New Rio Mesa Program Has Global View

By Marjorie Hernandez, Ventura County Star, Calif.

Feb. 14–Students at Rio Mesa High School will have the opportunity to participate in the campus’ new International Baccalaureate Diploma program beginning in the fall.

Under the program, juniors and seniors will be able to focus on six areas of study — literature, French or Spanish, history, math, experimental sciences and the arts — but with curriculum that stresses a global perspective, said Principal Rene Rickard.

Rio Mesa joins Newbury Park as the only high schools in Ventura County that offer the program.

“We are in the 21st century and we are a global society,” Rickard said. “Nowadays, our students need to be prepared to work in the world we live in, and this gives our students that opportunity. It will be rigorous, but it will be meaningful for the kids.”

The International Baccalaureate Organization is a nonprofit educational foundation based in Geneva, Switzerland. The group works with 2,217 schools in 125 countries to develop and offer three challenging program levels to more than 596,000 students, according to its Web site.

Rio Mesa applied for the program in June. International Baccalaureate representatives met with school officials, students and parents in September, and school officials recently found out about the approval.

Teachers already have attended numerous training sessions on the new curriculum.

Under the program, students will take International Baccalaureate-approved courses. For example, instead of a regular math class, students will learn to dissect math problems and concepts with an international viewpoint.

“Even in their math class, they could talk about global warming, how a math concept translates into the study of global warming and how someone in Europe would also solve this issue,” said Lori Wrout, Rio Mesa’s International Baccalaureate program coordinator.

Outside of regular classes, students also can participate in a course called Theory of Knowledge, which will be taught like a Socratic seminar where students will use what they learned in other International Baccalaureate classes and discuss its impact through a global perspective.

“It will be a very unusual and fun program,” said Richard Kennedy, who will be teaching the Theory of Knowledge class. “I get to teach the kids to be as seditious as they want to be. I want them to think and question everything around them. It’s something we don’t often teach in schools right now.”

Students in the program also must write a 4,000-word essay on a subject matter of their choice and perform 150 hours of “creativity, action and service” in the community.

“They will have to be out in community doing service and will have to show evidence of their creativity in their effort,” Wrout said.

Students who complete the program will receive a separate International Baccalaureate diploma.

Parents and students interested in the new program are encouraged to attend informational meetings. Dates will be posted in March on the school’s Web site at http://www.ouhsd.k12.ca.us/sites/rmhs/rmhs.htm.

—–

To see more of the Ventura County Star, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.venturacountystar.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, Ventura County Star, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.