August 4, 2025 • 54 mins
This week on the Founders Show, Hy and Christopher take a deep dive into the future of education.
Several Louisiana school districts have been experimenting with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program. Pass the BAC exam, and virtually any university on the planet will throw open its doors. Currently, 5800 schools worldwide use IB’s curriculum.
For the first time in history, a school is being created—in Monroe—with the IB program installed from its very beginning. Consequently, the eyes of the educational world are on Louisiana, and Hy and Christopher are joined by IB Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen for the full hour to speak about the potential and this landmark moment.
Heinonen Earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Helsinki in 1990. Globally recognized as a leader in education, He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of educational systems development and innovation to the IB.
Between 2016–2021, Olli-Pekka Heinonen served as the Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education. The core tasks of the Agency include developing education and training, early childhood education and lifelong learning. The Agency also prepares education policy decisions and supports the development and promotion of internationalization within the Finnish education system. Prior to leading the National Agency for Education, Heinonen held various positions in the Finnish Government, including State Secretary between 2012–2016 and Minister of Education and Science between 1994–1999. He also held various senior commercial roles in the Finnish National Broadcasting Company between 2002–2012.
As IB’s website notes, “Olli-Pekka is actively engaged with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international organizations, where he contributes views on the future of education, including personalized and lifelong learning, the impact of technology and the development of educators. He is also a regular speaker in global educational forums.”
“His vision for global education is strongly aligned with the vision and values of the IB. He brings broad leadership and team-building experience and a focus on developing organizations to operate effectively in a rapidly changing environment.”
More at their website: https://www.ibo.org
Several Louisiana school districts have been experimenting with the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program. Pass the BAC exam, and virtually any university on the planet will throw open its doors. Currently, 5800 schools worldwide use IB’s curriculum.
For the first time in history, a school is being created—in Monroe—with the IB program installed from its very beginning. Consequently, the eyes of the educational world are on Louisiana, and Hy and Christopher are joined by IB Director General Olli-Pekka Heinonen for the full hour to speak about the potential and this landmark moment.
Heinonen Earned a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the University of Helsinki in 1990. Globally recognized as a leader in education, He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge of educational systems development and innovation to the IB.
Between 2016–2021, Olli-Pekka Heinonen served as the Director General of the Finnish National Agency for Education. The core tasks of the Agency include developing education and training, early childhood education and lifelong learning. The Agency also prepares education policy decisions and supports the development and promotion of internationalization within the Finnish education system. Prior to leading the National Agency for Education, Heinonen held various positions in the Finnish Government, including State Secretary between 2012–2016 and Minister of Education and Science between 1994–1999. He also held various senior commercial roles in the Finnish National Broadcasting Company between 2002–2012.
As IB’s website notes, “Olli-Pekka is actively engaged with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international organizations, where he contributes views on the future of education, including personalized and lifelong learning, the impact of technology and the development of educators. He is also a regular speaker in global educational forums.”
“His vision for global education is strongly aligned with the vision and values of the IB. He brings broad leadership and team-building experience and a focus on developing organizations to operate effectively in a rapidly changing environment.”
More at their website: https://www.ibo.org
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bie holes, the politicians, the dressed of digitators and magicians
choose to see the money, then you don't. There's nothing
to fill the holes while then are feeling their pockets
bid holes, the politicians bouncing down the road, every bider's
(00:23):
wition for no moment, corruption and itysfunction's gone on a table, Divide, intervention.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And God bless all out there. You are now listening
to the founders. So the voice of the founding fathers,
You're Founding Fathers coming to you deep within the bowels
of those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the Big Easy,
that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana, and high up
on top of that old Liberty Cypress tree way out
(00:54):
on the Eagles Branch. This is none other than your
spingary byby of the Republic on Hi mcnry with Christopher Tadmorey.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You're Roving a reporter, resident radical moderate and associated editor
of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at louisianaweekly dot net. And
we are joined by Ola Brek Hadden, who is the
Director General of the International Baccalaureate Program. Here on the
Founder Show and for many of you who have been
watching some of the education news, something unexpected and stunning
(01:23):
has been happening. We've been smoked by Mississippi. Now you
have had to understand little bic that in Louisiana, when
anything ever went wrong, we could always fall back on
the surety that it was worse in Mississippi. But Mississippi
has gone from thirty eighth to sixteenth and it's reading
in math scores in the United States actually propelled itself
past many states. And they've done a concentrated program. And
(01:46):
here in Louisiana we have improved in part because of
someone on your staff introducing International Baccalariot programs. But it's
really new approaches to education is something you've seen throughout
the entire South. Of course, New Orleans is the lead
on charter schools, but you're seeing a lot of educational
choice and a lot of what was going to be
not traditional American pedrogoguial styles.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Will joining us, you've been kind enough to join us
coming here to New Orleans from major educational conference, but
you travel all over the world advocating for the International
Baccalaureat program and helping run the different programs around and
most people are like, wait, isn't that some French thing?
You know, they have no idea what it is. But
it's actually the gold standard of education in the world.
(02:31):
Can you talk about that for a second.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Thank you very much, and thank you first of all
having this opportunity to join in this discussion. Yes, it
is really the situation that the IB programs, which are
run in one hundred and sixty countries in about six
thousand schools yearly, reaching about two million students. It is
(02:59):
kind of I've kept us a model of a functioning
education offer, and I think the really the secret source
of IB is in its betagogical approach, which really starts
with the idea of kind of inquiry based really feeding
(03:25):
that curiosity in students to engage with the world.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
So in other words, asking the simple question why And
I asked to teach you that once and I said,
well why?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
This is because because?
Speaker 6 (03:38):
What?
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Because? Because I said so?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
The back program actually makes you go below the program,
below the surface and find out the reasons and how
all knowledge is linked.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
And this is something.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
The reason I'm bringing this up is a lot of
people say, well, that's interesting, but why should we care
here in Louisiana, you've seen some very successful programs. In
point of fact, your North American head is from Louisiana.
He's actually educated in Hammond and went to LSU for
a while, and he's been leading the charge to introduce
several back programs here in Louisiana and what kind of
(04:10):
not just here but around and programs that had been
sort of educationally backwards. You've seen some incredible success by
putting this program in with students.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Can you talk about that.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yes, what we're of course, we are talking a lot
to our students after they've graduated from the IB programs.
Speaker 7 (04:27):
What we hear them tell us is that they had
it so.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
Much easier in their first years in the university that
things that often not just taught post secondary level with
the IB programs all are already done in the sixteen
plus years. So like extended essay type of things, the
(04:54):
theory of knowledge, understanding what knowledge is, what different types
of knowledge is, what's real, all those big questions that
are so important in the world of a lot of
kind of misinformation disinformation.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Are you saying fake news makes its way into education?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Definitely, we're all experiencing get there the world where the
students are living, so them to be capable of understanding
what is true, having that critical capacity to value different
news and different sources of information. That's been a big
part of the education of the IB gifts for a
(05:39):
long time.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, and if you could go into this, let's talk
about kids from disadvantage backgrounds. If you would all the
fact that my radio partner, Hi McHenry, he's dealt with
people kids my kids, who work in and who live
in some of the poorest environments around. And I'm setting
(06:02):
you up to talk to ask this question. So Hyas
runs a charity for you don't know, called lamb Nola,
and he's been spent thirty years working with inner city
African American kids from the poorest possible backgrounds. And I'm
curious because we talk about IB programs for university kids
and what sometimes the impression that comes in for International
Baccalaria programs is well, great, you're great, a better education
(06:24):
program for rich kids.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
And yet I've been really.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Impressed by your programs on how you've been directed for
kids from some of the most desperate, poor environments around.
And Hi set up the audience for most of these
kids because most of them aren't going to be finishing
high school if they don't have a real opportunity.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Christopher, I have the future criminals of America. Like Motherteresia says,
we have a poverty in America, but it's not money.
And if you ever if you've ever been to Indya,
you know when a dollar a day is you can
survive on that. When two dollars a day is pretty good, Sorry,
three dollars a day, you're right on top of it.
That's the poverty in India. And yet what she saw
(07:04):
here was a spiritual poverty, a moral and a family poverty,
if you will, because these families are being That's why
the kids are in so much trouble.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
They don't have families.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
If they have anybody looking after him, it's another kid,
or it's their crack cocaine prostitute.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Au tee or somebody like grandmother or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
The fathers are never there, never there, they're paid to
stay away, basically by the welfare system. It has destroyed
the African American family. And Denzel Washington right now is
doing a tremendous job trying to wake people up about this.
He'd been working on it for the past couple of years,
and just recently he's also become a preacher. I have
the greatest I've always loved Denzel Washington. These are my kids.
They call themselves short terms. That means by their mid twenties,
(07:47):
they're either going to be dead in jailful life or
limit the homeless mission.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
And this is a great tragedy. They all know.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
That, they all know that, they don't know that there's
a better world.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
They don't understand.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
That has given us the opportunity to reach these kids.
We've had about five thousand of them come to Christ.
I'm an ordaining some Baptist minister, you know, and an evangelist,
and we've had hundreds go on to live productive lives.
We've got three generations now and we're now watching our
kids getting married. That's unheard of in their community. So
God has given us a lot of success. But we're
(08:20):
very concerned for their education because what happens is they
get by the politicians. They get herded into the lowest
performing schools. You can imagine they have great facilities, but
if the rich want the facilities, this is what's really happening.
They go in and they take it over, push the
poor kids out then they got to right now, our
kids used to walk to their school. Now they got
to spend an hour in the morning and an hour
(08:41):
and even to get their school. And it's so poor
they didn't even rate it. It's so low, that's how
bad it is. And these are good A lot of
these kids. They're brilliant, they're you know, they've got high IQ's,
they're very intelligent, very talented, but their lives are being
wasted in these junkie schools designed just for them.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
In fact, they call them useless feeders.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So I think what I was leading to was a
question about you guys have done, have worked in school
environments just like this what is being described, talk about
how the International Baccalaureate program has been making some shrides,
and what we can do here.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Praank God, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Thank you sir, what you guys are doing, please if
you would outline.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
I agree that there is sometimes the impression that the
IB programs would be for those who can afford it.
