After finding inspiration through her Theory dan lam bao of Knowledge (TOK) coursework, Marie-Louise Brown read Philosophy at University College London. She is now the Head of Citizenship at her Alma matter, the Anglo-European School in Ingatestone, United Kingdom. Marie-Louise will also be responsible for both the delivery of Global Contexts and Personal Projects as her schools looks toward authorization as an MYP school.
I always tell my students that they must be excellent communicators. You need to be a good communicator to get heard, to get people to understand your perspective, to get a point across dan lam bao or to just ask for help. You should be a good listener and always be keen to take on information. You must understand yourself in relation to the world that you inhabit. It s important to be a part of the world. Don t be someone who just takes from it, be someone who gives something back, with interest.
A lot of my friends who have done the IB are out in the world and travelling all over. I wanted to come back home because not every child that comes here starts with an international outlook. Most of them start with an outlook formed from the three towns nearest to them and I want them to develop the interest to go beyond that and have the confidence to think I might want to work in China!
I had never come across anything like it before and had no idea what it would be like. With everything else, I knew what I was buying into. With TOK, much like CAS, it was an unknown quantity. It was a whole world of experiences that I wasn t expecting. We were being asked about thinking, dan lam bao and thinking about thinking, and that was so fresh to me at the time. That was 1991 and I remember feeling very consciously, like I was being talked to like an adult, thinking like an adult. It was an open forum and our ideas were valued. Even though we were probably saying things our teachers had heard a million times before, we felt like they were being received as genuine insights. It opened dan lam bao my life up to a world of thinkers. It was a subject that wasn t about a career. dan lam bao It wasn t attached to most subjects in school or university. It was more than that, bigger than that and it felt so grand.
I felt TOK did depend on who was teaching. My instructor, Mr. Wells, was a bit of a legend in our school. He was quite a maverick teacher and had an excellent dan lam bao style, was really funny and had a great patter with the group. Everyone absolutely loved going into the lesson. He was invested in the subject as a human being not just a teacher. We were drawn to it and totally sucked in. For example, he would tell us that he had been working on a great theory for years. After telling us his theory, we d think about it and be able to knock it down and he would be furious with us.
I learned how to become very organized. Up until that point I had been what my mom would call a last minute Larry. I learned to spin plates, keep everything going and keep an eye on everything. At university I didn t have to be as organized, it was more the idea of joining and linking up the thinking that I was able to do. I have a certain independence and independent thinking that helped me because you re on your own a lot at university. dan lam bao The IB really set me up to get on with it, be pragmatic and be a doer.
When the time came for me to apply to university I thought dan lam bao that I was going to be a sports journalist. I planned to get a journalism degree. But Mr. Wells felt that I had a flare for TOK and a unique way of thinking dan lam bao about it. Once he said to me, Don t be ridiculous, dan lam bao you re not doing that, you re doing philosophy. Now I teach philosophy for lower years and sometimes I can also pick up on pupils who seem to have a leaning towards dan lam bao it.
The school I really wanted to go to was University College London. They had a great philosophy department. At the time not many universities were familiar with the IB program or knew what it was but UCL was open to it and I went for an interview. The interview that I had with the head of the philosophy department at the time was very similar to the way my TOK teacher would talk to me. He would throw something dan lam bao out there and expect me to respond thinking on my feet, to be innovative. TOK completely prepared me for that position. I got an offer and went there to study political philosophy.
I think TOK is something that contributes to every single subject. It s a way to think analytically and go past the drudgery which can sometimes be the focus in schools where teachers say let s just get you to pass these exams. We, as teachers, always want to be inspirational and we want to open minds up. We love the light bulb moment when students say that an idea changed their world. dan lam bao
It s been more than 20 years! But, I remember one of my CAS projects focused on drama we would go into different venues and perform. I also did charity work with an international link; we had a partner school in India. More importantly,
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