Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

The country's achievements in education have other nations, especially the United States, doing their homework

By LynNell Hancock
Photographs by Stuart Conway
Smithsonian magazine, September 2011, Subscribe

"This is what we do every day," says Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School principal Kari Louhivuori, "prepare kids for life." (Stuart Conway)

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There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. Every school has the same national goals and draws from the same pool of university-trained educators. The result is that a Finnish child has a good shot at getting the same quality education no matter whether he or she lives in a rural village or a university town. The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world, according to the most recent survey by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union.

Ninety-three percent of Finns graduate from academic or vocational high schools, 17.5 percentage points higher than the United States, and 66 percent go on to higher education, the highest rate in the European Union. Yet Finland spends about 30 percent less per student than the United States.

Still, there is a distinct absence of chest-thumping among the famously reticent Finns. They are eager to celebrate their recent world hockey championship, but PISA scores, not so much. “We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a former math and physics teacher who is now in Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture. “We are not much interested in PISA. It’s not what we are about.”

Maija Rintola stood before her chattering class of twenty-three 7- and 8-year-olds one late April day in Kirkkojarven Koulu. A tangle of multicolored threads topped her copper hair like a painted wig. The 20-year teacher was trying out her look for Vappu, the day teachers and children come to school in riotous costumes to celebrate May Day. The morning sun poured through the slate and lemon linen shades onto containers of Easter grass growing on the wooden sills. Rintola smiled and held up her open hand at a slant—her time-tested “silent giraffe,” which signaled the kids to be quiet. Little hats, coats, shoes stowed in their cubbies, the children wiggled next to their desks in their stocking feet, waiting for a turn to tell their tale from the playground. They had just returned from their regular 15 minutes of playtime outdoors between lessons. “Play is important at this age,” Rintola would later say. “We value play.”

With their wiggles unwound, the students took from their desks little bags of buttons, beans and laminated cards numbered 1 through 20. A teacher’s aide passed around yellow strips representing units of ten. At a smart board at the front of the room, Rintola ushered the class through the principles of base ten. One girl wore cat ears on her head, for no apparent reason. Another kept a stuffed mouse on her desk to remind her of home. Rintola roamed the room helping each child grasp the concepts. Those who finished early played an advanced “nut puzzle” game. After 40 minutes it was time for a hot lunch in the cathedral-like cafeteria.

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

It’s almost unheard of for a child to show up hungry or homeless. Finland provides three years of maternity leave and subsidized day care to parents, and preschool for all 5-year-olds, where the emphasis is on play and socializing. In addition, the state subsidizes parents, paying them around 150 euros per month for every child until he or she turns 17. Ninety-seven percent of 6-year-olds attend public preschool, where children begin some academics. Schools provide food, medical care, counseling and taxi service if needed. Student health care is free.

Even so, Rintola said her children arrived last August miles apart in reading and language levels. By April, nearly every child in the class was reading, and most were writing. Boys had been coaxed into literature with books like Kapteeni Kalsarin (“Captain Underpants”). The school’s special education teacher teamed up with Rintola to teach five children with a variety of behavioral and learning problems. The national goal for the past five years has been to mainstream all children. The only time Rintola’s children are pulled out is for Finnish as a Second Language classes, taught by a teacher with 30 years’ experience and graduate school training.

It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards. One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.

Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.

“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens. By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn.

Years later, a 20-year-old Besart showed up at Kirkkojarvi’s Christmas party with a bottle of Cognac and a big grin. “You helped me,” he told his former teacher. Besart had opened his own car repair firm and a cleaning company. “No big fuss,” Louhivuori told me. “This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.”

This tale of a single rescued child hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators. Finnish schooling became an unlikely hot topic after the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” contrasted it with America’s troubled public schools.

“Whatever it takes” is an attitude that drives not just Kirkkojarvi’s 30 teachers, but most of Finland’s 62,000 educators in 3,500 schools from Lapland to Turku—professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education. Many schools are small enough so that teachers know every student. If one method fails, teachers consult with colleagues to try something else. They seem to relish the challenges. Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school. The school where Louhivuori teaches served 240 first through ninth graders last year; and in contrast with Finland’s reputation for ethnic homogeneity, more than half of its 150 elementary-level students are immigrants—from Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia, among other nations. “Children from wealthy families with lots of education can be taught by stupid teachers,” Louhivuori said, smiling. “We try to catch the weak students. It’s deep in our thinking.”

The transformation of the Finns’ education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country’s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. “I’m still surprised,” said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. “I didn’t realize we were that good.”

In the United States, which has muddled along in the middle for the past decade, government officials have attempted to introduce marketplace competition into public schools. In recent years, a group of Wall Street financiers and philanthropists such as Bill Gates have put money behind private-sector ideas, such as vouchers, data-driven curriculum and charter schools, which have doubled in number in the past decade. President Obama, too, has apparently bet on competition. His Race to the Top initiative invites states to compete for federal dollars using tests and other methods to measure teachers, a philosophy that would not fly in Finland. “I think, in fact, teachers would tear off their shirts,” said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal with 24 years of teaching experience. “If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.”