But if we look at the statistics in the US
we have IB. There are about two thousand IB schools
in the US and out of those two thousand schools
(09:45):
about ninety percent of public schools, and then of all
the IB schools, twenty five percent are classified as high
poverty schools. So I would not say that compared to
the general schools, that IB would be kind of just
(10:07):
concentrating on those who can afford. Quite a contrary, we
are very much present in locations in areas where there's
a high level of poverty and exact there are those
challenges that those young people are faced with of connecting
(10:27):
with other people, really kind of engaging with the world,
and we see that we have the possibility to help
the education system as a whole in the United States
and different states to really gap those challenges that those
young people coming from from challenging family backgrounds, that they
(10:55):
could have a better life.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
For those who's joining us here in wr and WSLA,
we're joined by the General, the direct General the International
Baccalaureat Program who's here in New Orleans for an educational conference.
We're talking about the IB programs as a way of
being able to improve general education but also be able
to help some of our lowest performing schools particularly and
that's one of the concentrations I know in the conference
(11:17):
here in New Orleans. And let's talk about this for
highest kids, So let's not leave this topic not his
specifically the kids from very poor environments. How do these schools,
because we get charter schools, how do they get into
the schools? How does IB programs come in.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
And words, give me steps and I'll take them of
how I can get my kids into a better education?
Like the IB program tell me what we can do.
And by the way, the theme song for our ministry is
Elvis Presley's in the Ghetto. You remember that song. It's
a very powerful and it describes my kids.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
It's a statement about how do you provide hope and
opening the world to these kids who for the most part,
do not have a perspective in the world.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Yeah, yeah, And of course, like the ib's mission is
to create a better and more peaceful world through education.
That's what we work every day for. And of course,
the the question that we are in those one hundred
(12:19):
and sixty countries that where we work is for us
to engage with the public systems. Two, the systems to
enable to utilize the IB programs. And of course there
is kind of very different types of systems exactly and
(12:43):
of course we are seeing it here in the US
also when where there are different systems in different states
and and and so, there there is no one answer
or one size fits all. We are always embedded in
the local values, the local culture.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
And languages that there are.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
IB is not a kind of a strict curriculum that
we would kind of say that this and this and
this needs to be taught.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Kind of like Animame's Free School or the movie Animeme
with a play.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Yeah, but it's kind of the The IB programs are
like frameworks. They are kind of better godgical approaches to
teaching and learning. And we always do that embeddingness that
we need to understand the local needs, we need to
understand the local cultures, the languages, and then make that
(13:41):
kind of connection.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And that's that's criticism that comes into education in the
post Katrine environment that we have here in New Orleans.
As we air this program coming on the twentieth anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina, where our entire educational system was destroyed
in the city and built up pretty much from the
ground up, and we had some wonderful young people, thousands
(14:03):
of them come to the city and teach for America programs.
In fact, your International IB head here in North America
was one of those kids. And one of the things,
one of the challenges they had was understanding the culture.
Not the least of this the traumatized kids, but understanding
the culture they were coming into. And sometimes that was
one of the criticisms you had young people. They have
full of ideas, full of energy, full of passion, full
(14:25):
of one to help it, and had no idea of
the cultural background they were dealing with of you know,
entering in these communities.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
My background is US Army Special Forces, it's grain BERAVES.
I have a top secret clearance SCI. I was Connor Intelligence.
I was also a Connor Insurgency advisor. My last tour
of duty twenty ten attached the Marine Corps. And one
of the things that SF does well our mission we're
not we don't we do strike missions, but that's not
our purpose. That's the Navy Seals and the other groups rangers.
(14:53):
Whatever we do insurgencies and counter insurgencies. And to do
that we have to to know the people. We have
to know their culture almost as well as they do
to fit in with them, to win the hearts and
minds of the people do y'all have some concept like
that and that's by the way, and today in the
latest term for that, it's called human terrain. Human terrain,
(15:17):
And one of our top generals in twenty ten was
that's all. It's given lectures all over the place and
it was about human terrain. Knowing the people, you got
to work with the people.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, how do ib programs?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
How do you from an international but also from a
local standpoint, deal with the human terrain?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
I'D was created fifty seven years ago by twelve schools
who where they were kind of visionary educators who in
Europe at that time, who were thinking that if we
start from scratch and we create a school system, what
(15:57):
would it need to look like if its main purpose
would be to make sure that the horrors of the
Second World War will never again happen. So that was
the There was a very strong kind of societal ethos
behind those founding people who created the organization and that's
(16:22):
something that we have kept alive in the sense in
two ways. First one is that we are creating our
programs in a practitioner ed way, So it's not that
we in the organization headquarters are planning our programs, but
(16:42):
we are doing it with the educators, and that means
that it's we value very highly the teacher professionalism and
their autonomy to do their best.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So I mean, from what I understand your descriptions of
the IVY program, you're teaching a philosophy towards education as
well as a curricula, and you're adjusting the curricula based
on the philosophy. For those who joining us, we're joined
by the International Director General of the International Baccalaureate Program
here in the Founder's Show with Hi mcchenry and Christopher Tidmore,
and we're talking about how the ib program.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Is affected schools.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So let's follow that and then we'll explain why you're
in New Orleans right now and talking to us live
in studio. Is first of all, you go into a
lot of schools, and your North American had described he's
gone into conventional school systems, but he's also gone into
charter school systems, and we have an opportunity here in
Louisiana that's kind of rare. Many US states have charter schools,
(17:42):
but here it is I won't say easy, but simple
to start up a charter school. It's actually not particularly easy,
but it's doable. It's a straightforward process and you don't
have to go through a local community and go through
the state, and you can create a fund an open access,
fully funded public school and design a curricula. As long
(18:02):
as they follow the state test and past the state test,
you can do it. So my curiosity is, is that
open model which is not unique to Louisiana or the
British Academy system. Other people in the world are doing it.
But is that ability to formulate and create a school.
How do you do that from scratch? And are those
experiments going on right now either in Louisiana and across
(18:23):
the South creating an IB school from scratch.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Well, there is a process what we follow where we
want to make sure that the school has the professionalism
with teachers and other staff and also the kind of
other capabilities to run the IV programs. And that's a
(18:48):
journey where actually we are committing with the school staff
for them to make a development plan that how they
are the developing their own school and we are supporting
them with professional development enabling them to educate themselves to
(19:13):
be capable of teaching the IB programs.
Speaker 7 (19:17):
With IB has programmed.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Just for those that don't know, there is actually a
culmination of this. There is an international Popularity Exam, you know,
the exit that and it's sort of it for the
folkse that don't know this, we've heard of the SAT
the act.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
If you pass the park.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
There's almost no international university that won't immediately accept you.
It's sort of the gold standard of international and US
testing to get it anywhere.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
So exactly that's correct.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
And we have programs from three years to nineteen years.
We have four different programs.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
We have the.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Primary years program, which is for the youngest students. Then
there are the middle of the years programs up to
the year sixteen, and then there are the plus sixteen programs,
which are the diploma program and a career related program.
The diploma program is more academically emphasized, and the career
(20:20):
related program has those academic components, but it also has
kind of career related studies really enabling those students to
move directly to the world of work.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And I know Europe does that. They don't necessarily send
you to college's what are you good at doing? And
they'll give you a trade school or something that it
may be for accounting.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
It could be a variety. It's not just blue collar stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
But they pick out the kids and say, hey, they're
good at this, let's focus them on that. And with that,
I had my question before I even said this, was
do you do aptitude ways to figure out the kids aptitudes?
What they're really good at doing? Do y'all have any
kind of program like that?
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Well, I think the main idea in our program is
really for the students to find out what is their
own passion? Yeah, what is the thing that they really
strive for?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, I took a two day aptitude test, one of
the best things I ever did. I was in my
mid thirties, and it was amazing what it showed me.
It was absolutely amazing, and it showed me actually what
I was doing and what I wanted to do. And
what the guy explained to his name was Children's Doctor
Children's What he said is that when you're really good
at doing something, that's where you'll be moving in that direction.
If you're not good at doing something, you tend to
(21:41):
stay away from it, and so your passion would be
what are you really good at doing? But sometimes kids
need to help, they need counseling.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
For that.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
An example he gave me was there was an attorney
who came to see him and it's you know, middle
aged attorney, maybe in its thirties, I guess maybe forties,
and he belonged a family firm. He made a lot
of money, is very successful, and he's totally miserable. And
he didn't understand why. And he kept thinking, it's my work,
my work. I hate my work. I don't like doing
what I'm doing. So the game a test. It turned
(22:09):
out he had a very low aptitude for law, but
a very high aptitude for music. So what's he gonna do?
Go broke become a poor, starving artist. They came with
a great plan. He would first of all develop his
musical skills, which he had never done before. Became a
great composer, a great musician. He set the whole studio
and everything up in his house, in his basement, and
(22:31):
then he didn't But he had this great job making
a lot of money. He didn't want to give it up,
so you know, he went to music law and his
life was happy.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, how do you maximize that aptitude? In the International
POPULARIAT program? When somebody sees a talent towards something.
Speaker 7 (22:48):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Really what we do is we have a thing called
the learner profile where and it's very rare actually among
education programs, where there are kind of certain qualifications that
we want to make sure that every student is strengthening
(23:16):
in him or herself. And they are of course, they
are kind of general attitudes. There are questions of being balanced,
being knowledgeable, being caring, and so on. There are ten
of them and they are there to help the students
to see that what are the ones that are really
(23:39):
important for them being capable of mastering them all, but
also seeing that what of those learner profile elements.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Is such that that.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Student really feels that there is something in me, for example, caring,
caring for others, doing something good for others is the
thing that gives you the meaning of being who you are,
and that's something that is lived through in IB schools.
(24:15):
When you go into IB schools, you usually see in
the walls all the learner profile qualifica or the attributes.
So it's it's kind of a lens.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
You actually can go into the schools and see what
the different areas are.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
It's posted on the wall.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
They are usually I've visited a lot of IB school
of course, and it's I don't remember being in one
school where I would have not seen them written somewhere out.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Well, folks, you want your son, grandson, granddaughter, grandson, a
daughter inspired in an IB program. We'll talk about some
of the ways to do that. Also, we'll talk about
why the International General Director of the International Baccal Area
Programs actually in New Orleans right now, looking at some
of the educational successes we've had here in Louisiana and
(25:04):
around the Gulf South. All of that and more when
we come back on the Founder Show here on WSLA
and WRNL.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement, these are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Orleans Mission
take to make a positive impact on the homeless problem
facing the greater New Orleans Area. Did you know in
twenty twenty, homelessness in our community increased by over forty percent.
