Since 1968, the International Baccalaureate, or IB,  program has been giving students the opportunity to receive a quality education that stresses international awareness and is on par with many overseas schools.

However, parents and schools in Idaho have recently denounced the IB curriculum as ‘anti-American.’

The Idaho residents worry that the IB curriculum might indoctrinate students by teaching them inaccurate information.

According to the Education Week, an Idaho resident Luke Sommers said, “[IB] want[s] to change the way your child thinks, not feed your child’s mind with information…about our history, heritage, and why we believe what we believe.”

Sommers’ opinion is undoubtedly flawed; the IB History of Americas course teaches information that is as accurate as possible.

In fact, the class lets students look at historical materials in various perspectives; therefore, IB curriculum lets students become less biased and balances their opinion.

American public high school students challenge themselves by deciding to take rigorous classes like Advanced Placement (AP) and IB.

The IB program website works to “help develop the intellectual, personal, emotional and social skills to live, learn and work in a rapidly globalizing world.”

IB classes do focus on globalizing the world and giving students diverse perspective, but it never attempts to brainwash its students.

The program is just another rigorous curriculum, just like the AP curriculum.

One remarkable difference between two curriculums is that IB focuses more onto the real world and leads students to approach education with a global perspective.

American society is becoming a culturally, economically and ethnically diverse, and most universities are looking for students with a unique background.

The students who are enrolled in IB classes have a tendency to perceive things differently than those students who take regular classes.

Therefore, IB curriculum does prepare students for the future.

In the IB program, outstanding engagement in community and education, creativity, action and service (CAS) are things that build up a person, and the IB program naturally engages its students in the CAS activity.

Not only does the IB program offer a rigorous education, but students who achieve the IB Diploma can use their diploma to attend overseas schools and even receive college credit to save tuition.

Therefore, I do not see any cons or anti-anything in the IB curriculum.

Teenage students, like us, desire to study abroad while they are in high school.

In my opinion, the IB program is another form of studying abroad.

All IB classes are as challenging as taking classes outside of our country and these courses prepare students for college and outside the world we live in, without attempting to influence our perspective.

IB classes certainly contrast with regular classes because students are required to write more essays and apply what they have learned to the real world.

However, there has never been any anti-American material that brainwashed its students.

Because the IB classes require students to think beyond what they see, they can be more rigorous than regular classes.

For example, in the IB History of Americas class, students look at materials provided by other nations, letting the students become more cogitative.

Today, more than 800,000 students in the world are enrolled in IB courses, and as far as I, an IB student, can tell, the IB curriculum remains neutral and has no ethnic standard.

In my opinion, it is highly doubtful that all of those students taking IB classes have lost patriotism for their nation.