At McCaskey High School, a wide variety of IB courses are offered for students. IB, also known as International Baccalaureate, is an international organization that offers courses to high schoolers worldwide. These range from more art-focused courses such as IB Visual Arts, to the more in-depth, philosophical IB Theory of Knowledge. One of these courses is the rigorous IB Global Politics, which is taught by McCaskey history teacher Mr. Wilson. But what actually is the course? Who is it for? What skills does the course teach? Mr. Wilson would provide insight into these questions, among many others, during an interview.

   Turning to the course itself, IB Global Politics is designed to teach students to analyze real-world governance, power, and—well—politics. Much of IB Global Politics is theory and philosophy, which, when combined with the study of real-world events, allows students to critically think about global politics. Regarding topics, Mr. Wilson stated that the course picks up where AP World History left off—9/11. The course is incredibly flexible, allowing Mr. Wilson and his students to choose what to discuss in any given period, as long as it is relevant to the course content. Most of the time, these topics end up being current events, such as the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.

   IB Global Politics has four main units: power, human rights, development, and peace and conflict. Mr. Wilson called attention to the power unit, noting its importance in everyday life, stating that “we should think of power even within families and even like friend groups and very personal, small-scale power.” Last year, Mr. Wilson used the school and the principal, Dr. Reese, as examples to teach about power. Mr. Wilson went as far as to have Dr. Reese come in to teach the IB Global Politics class about power for a period.

   With these basics in mind, it’s helpful to examine what sets IB Global Politics apart from other IB courses. Mr. Wilson explained that its uniqueness, especially compared to other IB history classes, lies in its heavy emphasis on philosophy and theory. In fact, the IB Global Politics curriculum does not even include any countries that the teacher has to teach—the philosophy and theory are the most important components of the course. However, Mr. Wilson stated that the heavy emphasis on philosophy can at times make the course “really challenging to teach.”

   Building on this, the course’s flexibility also makes it distinct. The topics taught can change depending on what is happening in the world, so the course changes every year, offering a unique experience, while the curricula of other IB courses may stay the same. This openness extends to the questions students answer in class, as they are open-ended and usually composed by students themselves based on their interests. Rather than students knowing the answer, in IB Global Politics, students are pushed to create their own answer. As Mr. Wilson said, he could “give the same question to all 24 students in a class and get 24 completely different answers, and they can all be excellent answers.”

   This openness of questions is reflected in the IAs, which are internal assessments of students in an IB course, of IB Global Politics, especially the engagement activity. The engagement activity is an IA in the Global Politics course in which students engage with their community to answer a question. To Mr. Wilson, seeking out multiple points of view for the engagement activity is integral. Mr. Wilson even said that it is a “really useful skill to, you know, recognize different perspectives and points of view.” 

   Along with teaching students to seek out different perspectives on an issue, IB Global Politics provides students with skills aimed at increasing intellect and critical thought. Specifically, Mr. Wilson said that IB Global Politics “teaches that ability to think of something abstractly and philosophically and then apply it to something more concrete.” Simply put, one of the skills taught in IB Global Politics is the ability to think about a topic with complexity.

   Another skill taught in IB Global Politics is synthesis. In other advanced courses, such as AP World History and AP Language and Literature, synthesis occurs through analyzing given sources and constructing an essay. In IB Global Politics, students have to conduct their own research. For example, with the engagement activity, students have to synthesize their sources, which are mostly their real-life interactions, into a 2,000-word report. Synthesis is an especially important skill, as college emphasizes emphasis in papers. Synthesis and writing as a whole are especially emphasized in IB Global Politics. As Mr. Wilson said, the course teaches a lot of “writing skills and synthesis.”

   One of the most important parts of IB Global Politics is discussion. As of the writing of this article, Mr. Wilson stated that his favorite discussions so far this year have been about Venezuela and personal topics. As for Venezuela, he finds that the discussion he has had over the past few days (Jan. 5-6) about the kidnapping of their president, Nicolás Maduro, has been very productive and thought-provoking. However, he took a special interest in some of the personal stories students shared in class. Specifically, he latched onto a discussion in his class about one of his students sharing their experience as a refugee, centering on their time in a refugee camp and their eventual immigration to the United States.

   In addition to discussion, political literacy is an integral part of the course. Course takers can expect to become politically literate as the class focuses heavily on politics. But why is this important? Mr. Wilson explained that students being politically literate is critical because “students are about to become legal voters, right? And you’ve got to make decisions of who you want leading your country.” 

   Naturally, one of the most important factors in a course’s value is how well it prepares a student for college. So, how does IB Global Politics prepare students for college? Much like the other IB’s, the course requires a lot of independent work that resembles college work. This can include homework, projects, and readings, among many other types of assignments. Mr. Wilson prepares his students for college in his Global Politics class by encouraging them to create their own questions and methodologies for answering them, like they would in college. In his eyes, all of this creates a “very authentic experience that prepares you for college and for the real world.”

   IB Global Politics is a unique, ever-changing course that students enjoy year after year. The course is challenging, but enticing to coursetakers. In addition, the course does a good job of preparing students for the challenges of college. Overall, IB Global Politics is a rigorous, philosophy- and theory-based political course that has stood the test of time as worthwhile, not just for teaching politics, but for making students think about politics.