(25:36):
We are committed to meet this need through the work
being done at the New Orleans Mission. We begin the
rescue process by going out to the community every day
to bring food, pray, and share the love of Jesus
with the hopeless and hurting in our community. Through the
process of recovery. These individuals have the opportunity to take
(25:59):
time out, assess their life, and begin to make new
decisions to live out their God given purpose. After the
healing process has begun and lives are back on track,
we walk each individual as they re engage back into
the community to be healthy, thriving, and living a life
of purpose. No one is meant.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
To live under a bridge.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
No one should endure.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Abuse, no one should be stuck in addiction. The New
Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out of that life
of destruction and into a life of hope and purpose.
Partner with us today go to www dot New Orleansmission
dot org or make a difference by texting to seven
(26:44):
seven nine four eight.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Well, folks, we're back and you are listening to the
Founder's Show, the Voice to the Founding Fathers.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
And remember we're the number one rated weekend show on Wrno.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
One of the top talk show stations in the Gulf South. Folks,
you can hear us every Sunday morning from eight to
nine am in the morning. You can hear us during
the week on WSLA. That's ninety three point nine or
one five six zero on the AM dial. And then
for Wrno, it's ninety nine point five, but you can
(27:24):
hear it during the week drivetime eight to nine am
on WSLA. And then the best thing to do is
get the app. Get the iHeartMedia app. It's bigger and
better than satellite and it's free, folks, it's free. Then
you can listen to us at your leisure. You can
find a show from a year ago and listen to
it if you'd like to. That's the best way to go,
the iHeartMedia App. And so, folks, without further ado, this
(27:45):
is Chaplainhi McHenry with.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Christopher Tidmore, and we are joined by the world's Director
General of the International Baccalariat Program, and he's in New
Orleans on the special guest and I wanted to ask
as we go in what brought you to our fair
city this particular week.
Speaker 7 (28:05):
I'm very happy to be here. It's my first time
here in New.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
Orleans, and of course I know the history of the
city and I'm a mustress and myself by background, so
I'm a trumpet player.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Really, being in the home city of Vinton Marshall is
a big corner.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
For well, now you must we're actually broadcasting live from
the historic Opera guild House, and I must show you
something about one of Winton's teachers that we have something
of his downstairs, Moses Hogan, And so we'll talk about
that a little bit. But of course, you know, and
do a shameless plug, because that's what you can do
when your own program. You know, all jazz and rock
(28:47):
and roll was born in New Orleans, and that all
came because this was the first place of opera in
classical music in North America. And that's a good question
to lead into. Let me ask the question real quick, hui,
if we could, how does the International baccalariat program connect
with music? Because that's been the program. Musical programs have
been the number one cut area of academic extracurriculars in
(29:11):
schools in North America pretty much in the last twenty years.
Music programs are disappearing left and right, and every piece
of data says that if you have a musical program,
And let me explain to this as I like to
tell people. For those I'm the one guy at the
opera who has no talent. I cannot play an instrument,
I cannot sing, or if at least you heard me sing,
(29:32):
the cats would go in So I actually am the
advocate for the people who have talent, and I can
tell you that I've watched lives transforming, particularly in the
one High to chime int this live from the poorest
is because of music. How does the IB program, the
International Bocalarra program which you're advocating in which you're instituting
across many parts of the United States and the world
one hundred and sixty countries, how are you using music
(29:54):
to help teach that message.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Well, arts is a big part of the IB program.
It's one of the six elements that our programs are
based on. And we really see the value of a
very holistic education, kind of educating the different aspects of
(30:17):
us as humans. And it kind of I think there
is the challenge of many education systems that they concentrate
only in the traditional ways of kind of knowing the
academic side. That's important, but it's only one part of
what it means to be human and and and for
(30:37):
that reason, really the the arts are a big part
of IB programs. And also when you go to IB schools,
you find a lot of emphasis on doing music together.
And I can I can tell you from my own experience,
(31:00):
I have learned my most important lessons for leadership and
for reaching goals together with people through music.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Music's powerful, man, it is powerful. Do you know that
the stars sing? They've just discovered that astrophysicists why not
they emit noise.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
No one knew that before. It just came out a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
And when you listen to it, it has rhyme and
rhythm and everything to it.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's astounding. The stars sing.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I knew an atheist, bringing scientist and good friend and
he when he heard that and he looked, he told me, Hi,
I think for the first time, there's got to be
a god because the.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Stars were singing. That's how powerful music is.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And by the way, one other thing that Nuance was
the first on the bamboola, which I understand is one
of the most fundamental rhythms for music all around.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
The world today.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Right across the street from where the first rock and
roll song was recorded and broadcast Cosmo Motasa.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
What a name.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Across the street was Congo Square and that's where the
Banboo it came from West Africa. So Nuance is a
music city. It's just amazing the history we have here
on music. I wish we did more with it and
we were better at promoting it. You know, you know,
why can't we become like Nashville or Los Angeles, New
York something like that, where they do a lot of
recording stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
We don't do anything.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
We just create this great music and then other people
taken and they make the big bucks on it.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And you just heard a lament, and a lament is
comes down to the education that we had. One of
my former radio partners had been a rock star. His
name was Vince Vance and Vince Vans and the Valiant's
a stage name. He is actually his name Sydney Royal,
and he used to make the statement New Orleans was
a bit a wonderful city to be from. It was
(32:48):
a gestation of talent, but you couldn't you didn't have
the educational background or the business background that's formed. Let's
get down from it. From the educational background to be
able to maximize those talent, so our best and the
youngest leave. And so that's one of the things I've
been fascinated by your national bacclarate programs areas that have
concentrated on BACH programs and for those that don't know
(33:11):
who are just joined Hi mckenry, Christopher ted More here
and the Founder Show were joined by the World General
Director of the International Baccalarate Program. I've seen that when
this educational program comes in and these testing at the
end of it comes thirty years later, economies that were
relatively primitive suddenly had value added industries, high tech industries,
(33:36):
recording industries, engineering stem industries. It's sort of the secret
sauce that came together. Can you talk about some of
those changes, how it works.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
I think it starts with the question of understanding that
education can be a transformative.
Speaker 7 (33:54):
Power in societies.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
The talk that you hear about education these days is
that education is a problem. Education is broken, nothing is functioning,
learning outcomes going down. It's all about the problems, and
that kind of hides the fact that education can be
(34:18):
actually the strongest power in societies to make a transformative
change for the better. And that is the question that
because learning happens in the interaction between the learner and
the world, that's where everything important happens. And then there
(34:38):
is the question that when the world changes, also the
learning needs to change, and it's the role of the
schools to make sure that those young people are engaging
with real world challenges. I've heard excit eating experiences from
(35:02):
here from New Orleans with young people engaging with the
climate change challenges that impact their local communities and their
families every day, and not only learning about those things,
(35:23):
but also kind of learning what to do about it
and having that agency to do things for the better.
And that's where the strongest learning happens. Course, then the
motivation is strong. And once the motivation is strong, then
we have the internally motivated learning, which becomes a lifelong trend.
(35:50):
That the learning doesn't end when the exam is over
or you graduate, but that's just the beginning for you
constantly evolve and learn new things with the challenges of
the world.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Oli Peca, I have a question, and from an example,
there's an eighth grade exit exam that you can find
in several museums in the Midwest. I think one of
them is Oklahoma, when them's Kansas maybe, and they're probably
some other ones too, and you can get it on
the internet. I bet you're a really smart fellow, but
I'll tell you what. I bet you can't pass that exam.
(36:29):
People with doctorates cannot. That's for the eighth grade. Take
a look at it, and my question is this, yeah, well, yeah,
this is from the turn of the century. The exam,
the date of it literally is right at the turn
of the center and around nineteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
The big question here is.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
What did they do where they could educate people, young
people so well that by the eighth grade they were
like beyond the college level. What were they doing? And
they cover every field. It's not just like math and literature.
It's like seven or eight different academic disciplines.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
I took the test. I had a friend of mine,
a doctor.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
We were in Afghanistan when we did it, and we
were on a human traian team and it was very
heavy academics my team and he couldn't pass it on.
It's uncanny. And I remember this when I was a
little kid. I was, you know, seventy years ago. I
would hear the older people say this, and they were,
of course from the nineteenth century, they'd been born at
(37:29):
that time, and they would hear them say something like this.
I would say, you never never forget the value of
an eighth grade education. And I would hear him say that,
I think eighth grade, man, I'm going to high school.
I'm gonna go to college?
Speaker 4 (37:41):
What do you mean eighth grade? Now I know what
they meant.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
What can we do to bring that back to education
and build upon it.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
That's a good question, definitely, and I think that's the
work that kind of inspires us lead to make our
educational programs better. I do believe that there needs to
be first of all, the foundational capabilities and skills. And
(38:14):
I think again thinking that what has happened here in Louisiana,
the the the ideas of really having the evidence with
teachers to be capable of having the literacy skills, for example, improved,
I think that's really impressive that what has happened here.
(38:38):
And and then there is the question that after the foundations,
is really the question that what you will want to
do with the with the world and your own life.
That it's it's not only the question that what do
I get from education, but also the question that what
(39:01):
is the world asking from you? What is it that
you have to give to the world.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
That's not what you know a country can do for you,
what you can do for your country, or beyond, yeah,
what you can do for the world. We're joined by
the Director General of the International baccalarid program. Who is
come to Who's coming to New Orleans? And in part
the visit in the conference you came here is because
there has been improvement across the South. We mentioned the
Mississippi numbers with early childhood education going from from thirty
(39:28):
eighth to sixteenth in the United States, Louisiana's improved, many
of the states improved because of some educational differentiation, choice
and focus. And if you could you know, if you
if you had told me thirty years ago we're going
to have an education conference in New Orleans where everybody's
looking at how we're doing it, well, the laughter would
have followed you down, down the stairs and out the door.
