This is the nature of education in the US. It is inefficient and repetitive. Most curriculum gives the student little preparation for their eventual career, and instead focuses on useless facts and backwards philosophy. Not only that, but schools tend to teach to a broad level of students, ranging from unintelligent to extremely intelligent. What are kids with 130 IQs doing learning alongside kids with 80 IQ?? This dramatically hinders a smarter child's ability to excel to his fullest potential, and eventually hurts the US' ability to compete internationally.

This was all very obvious to me as I went to school. I remember relearning certain subjects 3 and 4 times, for no apparent reason other than to teach students who had forgotten the material.

I often wonder if the government is engaged in a conspiracy to keep Americans stupid. Anyone with moderate intelligence can see that the nation's policies are for the most part damaging to the country.

This will be a major factor in the demise of American power in the next 50 years, barring WWIII doesn't happen first.

In graduate school I took some theory courses, at least one of which involved epistemological issues. Because I was preparing to teach it was useful to have some understanding of how knowledge is constructed.

This seems like a very advanced subject for the eleventh grade. Perhaps it is more suited to the college level.

Philosophy is an abstract subject, with no immediate application to the "real" world, so maybe that it why you are resisting it.

Your school must feel you are ready to tackle it, and that is a tribute to you.

I never took IB, but it was offered at my school and I knew people who did. They never really talked about this course, which if I remember right, you had to do some giant essay that was like 10000 words or something. I think most of them just treated it as just another course to endure.

Basically, I think that they are trying to give you a basic knowledge of philosophy, but they are focusing solely on a single area rather than all the many subjects within that field. It's a good idea, but poorly executed.

There's a lot of this kind of stuff in high school, particularly in stuff like english and social studies, I found. Don't get me wrong; I believe those are important subjects and I enjoy them, but I don't think most schools teach them very well.

-slightly off topic but not really:
I live in Canada, and interestingly enough, this is the first time I have found anyone outside my home city who has even HEARD of international baccalaureate, despite the fact that it is supposed to be international.

Most of the IB programs are integrated within schools of low income areas to boost the grades and earn money. And these areas are mainly in the US... thus more than 300 or 400 are in the US and the other 100 exist in the rest of the world.

*The essay is a research project, one that lasts for two years. I have to concoct an experiment to test theories and come to conclusions. It will all end up in a 5000+ word essay and a 1 hour powerpoint presentation. The students from last year did subjects such as:
Homosexuality
Global warming
Conspiracies
Religion
Sex equality- If I can recall correctly the group that did this said that women and men have the same amount of muscles, but a woman's muscle is under the fat unlike in a man which is above the fat.

That's an interesting comment about the economics. My high school did get more money from the government. It was some dollar amount (not sure what) multiplied by the number of students in IB. My school wasn't in a poor area, either (the average student's family was probably above the national average), but I can certainly see the attraction in poorer areas, and even in rich ones. (who doesn't like free government money?)

From the post right above mine, it sounds like I misunderstood what the ToK essay is asking for. Either I misunderstood before this post, or it is done differently here than wherever dieanotherday lives. I thought the essay was a lot more philosophical rather than experimental/research based, as described above. It sounds kind of like a graduate studies thesis, only not quite as long or involved, though still a lot of work.