There are exceptions, though, however rare. One first-grade girl was not in Rintola’s class. The wispy 7-year-old had recently arrived from Thailand speaking not a word of Finnish. She was studying math down the hall in a special “preparing class” taught by an expert in multicultural learning. It is designed to help children keep up with their subjects while they conquer the language. Kirkkojarvi’s teachers have learned to deal with their unusually large number of immigrant students. The city of Espoo helps them out with an extra 82,000 euros a year in “positive discrimination” funds to pay for things like special resource teachers, counselors and six special needs classes.

Rintola will teach the same children next year and possibly the next five years, depending on the needs of the school. “It’s a good system. I can make strong connections with the children,” said Rintola, who was handpicked by Louhivuori 20 years ago. “I understand who they are.” Besides Finnish, math and science, the first graders take music, art, sports, religion and textile handcrafts. English begins in third grade, Swedish in fourth. By fifth grade the children have added biology, geography, history, physics and chemistry.

Not until sixth grade will kids have the option to sit for a district-wide exam, and then only if the classroom teacher agrees to participate. Most do, out of curiosity. Results are not publicized. Finnish educators have a hard time understanding the United States’ fascination with standardized tests. “Americans like all these bars and graphs and colored charts,” Louhivuori teased, as he rummaged through his closet looking for past years’ results. “Looks like we did better than average two years ago,” he said after he found the reports. “It’s nonsense. We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.”

I had come to Kirkkojarvi to see how the Finnish approach works with students who are not stereotypically blond, blue-eyed and Lutheran. But I wondered if Kirkkojarvi’s success against the odds might be a fluke. Some of the more vocal conservative reformers in America have grown weary of the “We-Love-Finland crowd” or so-called Finnish Envy. They argue that the United States has little to learn from a country of only 5.4 million people—4 percent of them foreign born. Yet the Finns seem to be onto something. Neighboring Norway, a country of similar size, embraces education policies similar to those in the United States. It employs standardized exams and teachers without master’s degrees. And like America, Norway’s PISA scores have been stalled in the middle ranges for the better part of a decade.

To get a second sampling, I headed east from Espoo to Helsinki and a rough neighborhood called Siilitie, Finnish for “Hedgehog Road” and known for having the oldest low-income housing project in Finland. The 50-year-old boxy school building sat in a wooded area, around the corner from a subway stop flanked by gas stations and convenience stores. Half of its 200 first- through ninth-grade students have learning disabilities. All but the most severely impaired are mixed with the general education children, in keeping with Finnish policies.

A class of first graders scampered among nearby pine and birch trees, each holding a stack of the teacher’s homemade laminated “outdoor math” cards. “Find a stick as big as your foot,” one read. “Gather 50 rocks and acorns and lay them out in groups of ten,” read another. Working in teams, the 7- and 8-year-olds raced to see how quickly they could carry out their tasks. Aleksi Gustafsson, whose master’s degree is from Helsinki University, developed the exercise after attending one of the many workshops available free to teachers. “I did research on how useful this is for kids,” he said. “It’s fun for the children to work outside. They really learn with it.”

Gustafsson’s sister, Nana Germeroth, teaches a class of mostly learning-impaired children; Gustafsson’s students have no learning or behavioral issues. The two combined most of their classes this year to mix their ideas and abilities along with the children’s varying levels. “We know each other really well,” said Germeroth, who is ten years older. “I know what Aleksi is thinking.”

The school receives 47,000 euros a year in positive discrimination money to hire aides and special education teachers, who are paid slightly higher salaries than classroom teachers because of their required sixth year of university training and the demands of their jobs. There is one teacher (or assistant) in Siilitie for every seven students.

In another classroom, two special education teachers had come up with a different kind of team teaching. Last year, Kaisa Summa, a teacher with five years’ experience, was having trouble keeping a gaggle of first-grade boys under control. She had looked longingly into Paivi Kangasvieri’s quiet second-grade room next door, wondering what secrets the 25-year-veteran colleague could share. Each had students of wide-ranging abilities and special needs. Summa asked Kangasvieri if they might combine gymnastics classes in hopes good behavior might be contagious. It worked. This year, the two decided to merge for 16 hours a week. “We complement each other,” said Kangasvieri, who describes herself as a calm and firm “father” to Summa’s warm mothering. “It is cooperative teaching at its best,” she says.

Every so often, principal Arjariita Heikkinen told me, the Helsinki district tries to close the school because the surrounding area has fewer and fewer children, only to have people in the community rise up to save it. After all, nearly 100 percent of the school’s ninth graders go on to high schools. Even many of the most severely disabled will find a place in Finland’s expanded system of vocational high schools, which are attended by 43 percent of Finnish high-school students, who prepare to work in restaurants, hospitals, construction sites and offices. “We help situate them in the right high school,” said then deputy principal Anne Roselius. “We are interested in what will become of them in life.”

