Who exactly is a 21st century student? What is his role in this modern world? Where does he fit in and how does he view the world around him? Questions like these are routinely being deliberated and debated by educationist and thinkers. The differences in pedagogy, teacher approach, curriculum, all counts a lot in framing the outcome and mentality of the modern student and his/her eventual as a global citizen in this world. A university professor once set an examination question in which he asked what the difference between ignorance and apathy is. The professor had to give an A+ to a student who answered: I don't know and I don't care. - Richard Pratt, Pacific Computer Weekly, 20 July 1990 The above example, though cited two decades back, was a shocking reminder of the trend, future education was heading for. Majority of the students did not really care for education per se. For most, it was a means to satisfy their parental expectations by getting their degrees and diplomas, or a passport into a secure future, with monetary considerations at the forefront. Very rarely would there be students who thought beyond their sphere of subjects in school and think of the greater ‘school of life’ and how to contribute towards it. No wonder, G.M Trevelyan, long ago stated:
Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.However, one could hardly put the entire blame on them considering how narrow minded, tunnel visioned their parents were. (I want my son/daughter to be an Engineer, Doctor or a Scientist. Nothing less would do). No wonder then, the above quoted reaction by the student in the University exam. However, things have changed a lot since those days. Many reforms have taken place and modern schools these days are not churning out robots, programmed only for one thing. Pink Floyd, with their iconic song, “We don’t need no education” can have a rethink on their observation about society, students and the world in general. The International Baccalaureate Programme, based on sound and practical philosophy of teaching has formulated the perfect recipe on how a modern student should be, given that he/she is allowed liberty of though, encouragement in activity and, most importantly, the belief that he/she can fail but it is not the end of the world. That failure is only seen as a ‘learning moment’ to discovering success. IB students are nurtured very carefully right through their formative stage in the PYP Programme, followed by the MYP till the DP level, where they are developed into lifelong learners by learning how to blend with the IB Learner Profile. Hence, students start becoming Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-Minded, Caring, Risk-Takers, Balanced and reflective. From being simply ‘book-worms’ or ‘nerds’ or ‘geeks’ , commonly seen in the past, students in the IB Programme ha
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