(39:52):
But there is a lot of international attention and what's
going on in the South right now? Can you can
you mention that really brightfuly?
Speaker 7 (39:58):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 5 (39:59):
And then there there are several ideas. First of all,
I think what you're doing very well is looking at
the newest research, looking at the evidence that how learning
happens and what works.
Speaker 7 (40:12):
And then implying that by.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
Educating the teachers to use those the newest research for
the best of the students. I think also, I think
it's very impressive the way that the real world challenges
are brought in to the education system here, the kind
(40:36):
of hands on doing. It's such an important part of
learning because you learn by doing things. And we humans,
we are bodily greaders, and that separates us from artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence doesn't have a body with which it engages
(40:59):
with the world, and that's something that we should use
as a strength. And and also the idea of looking
more at the kind of career related possibilities what has
been introduced here in Louisiana. There is another area that
that is something that you should be.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Very We're one of the only states where you can automatically,
and people don't realize this. You can automatically graduate high
school and have the state one hundred percent not only
cover your college education, but from almost any high school
student that graduates high school go into a technical or
community college training program for free and actually do that
while you're in high school. You don't even have to wait,
(41:41):
and so I think it's one of the strengths. We're
joined by the Director General of the International Bacalaria Program
and let me get to as we close, this is
the last question since you've been very generously gave you
your time and your commandant. We have a lot of
people in our audience. Some are parents, let's phrase it's
some many our grandparents up to thirty and they're basically saying,
this sounds great. How do I get my kid or
(42:04):
my grandkid in many cases into an international baccalaureat program?
Where do I find out more information? How do I
find schools that are doing this right now so I
don't have to wait and form a school, but I
can do this on a short, short basis.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Does that how do they do that? Well?
Speaker 7 (42:19):
I think we have in Louisiana. We have nine.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Ib World schools, and of course those are open for
applications definitely for students to join. We have actually a
tenth school which is a pilot school right now, the
first one in the world.
Speaker 7 (42:41):
It's the Monroe High.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
Where they are we are piloting the idea that with
the diploma program. Everywhere in the world it takes about
a year and a half to two years for the
school to go through the authorization program before it can
(43:04):
start teaching the diploma program. We have here a pilot
where the Monroe High is now starting, so that there
is no authorization process that they are starting right now,
and that gives new abilities for students to join the
(43:26):
IB programs. So that's kind of something new. I would
like to mention also that there is the Hammond High
Magnet School, which is in Louisiana the only career related
program for those parents and those students who are looking
(43:51):
for opportunities to have the academic capability but at the
same time specialize into an area that would allow them
to move.
Speaker 7 (44:03):
Straight through the world of work.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
And that's an kind of another opportunity that I think
that there is more need in the future.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Also in this thing, I'm very excited about the Munroe
program because there's I've talked to many school fishers who
are watching it are like, we want to start up
schools doing this, and with our charter system here in Louisiana,
we can do this. We'll talk more about that on
future shows and in the Louisiana Weekly. But I want
to thank you for joining us so much. And is
there a website people can find out more information with
the International Baccalaria Program.
Speaker 7 (44:33):
Definitely there is.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
It's kind of the The IB website is open to everybody.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
All right, folks, We'll be back with the patriotic movement
right after these important messages.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Tickets are available for the New Orleans Opera and our
fantastic season at New Orleans Opera dot org. New Orleans
Opera dot org. Check out what's available at New Orleans
Opera dot org.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
It's Chapahan McHenry and I'm here to tell you about
our ministry, LAM Ministry. We're an intercity ministry with an
intercity formula and focus for inner city folks.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Please check us out. Go to our website lambnola dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
That's l A m b n O l a dot com,
or just call me Chaplin Himik interrate air code five
zero four seven two three nine three six nine. Folks,
we need all the help we can get. We need volunteers,
we need financial support, and we need prayer warriors. So
if you want to get involved with a very exciting
and challenging ministry in veriable warding ministry, please contact us.
Just go to our website lamb nola dot com or
(45:29):
call me Chapelini Mick interrate aer code five zero four
seven two three nine three six nine. And thank you
so very much, God bless you.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Give the gift to flowers by going to Villaries Florists
at one eight hundred VI L L E E or
Villariesflowers dot com for all of your floral needs. Baskets
and flowers available at two locations on Highway one ninety
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I L L E R E and tell them you heard
it here on the Founder Show.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Listen to the Founders Show, the voice of the Founding Fathers.
And it's not time for us to go into our
chaplain by patriotic moment. We just take a brief moment
to remind you of the biblical foundations of our country,
our Judeo Christian jurisprudence.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
And today I'd like to talk about education.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Guvn of Mars, who was considered to be the most
the expert on the Constitution. Why is that he was
a recording secretary. He was also a very brilliant fellow.
He gave more speeches during the Constitutional Convention than any
other of the Founding Fathers. To think of it, he's
writing it, not meaning generating it, but copying it.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
He's a recording secretary.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
And if you look at the very original one, that's
his penmanship, not the nice one that's in the archives
right now. Anyway, this Guva of Mars said, who is
also known as the father of American education. Now that
was his name, Gouvernor. He wasn't a governor, but that
was his name. It's French. And he said, of all schools,
public and private, the primary textbook should be the Holy Bible,
(47:08):
and folks, he was the father of American education. Now,
to add a little more to this, and I can
add many things to it. What Washington and so many
the other founding fathers said about education in God having
to be in the center of it, Jesus Christ as
the chief cornerstone, as George Washington and Ben Franklin said,
this was John Quincy Adams. We're talking about how well
(47:30):
educated people can become. Do you know that Adams, at
the age of thirteen, was the assistant ambassador, the Lieutenant
ambassador to Russia. He spoke fluent Russian, French, and of
course English and Latin and Greek Biblical Latin, Greek, Folks
this is what John Quincy Adams said, The highest glory
(47:53):
of the American Revolution was this. It connected in one
dissoluble bond, that means, inseparable bond, the principles of civil
government with the principles of Christianity. I think these men
want to keep God in government. They did, and they
especially want to keep God in schools because they knew
the way you educated people was going to be the
way they behaved in the future and the way we
(48:15):
would get good, strong citizens.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
They needed to have a solid, good education.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Well, folks, what about you do you have a good,
solid education with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to
need that to pass the test, the final exam, to
get into Heaven. And I'm gonna tell you how you
can do it. It's actually very easy. It's not hard. It
doesn't take a great intellect, It doesn't take a lot
of academic study. It just takes the faith of a
(48:40):
little child. Because you see, it's all about love. That's
what God's all about. He's all about love. The fact
the scription even says God is love. So folks, think
of think of the deep, the depth of that mean
of that phrase, the meaning of it.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Think of it.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Love is what it's all about. And you don't have
to have a great intellect to have love. And God's
looking at you. He's not looking at your IQ scores.
He's looking at your heart IQ, not your brain IQ,
your heart IQ, which is about character and anybody and
everybody can have that, folks. This is what it takes
(49:15):
to pass the exam. The Bible says, for God's soul
love the world. That's you, that's everybody. That he gave
his only begotten son. That's the Lord, Jesus Christ, perfect God,
perfect man, all the way God, all the way Man.
He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him,
host server, that's you believeth in him? Well, what does
that mean, just believe he's there or something. No, you
got to believe about what he did, who he really
(49:35):
is and what he did. Well, first of all, he's God.
The second thing is he's also one hundred percent man.
The other thing you have to realize is that he
took care of your He passed the exam for you
with straight with a straight a one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
He passed it for you.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
He did that when he died on the cross, for
all of your sins from the day you're born the
day you die. You tie it's the greatest sins. And
then he was buried and rose from the dead. The
scripture says, to win for you his precious free gift
of resurrection, everlasting life. Jesus kept saying, repent and believe.
So repentance is part of this and all that planning
simply means. It's humility. It means you can't do it.
(50:12):
You're hopeless and help us without God. You just bottom line,
a loser before your creator. Don't worry about it. He
still loves you. Take the free gift of heaven, Take
the free gift of the complete payment for your sins.
Take that free gift. But to take it as a
free gift, you cannot trust yourself. And that's what repentance is.
When you quit trusting in yourself, when you realize you're
(50:33):
a hopeless and help us without God, destined to a
burning hell. When you get to that low point, that's
a good point because now you're finally free to put
faith alone in Christ alone. If you've never done this before,
do it now. Don't wait untill it's too late, folks,
And so folks, Now it's time for us to go
into our testimony time. Well, I'm just going to tell
you a short story about some wonderful person, whether it's
(50:56):
current times or in fact one day. Christopher is going
to do this for me his life. Now I'll do
it for you for my life one day, and that
is what is your life story? Well, here's a great
life story. It's a guy from New Orleans, w He's
one of the most brilliant people we've ever had in
this city. The Europeans in his day that he lived
in the nineteenth century, was considered to be the greatest
(51:16):
literary figure America had ever produced. And not just in literature,
poetry and song. He did it all prose, poetry and song.
His music was we're in the top forty of Europe.
They didn't have the top forty, but he was that popular, folks.
His name was Father Roquette, Adrian Roquette. He fell madly
in love with an Indian princess o'shula that means bird singer.
(51:37):
She's a Choctaw, and when they were very young, she
passed away. It broke his heart and he took a
vow of celibacy to never seek another woman, and in
the process he thought, well, then with this, with my
current state, I might as well become a priest.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
He did, he was groomed.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
He went to Europe, since to Europe with finance education
so you could get and finance universities, and came back
and was being groomed to be the archbishop of the
Saint Louis Cathedral. He gave all that up to go
live with the Indians as a poor missionary, where he
wrote all these fabulous works that are now housed in
the Tulane University Archives, the John Minor Wisdom Collection. Never
(52:19):
translated into English except for one work. Folks, one day,
I want to get him all translated. What a treasure
we have here in this city. What an amazing story
of a man who committed himself to God. And the
Choctaw Indians loved him so much that at his funeral
they came from all over the country to be here
for his funeral. A few weeks later, after they'd buried him,
his body disappeared. What happened to his body, Well, you
(52:40):
know what I think, And some think the Indians stole
it because they wanted him buried in their secret burro
ground with his beloved o'shula, which is actually in Fountain
Blue State Park, but they still don't know quite where
it is because it was a secret barrow ground. What
an amazing story from New Orleans, folks. A great man,
a great man of God. I got a man who
(53:01):
loved to preach a gospel and love the word. Translated
the Bible into their language of Choctaw language he and
his brother did.
