The IB Diploma Program has become one of the most fundamental, distinctive parts of Richard Montgomery High School. It’s been implemented for many years at the school, with over a hundred students graduating from the program each year. 

According to the official International Baccalaureate website, the program structure was developed in 1960, with its main goals being the creation of a broader education system and emphasizing critical analysis over memorization. Now, it has evolved into an international organization with over 50 courses provided and many other projects, such as the Middle Years Program Personal (MYP) Project and the Extended Essay, that have been implemented into the program. RM tries to follow these ideas closely in its own branch of the organization. 

Another major commitment of the organization is to foster diversity. According to the IB mission statement, the organization aims to develop “young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” However, does it truly achieve this goal? 

“I noticed that a lot of people in the program are like-minded,” sophomore Sophie Li said. 

Students may gravitate towards the program because of certain shared interests and likely have similar academic goals. There are faculty who echo the same sentiment as Li. “People who tend to be in the IB program have a similar set of experiences,” IB Theory of Knowledge teacher Noah Grosfeld-Katz said.

It is true that the IB Program, especially the MYP, must accept a limited number of people from a large pool of applicants. In that respect, the program seems more exclusive and limited. “It seems students are let in only if they meet a certain threshold, if they excel in their school subjects,” Li said. For many students, both those who joined the MYP in freshman year and the IB Diploma Program in junior year, their written essays, test scores and high grades were the main factors in their acceptance. 

The content that is taught in many IB courses, however, is generally viewed as covering a wide range of topics. “I think the curriculum does have a lot of diversity,” Li said. In English, Magnet and IB students read books from a variety of cultures and perspectives. For example, students in IB Language and Literature are currently analyzing a collection of poems that contains themes of modern African-American perspectives. Over the years of the program, they read books published thousands of years ago, such as the Odyssey, all the way to novels written within the last ten years. Standard Level History, although only covering six major topics throughout the year, also provides students with important and diverse knowledge about the world’s past events. 

“I think the IB program tries hard to bring diverse viewpoints to the attention of the students,” Mr. Grosfeld-Katz said. As a teacher, he has personal insight into the diploma program, and he himself discusses these viewpoints often with his students.

Still, given the previously mentioned like-mindedness of the program’s students, is there truly a way for the diverse perspectives to make an impact on them? After all, students can only learn so much from writing papers and taking tests on a subject. How can they expand their knowledge and grasp what they’re learning? To that, Mr. Grosfeld-Katz believes the onus is on the students themselves. “At the end of the day, it’s gonna be up to the student to seek out these different experiences and take ownership of their learning,” he said. 

As for the strict criteria of acceptance into the IB program, some have felt that a way of introducing more diversity could simply look like broadening these requirements and casting a wider net. “The program is rigorous…but they should accept people who have different test scores, different activities,” Li said.

Ultimately, the RM community displays the nuanced perspectives that emerge from this question. There are many who believe that we could make more of an effort to diversify the student body itself. However, at the same time, others feel that the choice to embrace diversity is up to the students, believing that the IB forms a foundation for this, giving the students an opportunity. However, it is the learner themself who must take that next step to truly understand the complexities of the world.