Finland’s schools were not always a wonder. Until the late 1960s, Finns were still emerging from the cocoon of Soviet influence. Most children left public school after six years. (The rest went to private schools, academic grammar schools or folk schools, which tended to be less rigorous.) Only the privileged or lucky got a quality education.

The landscape changed when Finland began trying to remold its bloody, fractured past into a unified future. For hundreds of years, these fiercely independent people had been wedged between two rival powers—the Swedish monarchy to the west and the Russian czar to the east. Neither Scandinavian nor Baltic, Finns were proud of their Nordic roots and a unique language only they could love (or pronounce). In 1809, Finland was ceded to Russia by the Swedes, who had ruled its people some 600 years. The czar created the Grand Duchy of Finland, a quasi-state with constitutional ties to the empire. He moved the capital from Turku, near Stockholm, to Helsinki, closer to St. Petersburg. After the czar fell to the Bolsheviks in 1917, Finland declared its independence, pitching the country into civil war. Three more wars between 1939 and 1945—two with the Soviets, one with Germany—left the country scarred by bitter divisions and a punishing debt owed to the Russians. “Still we managed to keep our freedom,” said Pasi Sahlberg, a director general in the Ministry of Education and Culture.

In 1963, the Finnish Parlia-ment made the bold decision to choose public education as its best shot at economic recovery. “I call this the Big Dream of Finnish education,” said Sahlberg, whose upcoming book, Finnish Lessons, is scheduled for release in October. “It was simply the idea that every child would have a very good public school. If we want to be competitive, we need to educate everybody. It all came out of a need to survive.”

Practically speaking—and Finns are nothing if not practical—the decision meant that goal would not be allowed to dissipate into rhetoric. Lawmakers landed on a deceptively simple plan that formed the foundation for everything to come. Public schools would be organized into one system of comprehensive schools, or peruskoulu, for ages 7 through 16. Teachers from all over the nation contributed to a national curriculum that provided guidelines, not prescriptions. Besides Finnish and Swedish (the country’s second official language), children would learn a third language (English is a favorite) usually beginning at age 9. Resources were distributed equally. As the comprehensive schools improved, so did the upper secondary schools (grades 10 through 12). The second critical decision came in 1979, when reformers required that every teacher earn a fifth-year master’s degree in theory and practice at one of eight state universities—at state expense. From then on, teachers were effectively granted equal status with doctors and lawyers. Applicants began flooding teaching programs, not because the salaries were so high but because autonomy and respect made the job attractive. In 2010, some 6,600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots, according to Sahlberg. By the mid-1980s, a final set of initiatives shook the classrooms free from the last vestiges of top-down regulation. Control over policies shifted to town councils. The national curriculum was distilled into broad guidelines. National math goals for grades one through nine, for example, were reduced to a neat ten pages. Sifting and sorting children into so-called ability groupings was eliminated. All children—clever or less so—were to be taught in the same classrooms, with lots of special teacher help available to make sure no child really would be left behind. The inspectorate closed its doors in the early ’90s, turning accountability and inspection over to teachers and principals. “We have our own motivation to succeed because we love the work,” said Louhivuori. “Our incentives come from inside.”

To be sure, it was only in the past decade that Finland’s international science scores rose. In fact, the country’s earliest efforts could be called somewhat Stalinistic. The first national curriculum, developed in the early ’70s, weighed in at 700 stultifying pages. Timo Heikkinen, who began teaching in Finland’s public schools in 1980 and is now principal of Kallahti Comprehensive School in eastern Helsinki, remembers when most of his high-school teachers sat at their desks dictating to the open notebooks of compliant children.

And there are still challenges. Finland’s crippling financial collapse in the early ’90s brought fresh economic challenges to this “confident and assertive Eurostate,” as David Kirby calls it in A Concise History of Finland. At the same time, immigrants poured into the country, clustering in low-income housing projects and placing added strain on schools. A recent report by the Academy of Finland warned that some schools in the country’s large cities were becoming more skewed by race and class as affluent, white Finns choose schools with fewer poor, immigrant populations.

A few years ago, Kallahti principal Timo Heikkinen began noticing that, increasingly, affluent Finnish parents, perhaps worried about the rising number of Somali children at Kallahti, began sending their children to one of two other schools nearby. In response, Heikkinen and his teachers designed new environmental science courses that take advantage of the school’s proximity to the forest. And a new biology lab with 3-D technology allows older students to observe blood flowing inside the human body.

It has yet to catch on, Heikkinen admits. Then he added: “But we are always looking for ways to improve.”

In other words, whatever it takes.

Lynnell Hancock writes about education and teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Photographer Stuart Conway lives in East Sussex, near the south coast of England.

