Week 2, Day 4 of School Without Mama

Stephen is still crying at school. Today was apparently worse than previous days. He cried almost continuously until approximately 15 minutes before I picked him up. At least I didn’t have to witness him sobbing and arrived to see him solemnly shuffling back to the classroom from the play area with his classmates in his red fuzzy doggy slippers.

While Stephen was at school, I spent the two hours with friends talking mostly about educational options in Vietnam. None of us will be here for the long term, but since one friend’s son has already started grade school, it was time to start thinking about what would happen schooling-wise when it comes time to move. Transferring from one school to another is always a hassle but more so for expats who have to consider such things as the International Baccalaureate (IB) programs*, which isn’t offered by all schools.

International Baccalaureate consists of three programs: primary years (3-12), middle years (11-16), and diploma years (16-19). Supposedly, IB incorporates a variety of different teaching styles. The primary years program aims to make students into “inquirers, thinkers, communicators, and risk takers who are knowledgeable, principled, caring, open-minded, well-balanced, and reflective” (hmmm, am I all or any of that?) based on a curriculum that covers the following areas:

  • language (a second language is required)
  • social studies
  • mathematics
  • science and technology
  • arts
  • personal, social and physical education

I know some people, including , who went through the IB program, but I’m still not clear how important it is for younger kids. Since Marv and I both attended school in the U.S.–I for most of my life and Marv from middle school on–it isn’t inconceivable for Stephen to do the same. Ultimately, though, we expect that Stephen will attend local school in Singapore (and if not local school, then possibly Singapore American School). The difficulty will come if we do stints in other countries which results in a very choppy education experience.

Our dream would be for Stephen to attend our alma mater or some equivalent university. But I’m probably getting ahead of myself. First, he’s got to stop crying at school and get with the program.

*I think IB officially uses “programme” instead of “program” but I can’t get used to typing it with two m’s.

NB: Strangely, I am unable to access the International Baccalaureate Organization website directly - http://www.ibo.org.