne możliwości rozwoju na wszelkich płaszczyznach.

Podstawowym założeniem kursu jest zapoznanie młodzieży z literaturą polską i światową, co z kolei pozwala im zdobyć horyzontalną, panoramiczną wiedzę dotyczącą literatury i sposobów jej interpretacji.

Przede wszystkim zajęcia rozwijają umiejętności w wyrażaniu myśli (w formie ustnej i pisemnej) oraz umiejętności w formułowaniu niezależnych sądów literackich, wyrabiając samoświadomość tego, co jest ważne i wartościowe dla każdego interpretującego dzieło literackie. W myśl szkoły preferującej strukturalno-lingwistyczne podejście do tekstu zajęcia rozwijają także kompetencje językowe, dzięki którym uczniowie są w stanie precyzyjnie i szczegółowo objaśniać idee zawarte w tekstach, zwracając uwagę na odpowiedni rejestr i styl językowy, zatem środki stylistyczne, konwencje literackie, czy techniki wykorzystywane przez twórców przestają być dla nich czymś z „pogranicza jawy i snu”. Ponadto kurs rozwija wiedzę z zakresu metodologii studiów literackich, dzięki czemu uczniowie potrafią omawiać i charakteryzować rozmaite gatunki wszystkich rodzajów literackich.

Nauka języka ojczystego w IB zachęca przede wszystkim do indywidualnych poszukiwań różnych sposobów interpretacji dzieła literackiego, doprowadza do zrozumienia i docenienia związków między dziełami reprezentującymi odległe typy kulturowe, promuje ponadto ideę międzynarodowości poprzez komparatywne studiowanie dzieł literatury ojczystej i obcej.

Po kilku latach pracy w programie mogę stwierdzić, że po kursie języka ojczystego uczniowie naprawdę potrafią jasno i precyzyjnie wyrażać swoje opinie, używają odpowiedniej terminologii potrzebnej do interpretacji tekstu literackiego, swobodnie łączą poznane utwory pod względem idei, technik narracyjnych, metodologii, wykazując istniejące między nimi różnice. Po dwóch latach, tak odmiennego studiowania literatury, sami, przez pryzmat swojej wrażliwości i indywidualności, dostrzegają „coś”, co nierzadko wprawia ich w zadziwienie.

Dlatego jeśli przed maturą lub po jej zakończeniu, absolwent podchodzi do mnie mówiąc, że „te dwa lata pozwoliły mu inaczej spojrzeć na dzieło, że dziękuje, bo czuje i rozumie więcej niż przedtem”, to jestem przekonana, że zarówno moja praca, jak również program, który to umożliwia, mają sens, zatem warto w nim uczestniczyć.


Justyna Klink, IV LO im. E. Sczanieckiej w Łodzi