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Additional Sources

“The Children Must Play: What the United States could learn from Finland about education reform” by Samuel E. Abrams, The New Republic, January 28, 2011

“Once a Leader, U.S. Lags in College Degrees” by Tamar Lewin, The New York Times, July 23, 2010

Comments (194)

Finnish people deserve this great honour of being the nation with the best system of education. This I strongly belive is as a result of the respecvt accorded the teachers and also the tremendous role the government plays in ensuring that the common citizen of Finland is educated to be alble to contribute to national development. The alphabet of the finnish language is far smaller than that of the English Language which contributes to speedy and interested learning process. By Mohamed Kamara.

Posted by Mohamed Kamara on April 17,2013 | 11:23 AM

Correction to my last post: This fundamental difference has an enormous impact... (not impacts). A description of the costs of English spelling is given here: http://improvingenglishspelling.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/costs-of-english-spelling.html The 3,700 common English words with one or more unpredictable letters are listed here: http://englishspellingproblems.blogspot.com/2010/11/english-spelling-rules.html

Posted by Masha Bell on April 16,2013 | 03:58 AM

All those who have been impressed by Finland's superior results in international comparisons, and have tried to find the reasons for them, have persistently failed to notice the unique educational advantage which the Finns gave their children after gaining independence from Sweden: they modernised their spelling system. Finish has 38 sounds and spells them with just 38 graphemes (which are single letters or combinations like ai or ch). This enables Finnish pupils to learn to read and write exceptionally quickly. English has 44 sounds and uses 91 main spellings for them, but 80 of them have variants, such as for the 'e' of 'bed, bet, bend' in 'head, said, friend, many, leopard'. For this reason English has ended up with a total of 205 graphemes. But for beginning readers life is made even harder by 69 of them being used for more than one sound (e.g. 'man – many; 'sound – soup, touch') - http://englishspellingproblems.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/english-spelling-system.html . Because of this, English-speaking children need at least three years to acquire elementary reading and writing skills, while the Finns manage it in 6 months or less. This fundamental difference has an enormous impacts on all other aspects of education, including costs. English-speaking pupils are disadvantaged by Anglophone adults continuing to tolerate a spelling system which has become extremely learner-unfriendly over the past 350 years. Emulating Finnish schooling practices cannot make a difference to educational standards in the US without fundamental changes to English spelling habits.

Posted by Masha Bell on April 13,2013 | 12:01 PM

This is a wonderful article. I have read it many times. I founded a preschool in Georgia and we teach very much in this style. Children are not measured against each other and are taught in an organic fashion (the way they learn). Children learn so much between the ages of 3 to 5. Science has told us the importance of preschool education and yet it does not seem to be a major focus of Finnish model. I'm curious to understand more. I understand why they are so successful, however. Real Teachers are creative and Intrinsically motivated to help their students to achieve. Our testing methods are so detrimental. Teachers feel compelled to even lie about children's scores to keep their jobs. In th US we value money and competition. Sadly, this does not work for our educational system. We treat our schools like they are mini corporations. It is so sad - the answer to many of pur problems are right before us and yet we choose to ignore them. At our peril. Thank you for this article.

Posted by Suzanne Darley on April 9,2013 | 09:29 AM

@Victoria, They definitely have unions. Here's the teacher's union website: http://www.oaj.fi/portal/page?_pageid=515,452376&_dad=portal How does this not get in the way? I don't know.

Posted by Anthony on March 21,2013 | 06:37 PM

Remember Finland started their education reform 40 years ago. What I would like to know it what were the steps for their reform?

Posted by HLR on March 20,2013 | 02:43 PM

@Jamie, commenting on on December 5,2012. Just to correct the misunderstanding about PISA: the tested students are 15-year-olds, not High School graduates, so it is not a comparison between 17-year-old Americans and 19-year-old Finns or whomever. (http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/) Other than that I find it hard to comment on your entry as there is not that much factual information. As my personal opinion I would say the Finns would need to learn from Americans (and a few other nations, as well) to not be so committed to the Law of Jante.

Posted by Ellinor on March 19,2013 | 02:30 AM

Actually, Victoria, there is a teachers' union which advocates for teachers from day care to university. see http://www.oaj.fi/portal/page?_pageid=515,452376&_dad=portal

Posted by Joe on March 19,2013 | 11:13 AM

i want to be part

Posted by fannycia on March 13,2013 | 04:36 PM

Yes. My mom visited Finland and always returned convinced they had the right approach and unbiased pragmatism. There are many policies that make this a reality. Example: university and maybe high-school teachers are required to study and live abroad for at least one year before teaching anyone about whatever reality, and multiple languages are common. This is the reality of a global society, which we are not. We are a fear-based, for profit society, not so profoundly dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and free access to information. Education can be subverted by the perception/reality of hypocrisy. And why would you believe in those who don't care about you? Health care is excellent and socialized, not a way to financially exploit and bankrupt those without insurance or fail to provide care. Did you know no dental care exists in Obamacare-mandated insurance purchase? Check out Finland's health care.

