November 2021 TOK essay prescribed title #2 RLE – Witold Pilecki and the WWII concentration camps

“The Polish resistance had been hearing horrific first- or second-hand accounts about the conditions inside Auschwitz. These early accounts came primarily from released prisoners, but also from casual observers like railway employees and residents of the nearby village of Oswiecim. The resistance decided they needed someone on the inside. It Read more…

November 2021 TOK essay prescribed title #5 RLE – Maus (WWII graphic novel)

Article” Why ‘Maus’ remains ‘the greatest graphic novel ever written,’ 30 years later. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/08/11/why-maus-remains-the-greatest-graphic-novel-ever-written-30-years-later/ Art Spiegelman’s WWII graphic novel Maus is important not just for its depiction of the Holocaust but also for the impact it had on views of graphic novels. Previous to Maus, graphic novels were often viewed as Read more…

November 2021 TOK essay prescribed title #6 RLE – hockey riots in Vancouver

Article: Riots erupt in Vancouver after Canucks loss “Riot police fired tear gas, pepper spray and flash bombs in downtown Vancouver Wednesday night to try to disperse angry rioters who set cars on fire, looted stores and taunted police officers after the Canucks’ 4-0 Stanley Cup final loss to the Boston Bruins. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/riots-erupt-in-vancouver-after-canucks-loss-1.993707 In the aftermath Read more…

November 2021 TOK Essay Prescribed Title #4 RLE – Russian sniper cartoon

The website Rejected Princesses focuses on underrepresented parts of history and uses a comic-style format: “”Well-behaved women seldom make history. Rejected Princesses celebrates those who did. Part art project, part standup routine, part book report, this site imagines what if we made animated musicals about the women of history and myth who refused to behave.” https://www.rejectedprincesses.com Read more…

November 2021 TOK essay prescribed title #3 RLE – History education and exams

“Rote memorization has displaced critical thinking and driven young Japanese students away from the study of history, argues the author, who blames the universities’ own fact-driven entrance examinations for the crisis facing the humanities and social sciences in higher education.” https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a05103/exam-hell-and-the-crisis-in-history-education.html The focus on “obvious facts” (i.e. basic rote memorization) is Read more…

November 2021 TOK essay prescribed title #1 RLE – traditional Japanese art (Kintsugi)

Article: Kintsugi: The Centuries-Old Art of Repairing Broken Pottery with Gold “Poetically translated to “golden joinery,” Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. Rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive, the Kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Read more…