Learning revolution - work hard, play hard

Going against the flow

The foresight and determination of one teacher to bring IB’s global outlook to all the students in her Beirut school has opened their eyes to a new way of learning and changed their lives forever, says Reem Haddad

She sometimes hears them from her office window. A sudden lifting of voices, which rise and fall in unison. A guitar strums along. She smiles to herself. Mishka Mourani, senior vice-president and director of the Secondary School of the International College (IC) in Beirut, knows her students well
by now. Some are IB students, others are Lebanese, French Baccalaureate or College Preparatory. Out of 650 students in the secondary English and French sections, only 50 are officially IB, but somehow it seems as though much of the student body has caught the IB virus.

“The IB Diploma Programme has affected the whole culture of the Secondary School,” says Mourani. “It has changed in many ways.”

When the deputy president of the IC, Edmond Tohme, proposed adopting the Diploma Programme in the 1990s, Mourani knew it was just what the school needed. The country had recently come out of a civil war and was seeking a change.

Mourani first came to the IC as an English teacher in 1975 – the same year the war in Beirut erupted. Over the next 16 years, the school struggled to keep its doors open. The children were often shepherded into hallways as battles raged nearby, or quickly sent home during a lull in the fighting. In 1991, the war
ended as abruptly as it had started. It was time for the IC to join the ranks of other international schools. The only concern with the Diploma Programme was that it could – by Lebanese law – only be offered to those exempted from the Arabic language. In other words, foreigners or Lebanese with dual nationality.

Mourani wanted the entire student body to benefit from the IB perspective. She didn’t see why creativity, action, service (CAS) should be limited to IB pupils. And so she created a three-year community service programme and made it a prerequisite for graduation. Some parents protested. Some students resisted. The programme went against local traditions. Helping out a friend or relative was one thing, but reaching out to unknown needy individuals was another. Parents argued that their children were too young to see poverty and despair.

Mourani insisted. Students would not graduate otherwise. Among those who opposed her was Shawky Amineddine. The Lebanese Baccalaureate student wanted to concentrate on his studies, he said. But he had no choice. Today, he is the head of his own organization, Volunteers With No Constraints, where he and 250 other teenagers give their time to help freely. The community service programme at the IC has been such a resounding success, that four other schools in the area have followed suit.

Still Mourani wasn’t satisfied: more students must benefit from IB. In the early 2000s and as a direct spin-off from the extended essay and the theory of knowledge course, the IC introduced a ‘Thoughts and Issues’ programme at middle school level and in 2006 established mandatory interdisciplinary projects for all Secondary School students.

“TOK opened the eyes of teachers to the idea that everything doesn’t fit under the umbrella of maths and physics, or English and geography,” says Mourani. “They saw there are things that link human knowledge which go beyond the stratification that different disciplines provide.”

One more aspect of the IC curriculum worried Mourani. For years she had felt students had been short-changed in art, music and theatre. The Lebanese curriculum doesn’t consider them a priority. To make up for it the IC provides a wide range of extracurricular activities, including music and art, but it was difficult convincing parents to enroll their children in them, and students themselves showed little interest.

Meanwhile, Diploma Programme students were excelling in their arts courses, triggering Mourani to introduce optional art classes for credit in the French Baccalaureate programme and visual arts.

In the art room, Samia Boulad, head of the department, is supervising the preparations for this year’s IB art exhibition. “We’ve come a long way,” she says. “If art had not been integrated, many talents would have gone undiscovered.”

She proudly points to a student working a few metres away. Today is an official day off but Sharifa Roushdy, 18, is busy completing her Diploma Programme art project while her peers are skiing nearby.

“I prefer being here,” she says. “I didn’t realize how much I loved art before.” She is to study art history at university.

Not far away, the music room is getting crowded as students join their IB friends for recess. Anwar Bizri, 17, doesn’t miss an opportunity to bring out his guitar and play.

“I feel more liberated since I started the Diploma Programme,” he says. “I felt I was much more closed-minded before.”

Today, the IC has a classical music club, composer club, senior and junior choirs, a boys’ choir and two performing arts clubs that combine singing and dancing, plus drama clubs in three languages at all levels.

“The IB Diploma Programme provides an opportunity for students to see they can meet needs that they have,” says Mourani. “Needs of self-expression, creativity, tackling issues that are important to them through the arts and theatre. These needs are central to our mission. We were willing to provide the services before, but there weren’t any takers. Now there are takers, and they are both eager and talented!”