Posted by pedro on March 10,2013 | 02:07 PM

As a school administrator for 15 years, I find this article very stimulating. It is about time we woke up and realized that our teachers are the foundation of our nation. They impact the future generations more than anyone else and we treat them like second class citizens many of whom live in poverty or take second jobs to make ends meet. Finland on the other hand values and respects their educators and puts money and effort into developing them. Do you think that makes a difference in a teachers perspective and attitude towards their job and the children they spend 7 hours a day with? Wake up America !!!

Posted by Robert Lofthouse on March 10,2013 | 11:52 AM

If you are not in Finland and want this for your child, seek Waldorf education. It's very much like this philosophy and really works!

Posted by hugh broughton on February 28,2013 | 02:55 PM

This is a beautifully upsetting wonderful thing

Posted by ryan on February 20,2013 | 06:24 AM

I think this was a valuable quote "“If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect.” The US is so statistic and money focused they have forgotten about the human aspect, which really should be what everything is all about.

Posted by PBScott on February 18,2013 | 05:55 AM

There are 2 important things to note, the got rid of their top down approach, similar to our garbage department of education. And I'm guessing there is no teachers union there. There is no mention of one. Which makes sense. The dept of Ed and the union are the bottle necks in the American public education system. Get rid of those and things will immediately improve.

Posted by Victoria on February 6,2013 | 05:32 PM

I think it is a interesting thing of what is written, but the translation in german is just awful!!! Can't understand how this is possible!!!

Posted by Christa Heller on February 1,2013 | 10:00 AM

This is really suprizing me seems finnish schools are really good. I olso have one website about them: http://www.finlandschooleducation.com

Posted by Andrus on January 19,2013 | 01:13 PM

It seems that the reason for the overwhelming educational success for the children in Finland is due to the amount of extra support that they receive in the form of special education teachers, resource teachers, and aides - 30% of the school population. If US schools were able to fund that type of support for "struggling" students, we would see similar results!

Posted by special education teacher on January 8,2013 | 02:17 PM

Compulsory education is only grades 1 through 9 in Finland; they don't burn out their students with boring reveiw and repetition. Religion is mandatory in each grade with an emphasis on Lutheran Christianity, as well as each students religion. Maybe we should try it....however the Supreme Court won't allow it. So.....be happy with mediocrity and boredom.

Posted by Paul on December 30,2012 | 03:35 PM

Bunch of sour Americans having a difficult time admitting, that the primary to sencondary system in the U.S., is not as good as other develop nations.

Posted by Jaime on December 25,2012 | 04:54 AM

Sorry but to compare Finlands school system with the U.S. is ludicrous...Finland's entire populatin is 5+ millioin...California's population is 37+ million...let's not even try to compare apples to oranges.

Posted by Tina Mylius on December 15,2012 | 02:23 PM

I guess i got a hard question. I'm interested if the teachers noticed a difference with changing generations, was it easier to teach children who's parents allready had this kind of education? I know, the teachers who experienced a change of generations might also find it easier to teach children cause of the experience they got in those 20+ year, pls try to differ. If somebody can help me answering this question, pls write me an E-Mail. :)

Posted by Klemens on December 12,2012 | 02:32 AM

This story should be taken to heart by all industries. The idea that the people actually doing a job are best at deciding how to do it and should be given maximum freedom in how they do it is very powerful. It is behind the success of all the successful Silicon Valley enterprises and its denial is behind the failures of all bureaucratic institutions. The best managers are good at picking talented people for the available jobs and then getting out of their way. A manager should set criteria for success, but leave the details of how to get there to the people best qualified to work those out.

Posted by Ullrich Fischer on December 12,2012 | 02:18 PM

Interesting how teachers are selected from the best and brightest in finland. In the US teachers are low paid and generally dumb.

Posted by Jeovan on December 10,2012 | 05:40 AM

I wish everything stated in this article was true. There ARE rankings of schools (only high schools, though) published every year. While they aren't published by the government or any authorities, all the major medias publish the lists. This is one of the reasons why it's difficult to gain admission into certain high schools. I'm a graduate of one of these so-called elite high schools and I don't believe that the overall teaching there was any better than it would've been in a less prestigious school. However, I truly enjoyed the learning environment the school could offer; everyone was interested in doing their best and I met a lot of like-minded people there. While these schools do attract many good students, and it is certainly more difficult to get a teaching job in a school like this than in a so-called mediocre school, I still came across some teachers who had nothing to do with elite. We also began to practice for the mandatory senior year exams in our first year of high school. If we hadn't, I don't believe the school could've made it into the top 3 in the country.

