It is a truth universally acknowledged that any single man (or, indeed, woman) in possession of a good brain must be in want of an IB education. So lend me your eyes, and read this article, for it tells the grim yet blithe, sad yet cheerful story of a young man, who shall remain anonymous, and his quest for the ultimate education and the woes he encountered during the three years he wandered the winding path of the IB. Let us call him Edgar, for that is a name suitable for a young, civilised IB student of the male sex.

Let us begin our story with a short description of our protagonist. Edgar was of medium height, medium weight and medium build, but certainly not of medium intelligence. Nay, compared to the brains of the other fellows in his age group, his brain was enormous. His head, thus, was a couple of sizes larger than that of the other fellows, which, combined with his otherwise regular bodyframe, made him look rather silly. Edgar, a keen reader, also had to endure the inconvenience of a pair of rather large glasses, as his eyesight wasn't quite what it used to be in his youth (i.e. his early childhood). None of this bothered him, for he knew that beauty lies within. All in all, it must be stated, Edgar wasn't a pretty sight. His mother still loved him, though, which was readily apparent from his fully buttoned shirts in discreet colours, his dullish bow-ties, his impeccably polished shoes and his nutritious yet boring lunchbox. Oh, and let's not forget to mention the fountain pens he wore in the breast pocket of his white polyester-shirts. The aforementioned pens continually leaked out a few drops, colouring poor Edgar's shirt-pocket blue. All of this, along with the excellent grades Edgar received in all subjects, with the exception of Physical Education, contributed to the fact that he was teased more than any other boy in his elementary school. As his mother put it, he was much more sensitive that the other children. Due to his asthma, rheumatism and various other diseases, he could never take an active part in the sports-field, which made him even more of a L'Etranger. Well, this enough of Edgar's physical appearance, let us move on to the true subject of this story: a day in the life of Edgar, the IB student.

Edgar normally gets up at around 5.30 a.m. in order to prepare for school, even if his school starts at 11 a.m. Usually he continues to work on the assignments due for the day, which he was forced to quit the night before as the watch slowly found its way to 9 p.m., Edgar's bed-time. If, however, he had completed his task already the previous night, Edgar usually worked either on his physics lab-reports, or filled in his CAS-diary, which mainly consisted of attending to his mother's garden, helping the elderly at the community house, or playing chess in the local chess championships. Needless to say, the Action - part of Edgar's CAS-diary was a tad on the meagre side. He had registered a few games of badminton, one golf tournament and, a thing he was particularly proud of, a bowling-tournament.

But enough of that, let's take a look at a day in his life instead. After getting up at 5.30 a.m., he went to school at 8 a.m. His first two lesson in the morning were Physics, during which the class discussed the various practical implementations of Einstein's Relativity Theory. This being rather basic stuff, Edgar became lost his concentration rather quickly, so he went to the Physics Lab to do some experiments. By accident he discovered an engine which did not need any fossil fuels to run, caused no fumes, and was very effective, but as he didn't take proper notes (as the descriptors had taught him) he decided not to bother. After a 15-minute break two lessons of Mathematics followed. The teacher preached on about the negative values of the assumed x-value and its logarithm, which Edgar found too simple to bother his mind with. Instead, he fiddled around with his calculator, a Texas Instrument 85, compulsory for all IB student attending classes of more sophisticated nature than Mathematical Studies. Influenced by the teacher, he wrote a program for the TI-85, which performed these calculations within seconds. By lunchtime, 12 a.m., Edgar was rather bored. Nothing interesting had happened during the entire day, with the exception for a general fire alarm, which had been set off by a group of Chemistry students in the first grade. After lunch he had two English lessons, his last lessons for the day. The teacher and some students debated whether or not it was right to `modernise' the old masters, such as Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Chaucher. To this Edgar concluded, in a rather Shakespearean manner: `Much ado about nothing'.

