Two years ago, a father of an IB (International Baccalaureate) Year 1 student approached me to help his boy. I explained that I was not competent in IB syllabus and could not accept the kid. The father convinced me (at that time) that though the boy was in the IB programme, the syllabus and format in his school for Year 1 and 2 was primarily IP (Integrated Programme).
I have been teaching the boy for the last 2 years now, and he had done well for English in both Y1 and 2. It’s the beginning of his Year 3 and he had shared that effective now, there are no more comprehension and critically-thought essays for him. Essays would be literature-text based; something I had expected from the get-go. Thus, I had to make the difficult decision to inform his dad, potentially stopping my lessons with him.
This story that I share is testament that I will never take my students for a joy ride. Everyone comes to me with an objective – to do well. And I hold myself accountable to get them there.