Speaker 4 (53:07):
We'll focus. Time for us to close now.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
As we close with the mont Saint Martin singing a
Creole goodbye and God bless all out there?
Speaker 7 (53:15):
Does this have to be the end of the nerd?
Speaker 4 (53:21):
You know I love you?
Speaker 6 (53:23):
In the pamal land, I can see across the million
stars looking, we can pose it's the sun time. I
(53:45):
suppose you couldn't call it a crist.
Speaker 7 (53:50):
If we take just be
Speaker 6 (53:54):
Longer to see our good
Bie holes, the politicians, the dressed of digitators and magicians
choose to see the money, then you don't. There's nothing
to fill the holes while then are feeling their pockets
bid holes, the politicians bouncing down the road, every bider's
(00:23):
wition for no moment, corruption and itysfunction's gone on a table, Divide, intervention.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And God bless all out there. You are now listening
to the founders. So the voice of the founding fathers,
You're Founding Fathers coming to you deep within the bowels
of those mystic and cryptic alligator swamps of the Big Easy,
that old Crescent City, New Orleans, Louisiana, and high up
on top of that old Liberty Cypress tree way out
(00:54):
on the Eagles Branch. This is none other than your
spingary byby of the Republic on Hi mcnry with Christopher Tadmorey.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
You're Roving a reporter, resident radical moderate and associated editor
of the Louisiana Weekly newspaper at louisianaweekly dot net. And
we are joined by Ola Brek Hadden, who is the
Director General of the International Baccalaureate Program. Here on the
Founder Show and for many of you who have been
watching some of the education news, something unexpected and stunning
(01:23):
has been happening. We've been smoked by Mississippi. Now you
have had to understand little bic that in Louisiana, when
anything ever went wrong, we could always fall back on
the surety that it was worse in Mississippi. But Mississippi
has gone from thirty eighth to sixteenth and it's reading
in math scores in the United States actually propelled itself
past many states. And they've done a concentrated program. And
(01:46):
here in Louisiana we have improved in part because of
someone on your staff introducing International Baccalariot programs. But it's
really new approaches to education is something you've seen throughout
the entire South. Of course, New Orleans is the lead
on charter schools, but you're seeing a lot of educational
choice and a lot of what was going to be
not traditional American pedrogoguial styles.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
And if you.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Will joining us, you've been kind enough to join us
coming here to New Orleans from major educational conference, but
you travel all over the world advocating for the International
Baccalaureat program and helping run the different programs around and
most people are like, wait, isn't that some French thing?
You know, they have no idea what it is. But
it's actually the gold standard of education in the world.
(02:31):
Can you talk about that for a second.
Speaker 5 (02:32):
Thank you very much, and thank you first of all
having this opportunity to join in this discussion. Yes, it
is really the situation that the IB programs, which are
run in one hundred and sixty countries in about six
thousand schools yearly, reaching about two million students. It is
(02:59):
kind of I've kept us a model of a functioning
education offer, and I think the really the secret source
of IB is in its betagogical approach, which really starts
with the idea of kind of inquiry based really feeding
(03:25):
that curiosity in students to engage with the world.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
So in other words, asking the simple question why And
I asked to teach you that once and I said,
well why?
Speaker 4 (03:36):
This is because because?
Speaker 6 (03:38):
What?
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Because? Because I said so?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
The back program actually makes you go below the program,
below the surface and find out the reasons and how
all knowledge is linked.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
And this is something.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
The reason I'm bringing this up is a lot of
people say, well, that's interesting, but why should we care
here in Louisiana, you've seen some very successful programs. In
point of fact, your North American head is from Louisiana.
He's actually educated in Hammond and went to LSU for
a while, and he's been leading the charge to introduce
several back programs here in Louisiana and what kind of
(04:10):
not just here but around and programs that had been
sort of educationally backwards. You've seen some incredible success by
putting this program in with students.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Can you talk about that.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
Yes, what we're of course, we are talking a lot
to our students after they've graduated from the IB programs.
Speaker 7 (04:27):
What we hear them tell us is that they had
it so.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
Much easier in their first years in the university that
things that often not just taught post secondary level with
the IB programs all are already done in the sixteen
plus years. So like extended essay type of things, the
(04:54):
theory of knowledge, understanding what knowledge is, what different types
of knowledge is, what's real, all those big questions that
are so important in the world of a lot of
kind of misinformation disinformation.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Are you saying fake news makes its way into education?
Speaker 5 (05:16):
Definitely, we're all experiencing get there the world where the
students are living, so them to be capable of understanding
what is true, having that critical capacity to value different
news and different sources of information. That's been a big
part of the education of the IB gifts for a
(05:39):
long time.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, and if you could go into this, let's talk
about kids from disadvantage backgrounds. If you would all the
fact that my radio partner, Hi McHenry, he's dealt with
people kids my kids, who work in and who live
in some of the poorest environments around. And I'm setting
(06:02):
you up to talk to ask this question. So Hyas
runs a charity for you don't know, called lamb Nola,
and he's been spent thirty years working with inner city
African American kids from the poorest possible backgrounds. And I'm
curious because we talk about IB programs for university kids
and what sometimes the impression that comes in for International
Baccalaria programs is well, great, you're great, a better education
(06:24):
program for rich kids.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
And yet I've been really.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Impressed by your programs on how you've been directed for
kids from some of the most desperate, poor environments around.
And Hi set up the audience for most of these
kids because most of them aren't going to be finishing
high school if they don't have a real opportunity.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Christopher, I have the future criminals of America. Like Motherteresia says,
we have a poverty in America, but it's not money.
And if you ever if you've ever been to Indya,
you know when a dollar a day is you can
survive on that. When two dollars a day is pretty good, Sorry,
three dollars a day, you're right on top of it.
That's the poverty in India. And yet what she saw
(07:04):
here was a spiritual poverty, a moral and a family poverty,
if you will, because these families are being That's why
the kids are in so much trouble.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
They don't have families.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
If they have anybody looking after him, it's another kid,
or it's their crack cocaine prostitute.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Au tee or somebody like grandmother or whatever.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
The fathers are never there, never there, they're paid to
stay away, basically by the welfare system. It has destroyed
the African American family. And Denzel Washington right now is
doing a tremendous job trying to wake people up about this.
He'd been working on it for the past couple of years,
and just recently he's also become a preacher. I have
the greatest I've always loved Denzel Washington. These are my kids.
They call themselves short terms. That means by their mid twenties,
(07:47):
they're either going to be dead in jailful life or
limit the homeless mission.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
And this is a great tragedy. They all know.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
That, they all know that, they don't know that there's
a better world.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
They don't understand.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
That has given us the opportunity to reach these kids.
We've had about five thousand of them come to Christ.
I'm an ordaining some Baptist minister, you know, and an evangelist,
and we've had hundreds go on to live productive lives.
We've got three generations now and we're now watching our
kids getting married. That's unheard of in their community. So
God has given us a lot of success. But we're
(08:20):
very concerned for their education because what happens is they
get by the politicians. They get herded into the lowest
performing schools. You can imagine they have great facilities, but
if the rich want the facilities, this is what's really happening.
They go in and they take it over, push the
poor kids out then they got to right now, our
kids used to walk to their school. Now they got
to spend an hour in the morning and an hour
(08:41):
and even to get their school. And it's so poor
they didn't even rate it. It's so low, that's how
bad it is. And these are good A lot of
these kids. They're brilliant, they're you know, they've got high IQ's,
they're very intelligent, very talented, but their lives are being
wasted in these junkie schools designed just for them.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
In fact, they call them useless feeders.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So I think what I was leading to was a
question about you guys have done, have worked in school
environments just like this what is being described, talk about
how the International Baccalaureate program has been making some shrides,
and what we can do here.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
Praank God, I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Thank you sir, what you guys are doing, please if
you would outline.
Speaker 7 (09:20):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
I agree that there is sometimes the impression that the
IB programs would be for those who can afford it.
But if we look at the statistics in the US
we have IB. There are about two thousand IB schools
in the US and out of those two thousand schools
(09:45):
about ninety percent of public schools, and then of all
the IB schools, twenty five percent are classified as high
poverty schools. So I would not say that compared to
the general schools, that IB would be kind of just
(10:07):
concentrating on those who can afford. Quite a contrary, we
are very much present in locations in areas where there's
a high level of poverty and exact there are those
challenges that those young people are faced with of connecting
(10:27):
with other people, really kind of engaging with the world,
and we see that we have the possibility to help
the education system as a whole in the United States
and different states to really gap those challenges that those
young people coming from from challenging family backgrounds, that they
(10:55):
could have a better life.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
For those who's joining us here in wr and WSLA,
we're joined by the General, the direct General the International
Baccalaureat Program who's here in New Orleans for an educational conference.
We're talking about the IB programs as a way of
being able to improve general education but also be able
to help some of our lowest performing schools particularly and
that's one of the concentrations I know in the conference
(11:17):
here in New Orleans. And let's talk about this for
highest kids, So let's not leave this topic not his
specifically the kids from very poor environments. How do these schools,
because we get charter schools, how do they get into
the schools? How does IB programs come in.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
And words, give me steps and I'll take them of
how I can get my kids into a better education?
Like the IB program tell me what we can do.
And by the way, the theme song for our ministry is
Elvis Presley's in the Ghetto. You remember that song. It's
a very powerful and it describes my kids.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
It's a statement about how do you provide hope and
opening the world to these kids who for the most part,
do not have a perspective in the world.
Speaker 5 (11:58):
Yeah, yeah, And of course, like the ib's mission is
to create a better and more peaceful world through education.
That's what we work every day for. And of course,
the the question that we are in those one hundred
(12:19):
and sixty countries that where we work is for us
to engage with the public systems. Two, the systems to
enable to utilize the IB programs. And of course there
is kind of very different types of systems exactly and
(12:43):
of course we are seeing it here in the US
also when where there are different systems in different states
and and and so, there there is no one answer
or one size fits all. We are always embedded in
the local values, the local culture.
Speaker 7 (13:03):
And languages that there are.