When Edgar got home he went straight up to his room and continued on a small physics project he had begun some weeks before, and which he was planning on finishing before the end of the week. He was building a small fission-power plant, sufficient to supply power only to his family, and a couple of hundred of other houses in the vicinity. After this he walked over to his grandmother's house and had a cup of tea and some biscuits with her. On his way back home he stumbled over a tube of something, and took it home with him. In his little home-made chemistry lab he studied the substance, and discovered that he had found a new element, which was nice. After finishing a novel that he had begun writing a couple of days earlier, he went to bed for a full night's sleep. All in all it had been a quite regular day in the life of Edgar, IB student. After all, it wasn't until tomorrow that he was scheduled to fly to Stockholm, meet the King and receive the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Ted Urho, MG

fibs magazine issue 8 May 1999

Perhaps I'm going a bit too far when writing about this, but we really did write an essay about umbrellas on a pre-IB geography lesson in Turun normaalikoulu. As it was done for the sake of learning how to write essays, it was nearly understandable, but still people found it quite ridiculous. Naturally, there was much laughter, and one student even left the classroom. (Everyone can not see the real reason behind some things!).

Somehow, despite its absurdity, the whole thing was still somehow interesting. Based on their essays, I could easily divide my class into three groups. First, there were those who took the whole thing seriously, and thought carefully about what was relevant. Second, there were the people who made the entire essay into a great joke, constructing ridiculous sentences and coming up with all kinds of odd uses for umbrellas. Of course, most of the essays were nicely in-between: formally written, but still maintaining the humorous aspect.

You are probably wondering, what the point of this article is. Well, I guess I wrote it simply to amuse you. You must admit that someone writing a serious essay about umbrellas is quite funny. Some of these stories are splendid for reducing stress. Let me tell you about a couple of them.

Let's start with the formal essays. People came up with sentences like: "The umbrella is naturally opened when it is raining", "It consists of a foldable stick keeping up the wide, round top made of plastic and cotton. This fabric part protects the carrier from the rain", "Umbrellas can be used in various conditions when it is a matter of protecting something or someone from different hazards. Rain, hail, snow, sun and sand are all things that can be more or less harmful!" At this point I must add that it is important to recognise the hazards around us, and know how to act in hazardous situations. The person who wrote this essay was clearly an expert in the subject.

The humorous essays contained sentences like: "People hold umbrellas on top of themselves so that it protects them from rain and other things falling from the sky", "The fabric can be found in many colours but it is usually waterproof. This is essential so that the user doesn't get wet", "Some people value the main purpose that it should protect you from rain drops, but there still are people who make big investments on umbrellas" and "In the funeral one uses a black, foldable umbrella, at least if one is discreet. But then, during your everyday life, a Pink Panther umbrella with ears and a nose might just make your or somebody else's day!"

And finally, the completely nonsensical stories: "An umbrella has protected a man from rain since the early Stone Age. At that time they were quite a bit different from what we associate with the word "umbrella" today. The pre-historical umbrellas were made of giant fungi and were used to protect the Cro-Magnon from giant blocks of stone thrown by the hill-giants who lived in the sewers", "All the heretics who don't own an umbrella just stand in the rain and look plain stupid", "If you want to become Fred Astaire you really should buy an umbrella because stepping is impossible without it", "Precipitation is extremely important for umbrellas because if there's no rain the umbrellas will become unemployed (one of the biggest problems in the umbrella society these days)!"

Next, students reflected on the importance of umbrellas: "What would be worse than the slaughter of the haircut that you paid £25 for? That is why umbrellas, our noble saviours, were invented", "You all know dinosaurs, don't you. They didn't have umbrellas and what happened to them? They all died!" Though you might feel otherwise, these essays do not prove that our class is totally insane. In my opinion, the situation is quite the contrary. We are a bunch of people with some sanity and sense of humour still left, despite the efforts of the IB-system.

It was extremely interesting to hear some thoughts about the future of the umbrellas. Not surprisingly, people either thought that umbrellas will be important in the future, or that they won't. However, people also found reasons for their opinions, which I personally respect: "Umbrellas are very useful and will continue to be so also in the future, unless we begin to live inside bubbles", "In the future umbrellas won't be needed because a system will be created that stops the rain when someone just pushes a button."

