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kyrasantae
Dear Angela:
I don't know you, but Joyce told me about you and your social IB decision. I'm not trying to discourage you and make you pull out (you can't, trust me), but being now an ex-IB student (only one of the kind for my grade, I think), I thought I'd take a moment to warn you of what's coming up.
I'm in grade 12 and I remember how, like you, in grade 11 I approached Ms. Antonuk (I did this very early in the year though) and asked her if I could be in social IB. She looked at my social 10 mark and let me in.
I have to admit that the grade 11 portion of social IB isn't too bad. There are things you need to expect, though: social 20IB is more information/fact based than 30IB. If you have Mr. Klukas he's a bit boring. The document analysis thing takes a long time to master so be patient and don't be deterred by the disappointing feedback on your work. If you get retrieval charts for videos and stuff, do them. No matter what the teachers say they might just ask you to hand them in. If you enjoy 18th-19th century history enjoy 20IB as much as possible. You'll never see it again. The mock "internal assessment" (properly called the "historical investigation") is a big preview of the sort of thinking Antonuk wants of you in 30IB. It's not about research, it's about finding a conclusion from it. Maybe that would be easier for bio students. I don't know (I was physics).
I don't know how many full IB kids there are in your class this year, because that affects how the 30IB class will be organized. If a huge majority of the social IB class is taking ToK, then 30IB will be taught as a huge class under both Antonuk and Klukas (Antonuk in the spotlight most of the time though). That's what it is this year. If there's an even split or fewer ToKs than non-ToKs, then Antonuk will take the ToKs and Klukas the rest (this is what it was the year before me). Either way...
If like myself you hate the thought of war then this is for you: One of the main themes of social 30IB is "causes, practices, and effects of war." Antonuk will try to drill into your head that war is inevitable, it must happen and that wars are always justified. She may say at the beginning of the year that you are allowed to have your own viewpoints but that's a lie. Never bring them up in discussion or else she will beat them into a pulp. I mean, she has obviously way more evidence to defned her view than you. She likes to shoot holes in students' ideas, about hypocrisies and stuff. Don't think that to contradict yourself is wrong! We all contradict ourselves in life, just don't do it in front of her! 30IB is mostly discussion.
My experience is that vocally protesting her viewpoint leads only to bad things! She's always got some mischievious/evil smile on her face. Don't be afraid to dislike her even if everyone thinks she's really nice. She is, but sometimes I suspect there's far more to her than meets the eye.
There were other factors aside from that war thing that made me hate her so much and she hate me so much that I got my ex-IB status, but I doubt they would affect you and make you like me. Heck I don't even know what you're like! Near the end of this past semester the hate was getting so bad that I could imagine myself uttering death threats to her and every morning I dreaded going to school because I just couldn't stand the war/inevitable/self-interest/collective security doesn't work/peace never comes talk anymore. I lost a lot of friends to that, mostly the boys I used to hang out with. War is really a guy thing.
At the same time she was starting to hate my silent protests over not learning anything, or incorrect facts, about Finland and Holland (my passions -- you won't learning anything about those two awesome countries in this class!) that she seized the first opportunity to kick me out of the class --> when she caught me skipping because I didn't want to watch the Vietnam war video which was giving me a nervous breakdown. She never heard that reason. She equated my action with all of those protests in the past; as an action of defiance.
Joyce told me you weren't the kind of girl who would skip class. Nor was I. Being Chinese just like you (I think; do I have that right?) I was once the perfectionist/perfect attendance girl too. Perfectionism died with the realization that my views would never be "right" in this class, but at the same time that it wouldn't be honest to go with the flow and pretend to accept her views on things. Ex-IB-hood came with the first time that I took the thought of skipping class seriously.
If you're like me, who believes that what you have faith in is what is the truth, then be careful. She wants evidence to support your ideas. Any opinion is trash without some facts to substantiate it. That was another cause of my hate.
Even though I'm now free of the torture, I've lost so much. My friends are still in that class, and I don't see them in any of my classes anymore. I think my brain is fried, because I can hardly make myself sleep now, I can't feel the emotions of everyday life anymore, and I still thirst for her blood (if not hers then someone else's! Anyone! -- not kids though. That's too mean). I wish I could have done something to stop my friends from being sucked into her ideas like they were. And that's why I'm writing this to you even though it's not really relevant until next year.
I just don't want you to destroy yourself like I did, only to end up where I am, losing touch with my conscience. Mind you, I was the only one quite so vocal and so affected by the material so don't panic. This might not happen to you at all. You might find it all quite tolerable. Who knows?
I remember her saying once that we would be "changed" by the end of the course. I couldn't agree more, even if I didn't make it to the end. And I'm glad about that, because the moment I realized what she was doing with our minds I tried to escape but she wouldn't let me go.
I may not believe in God, but I have you and everyone in your class in my prayers. I pray that you will all be strong, believe in what you think is right, never lose that, and make it out alive. I pray that, even though she won't change, you will change and adapt to be able to "agree" with her without feeling that you've compromised your beliefs. I pray that you will have the ability to question her until she admits her lies.