Speaker 5 (13:05):
IB is not a kind of a strict curriculum that
we would kind of say that this and this and
this needs to be taught.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Kind of like Animame's Free School or the movie Animeme
with a play.
Speaker 7 (13:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:20):
Yeah, but it's kind of the The IB programs are
like frameworks. They are kind of better godgical approaches to
teaching and learning. And we always do that embeddingness that
we need to understand the local needs, we need to
understand the local cultures, the languages, and then make that
(13:41):
kind of connection.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And that's that's criticism that comes into education in the
post Katrine environment that we have here in New Orleans.
As we air this program coming on the twentieth anniversary
of Hurricane Katrina, where our entire educational system was destroyed
in the city and built up pretty much from the
ground up, and we had some wonderful young people, thousands
(14:03):
of them come to the city and teach for America programs.
In fact, your International IB head here in North America
was one of those kids. And one of the things,
one of the challenges they had was understanding the culture.
Not the least of this the traumatized kids, but understanding
the culture they were coming into. And sometimes that was
one of the criticisms you had young people. They have
full of ideas, full of energy, full of passion, full
(14:25):
of one to help it, and had no idea of
the cultural background they were dealing with of you know,
entering in these communities.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
My background is US Army Special Forces, it's grain BERAVES.
I have a top secret clearance SCI. I was Connor Intelligence.
I was also a Connor Insurgency advisor. My last tour
of duty twenty ten attached the Marine Corps. And one
of the things that SF does well our mission we're
not we don't we do strike missions, but that's not
our purpose. That's the Navy Seals and the other groups rangers.
(14:53):
Whatever we do insurgencies and counter insurgencies. And to do
that we have to to know the people. We have
to know their culture almost as well as they do
to fit in with them, to win the hearts and
minds of the people do y'all have some concept like
that and that's by the way, and today in the
latest term for that, it's called human terrain. Human terrain,
(15:17):
And one of our top generals in twenty ten was
that's all. It's given lectures all over the place and
it was about human terrain. Knowing the people, you got
to work with the people.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Yeah, how do ib programs?
Speaker 3 (15:30):
How do you from an international but also from a
local standpoint, deal with the human terrain?
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
I'D was created fifty seven years ago by twelve schools
who where they were kind of visionary educators who in
Europe at that time, who were thinking that if we
start from scratch and we create a school system, what
(15:57):
would it need to look like if its main purpose
would be to make sure that the horrors of the
Second World War will never again happen. So that was
the There was a very strong kind of societal ethos
behind those founding people who created the organization and that's
(16:22):
something that we have kept alive in the sense in
two ways. First one is that we are creating our
programs in a practitioner ed way, So it's not that
we in the organization headquarters are planning our programs, but
(16:42):
we are doing it with the educators, and that means
that it's we value very highly the teacher professionalism and
their autonomy to do their best.
Speaker 3 (16:56):
So I mean, from what I understand your descriptions of
the IVY program, you're teaching a philosophy towards education as
well as a curricula, and you're adjusting the curricula based
on the philosophy. For those who joining us, we're joined
by the International Director General of the International Baccalaureate Program
here in the Founder's Show with Hi mcchenry and Christopher Tidmore,
and we're talking about how the ib program.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
Is affected schools.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So let's follow that and then we'll explain why you're
in New Orleans right now and talking to us live
in studio. Is first of all, you go into a
lot of schools, and your North American had described he's
gone into conventional school systems, but he's also gone into
charter school systems, and we have an opportunity here in
Louisiana that's kind of rare. Many US states have charter schools,
(17:42):
but here it is I won't say easy, but simple
to start up a charter school. It's actually not particularly easy,
but it's doable. It's a straightforward process and you don't
have to go through a local community and go through
the state, and you can create a fund an open access,
fully funded public school and design a curricula. As long
(18:02):
as they follow the state test and past the state test,
you can do it. So my curiosity is, is that
open model which is not unique to Louisiana or the
British Academy system. Other people in the world are doing it.
But is that ability to formulate and create a school.
How do you do that from scratch? And are those
experiments going on right now either in Louisiana and across
(18:23):
the South creating an IB school from scratch.
Speaker 5 (18:26):
Well, there is a process what we follow where we
want to make sure that the school has the professionalism
with teachers and other staff and also the kind of
other capabilities to run the IV programs. And that's a
(18:48):
journey where actually we are committing with the school staff
for them to make a development plan that how they
are the developing their own school and we are supporting
them with professional development enabling them to educate themselves to
(19:13):
be capable of teaching the IB programs.
Speaker 7 (19:17):
With IB has programmed.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
Just for those that don't know, there is actually a
culmination of this. There is an international Popularity Exam, you know,
the exit that and it's sort of it for the
folkse that don't know this, we've heard of the SAT
the act.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
If you pass the park.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
There's almost no international university that won't immediately accept you.
It's sort of the gold standard of international and US
testing to get it anywhere.
Speaker 7 (19:43):
So exactly that's correct.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
And we have programs from three years to nineteen years.
We have four different programs.
Speaker 7 (19:53):
We have the.
Speaker 5 (19:55):
Primary years program, which is for the youngest students. Then
there are the middle of the years programs up to
the year sixteen, and then there are the plus sixteen programs,
which are the diploma program and a career related program.
The diploma program is more academically emphasized, and the career
(20:20):
related program has those academic components, but it also has
kind of career related studies really enabling those students to
move directly to the world of work.
Speaker 2 (20:37):
And I know Europe does that. They don't necessarily send
you to college's what are you good at doing? And
they'll give you a trade school or something that it
may be for accounting.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
It could be a variety. It's not just blue collar stuff.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
But they pick out the kids and say, hey, they're
good at this, let's focus them on that. And with that,
I had my question before I even said this, was
do you do aptitude ways to figure out the kids aptitudes?
What they're really good at doing? Do y'all have any
kind of program like that?
Speaker 5 (21:06):
Well, I think the main idea in our program is
really for the students to find out what is their
own passion? Yeah, what is the thing that they really
strive for?
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Well, I took a two day aptitude test, one of
the best things I ever did. I was in my
mid thirties, and it was amazing what it showed me.
It was absolutely amazing, and it showed me actually what
I was doing and what I wanted to do. And
what the guy explained to his name was Children's Doctor
Children's What he said is that when you're really good
at doing something, that's where you'll be moving in that direction.
If you're not good at doing something, you tend to
(21:41):
stay away from it, and so your passion would be
what are you really good at doing? But sometimes kids
need to help, they need counseling.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
For that.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
An example he gave me was there was an attorney
who came to see him and it's you know, middle
aged attorney, maybe in its thirties, I guess maybe forties,
and he belonged a family firm. He made a lot
of money, is very successful, and he's totally miserable. And
he didn't understand why. And he kept thinking, it's my work,
my work. I hate my work. I don't like doing
what I'm doing. So the game a test. It turned
(22:09):
out he had a very low aptitude for law, but
a very high aptitude for music. So what's he gonna do?
Go broke become a poor, starving artist. They came with
a great plan. He would first of all develop his
musical skills, which he had never done before. Became a
great composer, a great musician. He set the whole studio
and everything up in his house, in his basement, and
(22:31):
then he didn't But he had this great job making
a lot of money. He didn't want to give it up,
so you know, he went to music law and his
life was happy.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Yeah, how do you maximize that aptitude? In the International
POPULARIAT program? When somebody sees a talent towards something.
Speaker 7 (22:48):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
Really what we do is we have a thing called
the learner profile where and it's very rare actually among
education programs, where there are kind of certain qualifications that
we want to make sure that every student is strengthening
(23:16):
in him or herself. And they are of course, they
are kind of general attitudes. There are questions of being balanced,
being knowledgeable, being caring, and so on. There are ten
of them and they are there to help the students
to see that what are the ones that are really
(23:39):
important for them being capable of mastering them all, but
also seeing that what of those learner profile elements.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Is such that that.
Speaker 5 (23:52):
Student really feels that there is something in me, for example, caring,
caring for others, doing something good for others is the
thing that gives you the meaning of being who you are,
and that's something that is lived through in IB schools.
(24:15):
When you go into IB schools, you usually see in
the walls all the learner profile qualifica or the attributes.
So it's it's kind of a lens.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
You actually can go into the schools and see what
the different areas are.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
It's posted on the wall.
Speaker 5 (24:32):
They are usually I've visited a lot of IB school
of course, and it's I don't remember being in one
school where I would have not seen them written somewhere out.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Well, folks, you want your son, grandson, granddaughter, grandson, a
daughter inspired in an IB program. We'll talk about some
of the ways to do that. Also, we'll talk about
why the International General Director of the International Baccal Area
Programs actually in New Orleans right now, looking at some
of the educational successes we've had here in Louisiana and
(25:04):
around the Gulf South. All of that and more when
we come back on the Founder Show here on WSLA
and WRNL.
Speaker 8 (25:14):
Rescue, recovery, re engagement, these are not just words. These
are the action steps we at the New Orleans Mission
take to make a positive impact on the homeless problem
facing the greater New Orleans Area. Did you know in
twenty twenty, homelessness in our community increased by over forty percent.
(25:36):
We are committed to meet this need through the work
being done at the New Orleans Mission. We begin the
rescue process by going out to the community every day
to bring food, pray, and share the love of Jesus
with the hopeless and hurting in our community. Through the
process of recovery. These individuals have the opportunity to take
(25:59):
time out, assess their life, and begin to make new
decisions to live out their God given purpose. After the
healing process has begun and lives are back on track,
we walk each individual as they re engage back into
the community to be healthy, thriving, and living a life
of purpose. No one is meant.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
To live under a bridge.
Speaker 4 (26:21):
No one should endure.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
Abuse, no one should be stuck in addiction. The New
Orleans Mission is a stepping stone out of that life
of destruction and into a life of hope and purpose.