Finally, I would like to add something beyond the subject of umbrella-essays. First of all, I find it important that we are reminded, every once in a while, that school can also be fun. Second, I think it is very pleasant to see how ingenious people can be, when forced to write about something so common as an umbrella. Try it for yourself and you will find that it's not so easy, after all! Third, if you happen to come near our philosophy lessons, watch out!. And most importantly: Long live the umbrellas (Perhaps one day even in our extended essays…?)!

Saija Nojonen, TNK pre-IB

fibs magazine issue 8 May 1999

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Editorial notice Greetings from your new chairman Youths in Spain Looking back over my shoulder Edgar the IB student An umbrella Amsterdam Choose IB Message board

Ever thought of entering the final frontier, to boldly go where no man has gone before? Amsterdam. I'm sure you've heard of it, perhaps from somebody who "survived" the final frontier. Amsterdam can truly be as nasty as you've heard. However, there is another side to the coin, the one that is seldom heard of or considered. Apart from tourist attractions and dim crimson lights, there is unemployment and criminality. An inhabitant of the colourful city will worry about the safety of the streets, but Dutch people in the countryside are sometimes sceptic about what really is going on in the underworld of their capital.

The reputation of the city is far bigger than its size conveys. There are circa 700 000 inhabitants in Amsterdam. In the summer time, at the peak of the tourist season, the city opens to more than one million people. The tourists seem to come from all over the world, especially the **U.S. The attractions of the city are obvious: sex, drugs and rock n' roll combines with Rembrandt n' van Gogh _ not to mention the tulips and the renowned hospitality. The city truly has a lot to be altered. On a stroll through some of the narrow side streets, one can witness the sinister transactions taking place. No need to stay and wonder about what is taking place here _ this is simply no place where tourists seem to thrive for more than a minute. The pressure in the air simply pushes the intruder back to where he came from, or otherwise he will be carried out _ tourists being mugged or robbed outside the city centre is not uncommon. The good stuff is easier found within the tourist boundaries.

The different aspects of the "good stuff" has become an issue of the integrating European Community. Hectic discussions concerning the soft drugs policies of The Netherlands have taken place within the EU. France has claimed that most of the drugs entering France come across the Dutch border. The Dutch, again, defend their drugs policies by stating that the percentile share of French people using drugs is actually greater than that of Dutch people. At the moment it seems that the EU can not intervene in the Dutch drug policies. However, some steps have been taken by the Dutch towards making some sort of amends for those countries opposing the legal soft drugs market. For example, the mayor of Amsterdam, Schelto Patijn, has created stricter laws for the so-called coffee shops, and wants to trade soft drugs sales for alcohol. The inhabitants of Amsterdam seem surprisingly sceptic about such actions, and claim that if the possession of soft drugs is recriminalized, the results might be as "extraordinary good" as in Great Britain or the U.S. I think most of the tourists agree.

What about the prostitution then? At this point Chirac has kept his mouth shut and Clinton can be counted out. Most of the inhabitants of the city claim that the famous red lights district is, apart from the pick-pockets, one of the safest areas of the city. This is perhaps very true. Actually, it might even be claimed that the centre of the city, where most of the tourists move about, is certainly one of the safest in Europe. This is actually the result of the liberal policies (concerning sex and drugs) of the city. As one can get hold of "everything" to satisfy ones needs and obsessions, why bother taking it with force from somebody else. It also follows, that as soft drugs (including hashish, mushrooms and other mild mind stimulants) are off the streets, then there are fewer criminals trying to sell these products to tourists. It is true that hard drugs have filled this gab to a marginal extent, and that there are lots of poor immigrants and junkies trying to sell "coka _ ecstasy" to people passing by. To avoid making contact with these, one simply needs to ignore them by making no eye-contact. In other words, no one will force drugs or sex on you in Amsterdam as the supplier will always get another customer _ for those studying economics: the demand for sex and drugs is extremely price inelastic!

Generally, Amsterdam provides a large scope for cultural interests, nasty habits, opinions and fun. Amsterdam is truly one of the few cities in the world with a unique lifestyle and attitude that visitors want to experience a second and a third time. Compared to its small size, Amsterdam has surprisingly much to offer to the open minded, and I am not only referring to things illegal in other countries: Amsterdam is better off compared to New York than to Las Vegas.