Posted by Elite high schools on December 7,2012 | 11:00 AM

There's a friend who has taught in both Finland and the US. While there are some good features, here is what she says: >The PISA comparative studies are phony, junk science, comparing apples to oranges: US 17 year olds to foreign 19 year olds who are in what would be honors programs in the US in many cases and also ignore that in the US bright students are often homeschooled. US public students still blow equivalent students in other countries out of the water in math, native language, and science, and far more in civics, business and social affairs when such comparisons are adjusted. Many of the good features in the Finnish system are in many US schools such as those using Sudbury ideas. > The Finnish schools leave you poorly prepared as in those in several countries for university when you have to pay private tutors to be up to snuff. >The Master's program is a laugh, basically a 3 year certificate that would not rate a BA in the US and more equivalent to a 90 credit AS. A US teacher has twice the preparation and a real Master's in many cases.Many US teachers have BA's and MA's plus additional 1 year teacher training and practicum. She retrained in the US and found the courses rigorous and creative. >US students come in highly educated from the web, TV and home nowadays. If there is a problem, US administrators are more focused on discipline then keeping up with students bored with re-hashed subjects. US students make her Finnish students look like country bumpkins in terms of preparation, scepticism, realism, breadth, and creativity though the language teaching is an advantage in old Suomi. Finally, she thought the biggest difference are what we see here: In Finland many teachers self-congratulate, here they worry they're missing something and look for any data that might give an edge.

Posted by Jamie on December 5,2012 | 05:50 AM

Just a few corrections and notices: 1) Finnish universities and colleges now do have a time limit. 2) Finnish universities and colleges now have a bachelor & masters degree system. 3) One of the main reasons for the great atmosphere in Finland is that we DO NOT think that "you teach only if you cannot do". Some people just enjoy teaching. 4) Our teachers do NOT get paid 100 000$ a year. The salary is usually way below 50 000$.

Posted by A finn on November 29,2012 | 04:09 AM

The authors describe the programs in place at schools with high proportions of immigrant populations, implying that these schools are just as successful as other schools, due to Finland's supposedly unique approach to education. That is not the case. If one looks at the PISA results per school in Finland, the strong negative correlation between immigrant population and test scores is indisputable. Finland is certainly not a trendsetter in terms of pedagogical innovation. The relatively high rankings are the result of an indigenous population with a relatively high IQ and much fewer immigrants, compared with other Western nations such as Sweden, Germany, France, Norway or the United States.

Posted by Tapani on November 28,2012 | 06:05 AM

I am a teacher in the United States. I love my subject, and I love teaching. In addition, I was an extremely good student and in honors classes and societies throughout my schooling experience (college included). Teaching in America is a discouraging job. We teachers are the scapegoats for every thing that goes wrong in society, yet little to no responsibility is put on the parents of the students. Even less responsibility is put on the students--who are passed along eventually regardless of whether or not they've learned the necessary skills to move forward. There are so many problems with American education, to be honest, I'm not sure it's possible to correct the system. And yet we try. What I would like is for us to go to the German system--grammar school until about 12, then an aptitude test that determines whether you will go to an academic high school or a technical trade school. That way, I can teach students who might actually give a darn.

Posted by Heather on November 5,2012 | 01:20 PM

just did YOUR SPELLING demons kit with years 6/7. They worked like TROJANS to solve the PUZZLE and enjoyed the challenges! Had my doubts but it certainly worked for me! NEED to check the word lists SOME ARE IN THE WRONG BOXES (NUMBER LENGTH) plus one is written twice!

Posted by Nissan on October 5,2012 | 11:26 AM

As a Finn living in the US to me one of the key differences in the US and Finnish system are that as the article states that "resources were distributed equally" i.e. education related funds in Finland are distributed equally across the country. Herein lies the problem in the US: School funding varies by school district and is dependent on the wealth of the area the school is located in. Hence the areas where students likely need the most help (because they are not getting it at home) have the schools with poorest funding and least resources. Shortsighted strategy for the long term success of the country!

Posted by Pia on October 2,2012 | 04:11 AM

I found this article fascinating, and enjoyed reading the comments. However, nobody has challenged some posters' comments that the U.S. hires primarily the bottom tier of college graduates. @Russ and @Jerrydiakiw stated that our teachers are the bottom 25%, and @Amy claimed that our teachers typically come from the bottom 10%. She also stated that teaching is "a career for those who cannot find work elsewhere". Where do these statistics come from exactly? I was a high school teacher, and I was not in the bottom 10% or 25% of college graduates. I was in the honors program at my college and I received academic merit scholarships. The majority of my colleagues were very intelligent, well educated people. These posters just prove the point that teachers are not respected in the U.S. I would love to teach in a country where people respected my chosen profession and the vast amount of time and money I have spent to hone my craft. This is not to say that ALL teachers are well prepared. I do think that our teacher education programs can be inconsistent and that we are in need of national standards for teacher education programs. I remember that when I started my career, I had the option of doing an "internship", meaning that I could begin teaching right away - without any experience - and take classes towards my teaching credential at night. My parents encouraged me to do this, as I would have received a regular teacher's salary while completing the program, but I chose to take out loans and go to graduate school to get my teaching credential from the local university. I prefer to do things well if I'm going to do them at all, and it didn't seem fair to the students who would have been my "teaching experiments". I don't think this is still an option ten years later, but regardless, there is room for improvement in our preparation programs. Just please remember that there are many, many hard-working, highly educated, effective teachers in our country.