Partner with us today go to www dot New Orleansmission
dot org or make a difference by texting to seven
(26:44):
seven nine four eight.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Well, folks, we're back and you are listening to the
Founder's Show, the Voice to the Founding Fathers.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
And remember we're the number one rated weekend show on Wrno.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
One of the top talk show stations in the Gulf South. Folks,
you can hear us every Sunday morning from eight to
nine am in the morning. You can hear us during
the week on WSLA. That's ninety three point nine or
one five six zero on the AM dial. And then
for Wrno, it's ninety nine point five, but you can
(27:24):
hear it during the week drivetime eight to nine am
on WSLA. And then the best thing to do is
get the app. Get the iHeartMedia app. It's bigger and
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it if you'd like to. That's the best way to go,
the iHeartMedia App. And so, folks, without further ado, this
(27:45):
is Chaplainhi McHenry with.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Christopher Tidmore, and we are joined by the world's Director
General of the International Baccalariat Program, and he's in New
Orleans on the special guest and I wanted to ask
as we go in what brought you to our fair
city this particular week.
Speaker 7 (28:05):
I'm very happy to be here. It's my first time
here in New.
Speaker 5 (28:09):
Orleans, and of course I know the history of the
city and I'm a mustress and myself by background, so
I'm a trumpet player.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
Really, being in the home city of Vinton Marshall is
a big corner.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
For well, now you must we're actually broadcasting live from
the historic Opera guild House, and I must show you
something about one of Winton's teachers that we have something
of his downstairs, Moses Hogan, And so we'll talk about
that a little bit. But of course, you know, and
do a shameless plug, because that's what you can do
when your own program. You know, all jazz and rock
(28:47):
and roll was born in New Orleans, and that all
came because this was the first place of opera in
classical music in North America. And that's a good question
to lead into. Let me ask the question real quick, hui,
if we could, how does the International baccalariat program connect
with music? Because that's been the program. Musical programs have
been the number one cut area of academic extracurriculars in
(29:11):
schools in North America pretty much in the last twenty years.
Music programs are disappearing left and right, and every piece
of data says that if you have a musical program,
And let me explain to this as I like to
tell people. For those I'm the one guy at the
opera who has no talent. I cannot play an instrument,
I cannot sing, or if at least you heard me sing,
(29:32):
the cats would go in So I actually am the
advocate for the people who have talent, and I can
tell you that I've watched lives transforming, particularly in the
one High to chime int this live from the poorest
is because of music. How does the IB program, the
International Bocalarra program which you're advocating in which you're instituting
across many parts of the United States and the world
one hundred and sixty countries, how are you using music
(29:54):
to help teach that message.
Speaker 5 (29:56):
Well, arts is a big part of the IB program.
It's one of the six elements that our programs are
based on. And we really see the value of a
very holistic education, kind of educating the different aspects of
(30:17):
us as humans. And it kind of I think there
is the challenge of many education systems that they concentrate
only in the traditional ways of kind of knowing the
academic side. That's important, but it's only one part of
what it means to be human and and and for
(30:37):
that reason, really the the arts are a big part
of IB programs. And also when you go to IB schools,
you find a lot of emphasis on doing music together.
And I can I can tell you from my own experience,
(31:00):
I have learned my most important lessons for leadership and
for reaching goals together with people through music.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Music's powerful, man, it is powerful. Do you know that
the stars sing? They've just discovered that astrophysicists why not
they emit noise.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
No one knew that before. It just came out a
couple of years ago.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
And when you listen to it, it has rhyme and
rhythm and everything to it.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
It's astounding. The stars sing.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
I knew an atheist, bringing scientist and good friend and
he when he heard that and he looked, he told me, Hi,
I think for the first time, there's got to be
a god because the.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Stars were singing. That's how powerful music is.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
And by the way, one other thing that Nuance was
the first on the bamboola, which I understand is one
of the most fundamental rhythms for music all around.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
The world today.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Right across the street from where the first rock and
roll song was recorded and broadcast Cosmo Motasa.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
What a name.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Across the street was Congo Square and that's where the
Banboo it came from West Africa. So Nuance is a
music city. It's just amazing the history we have here
on music. I wish we did more with it and
we were better at promoting it. You know, you know,
why can't we become like Nashville or Los Angeles, New
York something like that, where they do a lot of
recording stuff.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
We don't do anything.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
We just create this great music and then other people
taken and they make the big bucks on it.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And you just heard a lament, and a lament is
comes down to the education that we had. One of
my former radio partners had been a rock star. His
name was Vince Vance and Vince Vans and the Valiant's
a stage name. He is actually his name Sydney Royal,
and he used to make the statement New Orleans was
a bit a wonderful city to be from. It was
(32:48):
a gestation of talent, but you couldn't you didn't have
the educational background or the business background that's formed. Let's
get down from it. From the educational background to be
able to maximize those talent, so our best and the
youngest leave. And so that's one of the things I've
been fascinated by your national bacclarate programs areas that have
concentrated on BACH programs and for those that don't know
(33:11):
who are just joined Hi mckenry, Christopher ted More here
and the Founder Show were joined by the World General
Director of the International Baccalarate Program. I've seen that when
this educational program comes in and these testing at the
end of it comes thirty years later, economies that were
relatively primitive suddenly had value added industries, high tech industries,
(33:36):
recording industries, engineering stem industries. It's sort of the secret
sauce that came together. Can you talk about some of
those changes, how it works.
Speaker 5 (33:47):
I think it starts with the question of understanding that
education can be a transformative.
Speaker 7 (33:54):
Power in societies.
Speaker 5 (33:57):
The talk that you hear about education these days is
that education is a problem. Education is broken, nothing is functioning,
learning outcomes going down. It's all about the problems, and
that kind of hides the fact that education can be
(34:18):
actually the strongest power in societies to make a transformative
change for the better. And that is the question that
because learning happens in the interaction between the learner and
the world, that's where everything important happens. And then there
(34:38):
is the question that when the world changes, also the
learning needs to change, and it's the role of the
schools to make sure that those young people are engaging
with real world challenges. I've heard excit eating experiences from
(35:02):
here from New Orleans with young people engaging with the
climate change challenges that impact their local communities and their
families every day, and not only learning about those things,
(35:23):
but also kind of learning what to do about it
and having that agency to do things for the better.
And that's where the strongest learning happens. Course, then the
motivation is strong. And once the motivation is strong, then
we have the internally motivated learning, which becomes a lifelong trend.
(35:50):
That the learning doesn't end when the exam is over
or you graduate, but that's just the beginning for you
constantly evolve and learn new things with the challenges of
the world.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Oli Peca, I have a question, and from an example,
there's an eighth grade exit exam that you can find
in several museums in the Midwest. I think one of
them is Oklahoma, when them's Kansas maybe, and they're probably
some other ones too, and you can get it on
the internet. I bet you're a really smart fellow, but
I'll tell you what. I bet you can't pass that exam.
(36:29):
People with doctorates cannot. That's for the eighth grade. Take
a look at it, and my question is this, yeah, well, yeah,
this is from the turn of the century. The exam,
the date of it literally is right at the turn
of the center and around nineteen hundred.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
The big question here is.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
What did they do where they could educate people, young
people so well that by the eighth grade they were
like beyond the college level. What were they doing? And
they cover every field. It's not just like math and literature.
It's like seven or eight different academic disciplines.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
I took the test. I had a friend of mine,
a doctor.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
We were in Afghanistan when we did it, and we
were on a human traian team and it was very
heavy academics my team and he couldn't pass it on.
It's uncanny. And I remember this when I was a
little kid. I was, you know, seventy years ago. I
would hear the older people say this, and they were,
of course from the nineteenth century, they'd been born at
(37:29):
that time, and they would hear them say something like this.
I would say, you never never forget the value of
an eighth grade education. And I would hear him say that,
I think eighth grade, man, I'm going to high school.
I'm gonna go to college?
Speaker 4 (37:41):
What do you mean eighth grade? Now I know what
they meant.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
What can we do to bring that back to education
and build upon it.
Speaker 5 (37:49):
That's a good question, definitely, and I think that's the
work that kind of inspires us lead to make our
educational programs better. I do believe that there needs to
be first of all, the foundational capabilities and skills. And
(38:14):
I think again thinking that what has happened here in Louisiana,
the the the ideas of really having the evidence with
teachers to be capable of having the literacy skills, for example, improved,
I think that's really impressive that what has happened here.
(38:38):
And and then there is the question that after the foundations,
is really the question that what you will want to
do with the with the world and your own life.
That it's it's not only the question that what do
I get from education, but also the question that what
(39:01):
is the world asking from you? What is it that
you have to give to the world.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
That's not what you know a country can do for you,
what you can do for your country, or beyond, yeah,
what you can do for the world. We're joined by
the Director General of the International baccalarid program. Who is
come to Who's coming to New Orleans? And in part
the visit in the conference you came here is because
there has been improvement across the South. We mentioned the
Mississippi numbers with early childhood education going from from thirty
(39:28):
eighth to sixteenth in the United States, Louisiana's improved, many
of the states improved because of some educational differentiation, choice
and focus. And if you could you know, if you
if you had told me thirty years ago we're going
to have an education conference in New Orleans where everybody's
looking at how we're doing it, well, the laughter would
have followed you down, down the stairs and out the door.
(39:52):
But there is a lot of international attention and what's
going on in the South right now? Can you can
you mention that really brightfuly?
Speaker 7 (39:58):
Yeah, there is.
Speaker 5 (39:59):
And then there there are several ideas. First of all,
I think what you're doing very well is looking at
the newest research, looking at the evidence that how learning
happens and what works.
Speaker 7 (40:12):
And then implying that by.
Speaker 5 (40:15):
Educating the teachers to use those the newest research for
the best of the students. I think also, I think
it's very impressive the way that the real world challenges
are brought in to the education system here, the kind
(40:36):
of hands on doing. It's such an important part of
learning because you learn by doing things. And we humans,
we are bodily greaders, and that separates us from artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence doesn't have a body with which it engages
(40:59):
with the world, and that's something that we should use
as a strength. And and also the idea of looking
more at the kind of career related possibilities what has
been introduced here in Louisiana. There is another area that
that is something that you should be.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Very We're one of the only states where you can automatically,
and people don't realize this. You can automatically graduate high
school and have the state one hundred percent not only
cover your college education, but from almost any high school
student that graduates high school go into a technical or
community college training program for free and actually do that
while you're in high school. You don't even have to wait,
(41:41):
and so I think it's one of the strengths. We're
joined by the Director General of the International Bacalaria Program
and let me get to as we close, this is
the last question since you've been very generously gave you
your time and your commandant. We have a lot of
people in our audience. Some are parents, let's phrase it's
some many our grandparents up to thirty and they're basically saying,
this sounds great. How do I get my kid or
(42:04):
my grandkid in many cases into an international baccalaureat program?