Best of luck.
I don't know you, but Joyce told me about you and your social IB decision. I'm not trying to discourage you and make you pull out (you can't, trust me), but being now an ex-IB student (only one of the kind for my grade, I think), I thought I'd take a moment to warn you of what's coming up.
I'm in grade 12 and I remember how, like you, in grade 11 I approached Ms. Antonuk (I did this very early in the year though) and asked her if I could be in social IB. She looked at my social 10 mark and let me in.
I have to admit that the grade 11 portion of social IB isn't too bad. There are things you need to expect, though: social 20IB is more information/fact based than 30IB. If you have Mr. Klukas he's a bit boring. The document analysis thing takes a long time to master so be patient and don't be deterred by the disappointing feedback on your work. If you get retrieval charts for videos and stuff, do them. No matter what the teachers say they might just ask you to hand them in. If you enjoy 18th-19th century history enjoy 20IB as much as possible. You'll never see it again. The mock "internal assessment" (properly called the "historical investigation") is a big preview of the sort of thinking Antonuk wants of you in 30IB. It's not about research, it's about finding a conclusion from it. Maybe that would be easier for bio students. I don't know (I was physics).
I don't know how many full IB kids there are in your class this year, because that affects how the 30IB class will be organized. If a huge majority of the social IB class is taking ToK, then 30IB will be taught as a huge class under both Antonuk and Klukas (Antonuk in the spotlight most of the time though). That's what it is this year. If there's an even split or fewer ToKs than non-ToKs, then Antonuk will take the ToKs and Klukas the rest (this is what it was the year before me). Either way...
If like myself you hate the thought of war then this is for you: One of the main themes of social 30IB is "causes, practices, and effects of war." Antonuk will try to drill into your head that war is inevitable, it must happen and that wars are always justified. She may say at the beginning of the year that you are allowed to have your own viewpoints but that's a lie. Never bring them up in discussion or else she will beat them into a pulp. I mean, she has obviously way more evidence to defned her view than you. She likes to shoot holes in students' ideas, about hypocrisies and stuff. Don't think that to contradict yourself is wrong! We all contradict ourselves in life, just don't do it in front of her! 30IB is mostly discussion.
My experience is that vocally protesting her viewpoint leads only to bad things! She's always got some mischievious/evil smile on her face. Don't be afraid to dislike her even if everyone thinks she's really nice. She is, but sometimes I suspect there's far more to her than meets the eye.
There were other factors aside from that war thing that made me hate her so much and she hate me so much that I got my ex-IB status, but I doubt they would affect you and make you like me. Heck I don't even know what you're like! Near the end of this past semester the hate was getting so bad that I could imagine myself uttering death threats to her and every morning I dreaded going to school because I just couldn't stand the war/inevitable/self-interest/collective security doesn't work/peace never comes talk anymore. I lost a lot of friends to that, mostly the boys I used to hang out with. War is really a guy thing.
At the same time she was starting to hate my silent protests over not learning anything, or incorrect facts, about Finland and Holland (my passions -- you won't learning anything about those two awesome countries in this class!) that she seized the first opportunity to kick me out of the class --> when she caught me skipping because I didn't want to watch the Vietnam war video which was giving me a nervous breakdown. She never heard that reason. She equated my action with all of those protests in the past; as an action of defiance.
Joyce told me you weren't the kind of girl who would skip class. Nor was I. Being Chinese just like you (I think; do I have that right?) I was once the perfectionist/perfect attendance girl too. Perfectionism died with the realization that my views would never be "right" in this class, but at the same time that it wouldn't be honest to go with the flow and pretend to accept her views on things. Ex-IB-hood came with the first time that I took the thought of skipping class seriously.
If you're like me, who believes that what you have faith in is what is the truth, then be careful. She wants evidence to support your ideas. Any opinion is trash without some facts to substantiate it. That was another cause of my hate.
Even though I'm now free of the torture, I've lost so much. My friends are still in that class, and I don't see them in any of my classes anymore. I think my brain is fried, because I can hardly make myself sleep now, I can't feel the emotions of everyday life anymore, and I still thirst for her blood (if not hers then someone else's! Anyone! -- not kids though. That's too mean). I wish I could have done something to stop my friends from being sucked into her ideas like they were. And that's why I'm writing this to you even though it's not really relevant until next year.
I just don't want you to destroy yourself like I did, only to end up where I am, losing touch with my conscience. Mind you, I was the only one quite so vocal and so affected by the material so don't panic. This might not happen to you at all. You might find it all quite tolerable. Who knows?
I remember her saying once that we would be "changed" by the end of the course. I couldn't agree more, even if I didn't make it to the end. And I'm glad about that, because the moment I realized what she was doing with our minds I tried to escape but she wouldn't let me go.
I may not believe in God, but I have you and everyone in your class in my prayers. I pray that you will all be strong, believe in what you think is right, never lose that, and make it out alive. I pray that, even though she won't change, you will change and adapt to be able to "agree" with her without feeling that you've compromised your beliefs. I pray that you will have the ability to question her until she admits her lies.
Best of luck.