Posted by Kara on September 30,2012 | 04:25 AM

Finnish is a language written down exactly like it sounds. That's the reason for the disparity between Norway and Finland. Finns don't need to spend two years learning strange spellings and odd exceptions. Why else do most Finnish students learn to read and write in a year?

Posted by NorskeDiv on September 11,2012 | 02:40 AM

This is a truly awe-inspiring story. Finland, I salute you!

Posted by Daniel Lillford on September 5,2012 | 06:02 PM

The claim that "Teachers there must have a Master's Degree and the top 10% of their college graduates go into teaching" is a really strange claim. Yes, we have to have an MA but the rest of the claim is just rubbish. It's simply not true.

Posted by Suzie on September 1,2012 | 05:44 AM

When Russ stated "They do not have to deal with teachers' unions" he must have missed the section of the article containing the following quote “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education. All political parties on the right and left agree on this,” said Olli Luukkainen, president of Finland’s powerful teachers union The Finns seem to have more respect for the teaching profession than many Americans I wonder if that might just play a small role in their success.

Posted by Roxy on August 31,2012 | 12:51 AM

So I've read a TON of these articles lately - and I was just trying to research on how much money does our government spend on education this year - and I've noticed that most of these claim that we don't really have homework here in Finland. I feel like I should correct that; I'm a 2nd grader in High School and last year I spent from 30 minutes to 4 hours on homework every day. Before that, in primary school, I had the amount of homework increased a little by little each year - On first grade there was about 15 minutes work for me, but then on 9th grade it could take me an hour. Sure that's not much compared to most countries, but I just think it means that we have hardly any or almost no homework like these articles suggest. Also, it's not just the worse students, who go to vocational school, since some trades require an average of over 9 (our grades in primary and secondary schools go from 4 to 10, 4 being lowest and 10 highest), some of us know what we want to do and what we want doesn't require us to go to high school. Most of our high school's require an average that's somewhere between 7 and 9, but there are high schools, which have more students with higher averages trying to get in and thus their requirement on some years has been as whopping as 9,7. Thus it really isn't that "only" the best students go to high school. For instance, the high school, which I got into, the average required for entry after they got all the applications was around 8,5 the year I got in. But then there are schools, which don't have that many applicants and thus can take in kids with an average of lower than 7 but still usually higher than 6. Sorry for the long comment, I just felt like that neeed to be cleared up!

Posted by Finnish High School Student on August 23,2012 | 02:04 PM

An article that makes mention of teacher's unions in Finland, http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/state_edwatch/2011/11/_my_conclusion_is_that.html

Posted by on August 22,2012 | 01:22 AM

A great article about Finland’s the school system; for many years, I have always desired for the United States to revise their school system and in order to properly teach the children the same level of education across the board. I believe John F. Kennedy coined it perfectly when he said, Not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.” There are teachers that only teach according to their pay, etc. but there are those rare teachers who truly teach soley because they simply “care.” Now what I would like to read about is when Finland will start addressing the issues of alocholism amogmt the Finns...In the United States, one isn’t allowed to legally drink until the age of 21 but in Finland their children have been given the go ahead at age 18. There are many reports that go back many years how their men commit suicide. The educational system seems to work but when you have a society of people who drink until they pass out or they don’t address the fact that they have an alcohol problem, the education seems not to work out in the end. Free college is wonderful and they have come along way from being free but let’s stay with the kids, let’s really help them from the time they step in school until old age.

Posted by Nicola on August 20,2012 | 03:26 PM

I wish I could send my son to school in Finland. I like their approach to education. That same approach would never be feasible in the US for many reasons: 1. The Finns are not so eager to deny the religious background of the students, who are mostly Lutheran. 2. The teachers seem to do the job NOT because of the level of pay but because they truly care about educating the kids. 3. Their society is much more homogenous, so there is less difficulty teaching and accommodating children from different backgrounds. 4. I strongly suspect that children there are given more guidance and parental involvement than many of our kids get. 5. They do not have to deal with teachers' unions whose first concern is nothing to do with education, but solely 'how much money can our teachers be paid'. 6. Teachers there must have a Masters Degree and the top 10% of their college graduates go into teaching. Here they can teach with a Bachelor's degree and it's the bottom 25% of our college graduates going into teaching. It's not just the Finnish schools, there are a lot of related factors which help arrive at that excellent education. Perhaps one more is that over there, they expect the children to learn, and are willing to TEACH them. Here, making kids learn is often seen as 'memorization' and besides, that's a lot of work for the teacher to do, so they get lightweight lessons and no right or wrong answers.

Posted by Russ on August 12,2012 | 07:25 PM

I am a Finnish university lecturer and father of three children. In this article (as in most articles on this topic) there is one fact which is not true in my opinion: the claim that there is hardly any homework in Finnish schools. In primary school the children have homework every day. Every single day. Admittedly, it only takes something between fifteen minutes and one hour to do it, but still, there is homework. The amount of homework increases with age, and now in high school my children spend one to three hours a day for homework. Some assignments are extensive, and for exams you have to read dozens of pages. Compared to the amount of homework in e.g. East Asian countries I guess this is not much, but I still cannot understand why it is implied that homework barely exits in Finland. It is an integral part of learning in Finnish schools.