Where do I find out more information? How do I
find schools that are doing this right now so I
don't have to wait and form a school, but I
can do this on a short, short basis.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
Does that how do they do that? Well?
Speaker 7 (42:19):
I think we have in Louisiana. We have nine.
Speaker 5 (42:25):
Ib World schools, and of course those are open for
applications definitely for students to join. We have actually a
tenth school which is a pilot school right now, the
first one in the world.
Speaker 7 (42:41):
It's the Monroe High.
Speaker 5 (42:43):
Where they are we are piloting the idea that with
the diploma program. Everywhere in the world it takes about
a year and a half to two years for the
school to go through the authorization program before it can
(43:04):
start teaching the diploma program. We have here a pilot
where the Monroe High is now starting, so that there
is no authorization process that they are starting right now,
and that gives new abilities for students to join the
(43:26):
IB programs. So that's kind of something new. I would
like to mention also that there is the Hammond High
Magnet School, which is in Louisiana the only career related
program for those parents and those students who are looking
(43:51):
for opportunities to have the academic capability but at the
same time specialize into an area that would allow them
to move.
Speaker 7 (44:03):
Straight through the world of work.
Speaker 5 (44:05):
And that's an kind of another opportunity that I think
that there is more need in the future.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Also in this thing, I'm very excited about the Munroe
program because there's I've talked to many school fishers who
are watching it are like, we want to start up
schools doing this, and with our charter system here in Louisiana,
we can do this. We'll talk more about that on
future shows and in the Louisiana Weekly. But I want
to thank you for joining us so much. And is
there a website people can find out more information with
the International Baccalaria Program.
Speaker 7 (44:33):
Definitely there is.
Speaker 5 (44:34):
It's kind of the The IB website is open to everybody.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
All right, folks, We'll be back with the patriotic movement
right after these important messages.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
Stay tuned.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Tickets are available for the New Orleans Opera and our
fantastic season at New Orleans Opera dot org. New Orleans
Opera dot org. Check out what's available at New Orleans
Opera dot org.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
It's Chapahan McHenry and I'm here to tell you about
our ministry, LAM Ministry. We're an intercity ministry with an
intercity formula and focus for inner city folks.
Speaker 4 (45:04):
Please check us out. Go to our website lambnola dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:07):
That's l A m b n O l a dot com,
or just call me Chaplin Himik interrate air code five
zero four seven two three nine three six nine. Folks,
we need all the help we can get. We need volunteers,
we need financial support, and we need prayer warriors. So
if you want to get involved with a very exciting
and challenging ministry in veriable warding ministry, please contact us.
Just go to our website lamb nola dot com or
(45:29):
call me Chapelini Mick interrate aer code five zero four
seven two three nine three six nine. And thank you
so very much, God bless you.
Speaker 3 (45:38):
Give the gift to flowers by going to Villaries Florists
at one eight hundred VI L L E E or
Villariesflowers dot com for all of your floral needs. Baskets
and flowers available at two locations on Highway one ninety
in Covington and a Martin Berman in Mettery ride off
Veterans right near the Orleans Jefferson Lines for all your
floral needs. Give them a call one eight hundred VI
I L L E R E and tell them you heard
it here on the Founder Show.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Listen to the Founders Show, the voice of the Founding Fathers.
And it's not time for us to go into our
chaplain by patriotic moment. We just take a brief moment
to remind you of the biblical foundations of our country,
our Judeo Christian jurisprudence.
Speaker 4 (46:16):
And today I'd like to talk about education.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Guvn of Mars, who was considered to be the most
the expert on the Constitution. Why is that he was
a recording secretary. He was also a very brilliant fellow.
He gave more speeches during the Constitutional Convention than any
other of the Founding Fathers. To think of it, he's
writing it, not meaning generating it, but copying it.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
He's a recording secretary.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
And if you look at the very original one, that's
his penmanship, not the nice one that's in the archives
right now. Anyway, this Guva of Mars said, who is
also known as the father of American education. Now that
was his name, Gouvernor. He wasn't a governor, but that
was his name. It's French. And he said, of all schools,
public and private, the primary textbook should be the Holy Bible,
(47:08):
and folks, he was the father of American education. Now,
to add a little more to this, and I can
add many things to it. What Washington and so many
the other founding fathers said about education in God having
to be in the center of it, Jesus Christ as
the chief cornerstone, as George Washington and Ben Franklin said,
this was John Quincy Adams. We're talking about how well
(47:30):
educated people can become. Do you know that Adams, at
the age of thirteen, was the assistant ambassador, the Lieutenant
ambassador to Russia. He spoke fluent Russian, French, and of
course English and Latin and Greek Biblical Latin, Greek, Folks
this is what John Quincy Adams said, The highest glory
(47:53):
of the American Revolution was this. It connected in one
dissoluble bond, that means, inseparable bond, the principles of civil
government with the principles of Christianity. I think these men
want to keep God in government. They did, and they
especially want to keep God in schools because they knew
the way you educated people was going to be the
way they behaved in the future and the way we
(48:15):
would get good, strong citizens.
Speaker 4 (48:17):
They needed to have a solid, good education.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
Well, folks, what about you do you have a good,
solid education with the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to
need that to pass the test, the final exam, to
get into Heaven. And I'm gonna tell you how you
can do it. It's actually very easy. It's not hard. It
doesn't take a great intellect, It doesn't take a lot
of academic study. It just takes the faith of a
(48:40):
little child. Because you see, it's all about love. That's
what God's all about. He's all about love. The fact
the scription even says God is love. So folks, think
of think of the deep, the depth of that mean
of that phrase, the meaning of it.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Think of it.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Love is what it's all about. And you don't have
to have a great intellect to have love. And God's
looking at you. He's not looking at your IQ scores.
He's looking at your heart IQ, not your brain IQ,
your heart IQ, which is about character and anybody and
everybody can have that, folks. This is what it takes
(49:15):
to pass the exam. The Bible says, for God's soul
love the world. That's you, that's everybody. That he gave
his only begotten son. That's the Lord, Jesus Christ, perfect God,
perfect man, all the way God, all the way Man.
He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him,
host server, that's you believeth in him? Well, what does
that mean, just believe he's there or something. No, you
got to believe about what he did, who he really
(49:35):
is and what he did. Well, first of all, he's God.
The second thing is he's also one hundred percent man.
The other thing you have to realize is that he
took care of your He passed the exam for you
with straight with a straight a one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (49:48):
He passed it for you.
Speaker 2 (49:50):
He did that when he died on the cross, for
all of your sins from the day you're born the
day you die. You tie it's the greatest sins. And
then he was buried and rose from the dead. The
scripture says, to win for you his precious free gift
of resurrection, everlasting life. Jesus kept saying, repent and believe.
So repentance is part of this and all that planning
simply means. It's humility. It means you can't do it.
(50:12):
You're hopeless and help us without God. You just bottom line,
a loser before your creator. Don't worry about it. He
still loves you. Take the free gift of heaven, Take
the free gift of the complete payment for your sins.
Take that free gift. But to take it as a
free gift, you cannot trust yourself. And that's what repentance is.
When you quit trusting in yourself, when you realize you're
(50:33):
a hopeless and help us without God, destined to a
burning hell. When you get to that low point, that's
a good point because now you're finally free to put
faith alone in Christ alone. If you've never done this before,
do it now. Don't wait untill it's too late, folks,
And so folks, Now it's time for us to go
into our testimony time. Well, I'm just going to tell
you a short story about some wonderful person, whether it's
(50:56):
current times or in fact one day. Christopher is going
to do this for me his life. Now I'll do
it for you for my life one day, and that
is what is your life story? Well, here's a great
life story. It's a guy from New Orleans, w He's
one of the most brilliant people we've ever had in
this city. The Europeans in his day that he lived
in the nineteenth century, was considered to be the greatest
(51:16):
literary figure America had ever produced. And not just in literature,
poetry and song. He did it all prose, poetry and song.
His music was we're in the top forty of Europe.
They didn't have the top forty, but he was that popular, folks.
His name was Father Roquette, Adrian Roquette. He fell madly
in love with an Indian princess o'shula that means bird singer.
(51:37):
She's a Choctaw, and when they were very young, she
passed away. It broke his heart and he took a
vow of celibacy to never seek another woman, and in
the process he thought, well, then with this, with my
current state, I might as well become a priest.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
He did, he was groomed.
Speaker 2 (51:53):
He went to Europe, since to Europe with finance education
so you could get and finance universities, and came back
and was being groomed to be the archbishop of the
Saint Louis Cathedral. He gave all that up to go
live with the Indians as a poor missionary, where he
wrote all these fabulous works that are now housed in
the Tulane University Archives, the John Minor Wisdom Collection. Never
(52:19):
translated into English except for one work. Folks, one day,
I want to get him all translated. What a treasure
we have here in this city. What an amazing story
of a man who committed himself to God. And the
Choctaw Indians loved him so much that at his funeral
they came from all over the country to be here
for his funeral. A few weeks later, after they'd buried him,
his body disappeared. What happened to his body, Well, you
(52:40):
know what I think, And some think the Indians stole
it because they wanted him buried in their secret burro
ground with his beloved o'shula, which is actually in Fountain
Blue State Park, but they still don't know quite where
it is because it was a secret barrow ground. What
an amazing story from New Orleans, folks. A great man,
a great man of God. I got a man who
(53:01):
loved to preach a gospel and love the word. Translated
the Bible into their language of Choctaw language he and
his brother did.
Speaker 4 (53:07):
We'll focus. Time for us to close now.
Speaker 2 (53:08):
As we close with the mont Saint Martin singing a
Creole goodbye and God bless all out there?
Speaker 7 (53:15):
Does this have to be the end of the nerd?
Speaker 4 (53:21):
You know I love you?
Speaker 6 (53:23):
In the pamal land, I can see across the million
stars looking, we can pose it's the sun time. I
(53:45):
suppose you couldn't call it a crist.
Speaker 7 (53:50):
If we take just be
Speaker 6 (53:54):
Longer to see our good
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