How an International Baccalaureate Education
The Riverview High School seniors in James Minor’s International Baccalaureate English Language and Literature class broke into groups to fill out concept maps. They addressed questions rooted in the concept of existentialism—a topic they had been studying over the last few days.
Students connected themes in Samuel Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” and Albert Camus’s book The Myth of Sisyphus to other works covered in class. These other materials included the poetry of Margaret Atwood, which explores gender and identity, Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness, a critique of European colonialism, the Marvel movie “Black Panther,” which addresses neocolonialism (a situation where powerful countries indirectly control or influence the economies of less powerful countries even when those countries are officially independent and sovereign), and comedian Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime which explores his childhood in South Africa’s era of apartheid.