Kasper Viio, MG Graduate ´98

fibs magazine issue 8 May 1999

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Editorial notice Greetings from your new chairman Youths in Spain Looking back over my shoulder Edgar the IB student An umbrella Amsterdam Choose IB Message board

KANNANOTTO
18.5.1999

Korkeakoulut syrjivät juuri kirjoittaneita IB-ylioppilaita

Juuri päättymässä olevista IB-ylioppilaskirjoituksista valmistuu tänä keväänä noin 200 uutta ylioppilasta Suomen kahdeksasta IB-koulusta. Tämän englanninkielisen 1960-luvulla kehitetyn International Baccalaureate -tutkinnon on voinut suorittaa Suomessa 90-luvun alusta lähtien. Nykyään sen suorittamismahdollisuuden tarjoaa kaikkiaan kahdeksan suomalaista lukiota, jotka sijaitsevat Helsingissä, Espoossa, Turussa, Tampereella, Kuopiossa, Vaasassa ja Oulussa. Maailmalla IB-kouluja on liki 800 kappaletta.

IB-tutkinto on varsin erilainen verrattuna suomalaiseen ylioppilastutkintoon. Tutkinnon opetuskieli on joko englanti, ranska tai espanja ja sen suorittamisaika vaihtelee maittain kahdesta kolmeen vuoteen. Suomalaisissa, kuten myös muissa pohjoismaisissa IB-kouluissa, tutkintokielenä käytetään englantia ja tutkinto suoritetaan kolmivuotisena. Opetussuunnitelma rakentuu kuudesta aineryhmästä, joista oppilas valitsee kustakin yhden aineen. Esimerkiksi reaalikoetta ei IB-tutkinnossa kirjoiteta vaan sen sisältämät aineet kirjoitetaan erillisinä kokeina oppilaan henkilökohtaisten valintojen mukaan. Lisäksi tutkintoon kuuluu olennaisena osana kolme erityisvaatimusta. Nämä ovat Creativity, Action ja Service -ohjelma, Theory of Knowledge -oppiaine ja Extended Essay -tutkielma. Jos näitä osa-alueita ei ole suoritettu vaatimusten mukaisesti, opiskelijalle ei myönnetä diplomia. Loppuarvosanat ovat kirjaimien sijaan numeroita yhdestä (1) seitsemään (7).

Tämä tutkintojen välinen erilaisuus tekee vertailusta vaikeaa ja suomalaiset korkeakoulut ovatkin autonomiansa turvin luoneet omat vertailumetodinsa. Osa korkeakouluista on onnistunut vertailemaan tutkintoja oikeudenmukaisesti molempien suorittajien kannalta, mutta valitettavan suuri osa syrjii edelleen IB-tutkinnon suorittaneita. IB-ylioppilaat asetetaan eriarvoiseen asemaan mm. sijoittamalla heidät korkeakouluhaussa eri kiintiöön tai rinnastamalla arvosanat epäoikeudenmukaisesti. Lisäksi useimpien valintakokeiden ajankohta jättää tuoreille IB-ylioppilaille vain muutaman viikon valmistautumisaikaa loppukokeiden jälkeen.

Korkeakoulujen tulisi kehittää valintapolitiikkaansa tasa-arvoisempaan suuntaan. Kansainvälisen ylioppilastutkinnon suorittaneille tulisi antaa yhtäläiset mahdollisuudet tulla valituksi suomalaisiin korkeakouluihin. Korkeakoulujen tulisi valintapolitiikkaansa suunnitellessa ottaa huomioon Opetusministeriön yliopistoille ja ammattikorkeakouluille 6.10.1998 laatima kattava selvitys kansainvälisistä tutkinnoista ja niiden arvostelun suhteuttamisesta kansalliseen tutkintoon.

Lisätietoja IB-tutkinnosta kattojärjestö IBO:n kotisivulta osoitteesta http://www.ibo.org tai Finnish International Baccalaureate Society ry:n kotisivulta osoitteesta http://www.lukio.fi/fibs.

Konsta Saarela