He is working *all* the time. Until midnight on weeknights and all day on the weekends. Not only that, he has now started to fail the math tests. This is a kid who has always gotten As in math.
The head of this school says that kids shouldn't be "happy" in high school. I'm not sure what to make of that.
Hmm.
1. Have you asked the guy running the school or the teachers if the workload increases with time? These people will give you information accurate for your situation. I expect that IB programs vary a lot.
2. What do you want your son to get out of this program and/or out of school in general? If you look closely, what's the quality of his assignments? Do they get him to think, or are they just piled on under a banner that shouts
RIGOR = MORE HOMEWORK! ?
Is your son getting what you want from this program? Or is he simply crushing through from assignment to assignment and from test to test? What's he really learning? Is the IB program at his school teaching him to be a thoughtful person, or is he learning how to be hyper-industrious? Or is the answer somewhere in between? If so, how does the balance feel to you?
Americans prize industriousness. Getting stuff done is great, but unfortunately, the idea seems to have been taken to extremes in high-performing schools. For example, a recent principal of Stuyvesant High School used to tell incoming freshmen that they had to pick two out of three: grades, friends, and sleep (he got resigned a couple months ago in the wake of the cheating scandal). Sorry, but that's ridiculous. This is not an opinion. It's a fact.
We escaped this problem with our eldest by homeschooling. CTY, AoPS, Stanford, and other places have good online courses.