Posted by Tare on August 11,2012 | 07:01 PM

I like the school i want to speak finnish

Posted by isa on June 29,2012 | 02:48 PM

The corporate "educational reformers" (here in the USA) talk a lot about "evidence-based education". But why do they ignore the evidence? There is no evidence that shows that their regiment of narrowing education so that it becomes merely test prep in two subjects , will create a better-educated populace. In fact, all of the evidence is to the contrary. Finland, for example. Their educational model is just about the exact opposite of that pushed by the "reformers" here. Yet, Finnish students do better than everywhere else? Why is hard evidence like that ignored? Also, there is immense hard evidence showing that study of music and other arts greatly improves student learning in all subjects (see http://mspector.us/research.htm) Yet, since the arts are "not on the test", they are generally overlooked and neglected, in the "race to the top" of the garbage heap of mediocre narrowed education, consisting of nothing more than teaching to a very narrow test. Why do those who talk about "evidence-based education" ignore all the evidence? I would suggest that people write to President Obama about this, and encourage him after his re-election to dump the Dunc (Arne Duncan), and start his second term with a new Secretary of Education, who is not a shill for the privatizers, and really cares about students and education. Diane Ravitch for Secreatary of Education!

Posted by Mike on June 17,2012 | 09:38 AM

Amazing story and in many countries they can take it as an example: quality should be over quantity. In most schools they want to pour so many stuffs in children's heads as there is not enough place for it, kids don't learn to learn and there is just a mess. Later on, the mess is getting deeper and they need help not only in the lower classes but also in higher education and they really need services like superiorpapers.com and a like to survive. In my opinion less would be more valuable.

Posted by Larry Duncan on June 12,2012 | 03:49 PM

I picked up on the "43% of Finns go to vocational school" for high school. Just curious--are they included in the testing data? Because results would certainly be skewed if not. I agree there is WAY too much emphasis on standardized testing in the US. We also make the error of looking to schools to fix major societal problems--poverty, teen pregnancy, drug use, divorce, etc.

Posted by joe on May 17,2012 | 01:57 PM

Great story, meticulously researched and very informative. Would like to know about Finnish teacher salaries, professional development, and whether or not they have teachers unions--and how these factors contribute to their success, if at all.

Posted by Marion Jacobson on May 16,2012 | 09:51 PM

well if anything needs help, its chesterfield county in VA, USA. I Have to retake my trig class because my teacher doesn't allow us to do our problems, she does them. I got help from my brother paol and he was AMAZING!!! he walked me through exactly what to do and then i was fine. if teachers would take one more second to actually teach instead of sit on their computers then i think the world would be a WAYYYY more educated place.

Posted by Michael on May 15,2012 | 02:50 PM

I think that standardized testing that teachers in the US are forced to spend most of the school year preparing our children for just doesn't seem to be helping our children.

Posted by Natasha Gonell on April 30,2012 | 10:10 AM

Insprational story. Hope Australians educators take note and implement changes

Posted by Maria Harris on April 27,2012 | 12:50 AM

I really liked to read this article. I have learned many important things about Finnish education system. I am amazed. Hope one day my coutry and America can take advantage from Finnish system since I am tired of taking standardized tests. Also, I am going to use this topic for my presentation :)

Posted by Mehtap on April 18,2012 | 11:28 PM

Finland is a sparsely-populated and a very rural nation with long distnces between towns and has one of the world's coldest climates. So, what would work in Finland may not work in much of the world.

Posted by Christopher W. Clem on April 11,2012 | 01:20 PM

hi, i want to take inscription to the university. help me please.

Posted by bilala yamfu prince-olga on April 11,2012 | 06:28 AM

we finns are just cleverer ;)

Posted by lil on April 7,2012 | 12:29 PM

To Lily, who posted in January: The reasons behind those two "races" testing better than African- Americans and Latinos are that many of these minorities did not have the luxuries of education. In the early 1800s, it was almost impossible for an African-American to receive any kind of education. Pretty much, any "race" that was considered inferior to White Americans were forced to be in this position because they were not allowed schooling. As for Asians, that has to do more with the culture and countries they grew up in. I just wanted to inform you that if you look for scientific information to back up your claim, there will not be any because there is no such thing as "race" biologically. It is a social construct.

Posted by Gabrielle on April 1,2012 | 03:45 PM

What does it mean to be successful? Unemployment rate in Finland until recently was around 20% -- and Finns are among the folks who suffer much from depression. And what do we benefit if we gain the whole world but lose our own soul?

Posted by Enoch on March 27,2012 | 01:34 AM

Hi! I've just read the article and I found this article helpful and mind-opening. I live in the country where scores of students' weekly or monthly examination are valued more than their hidden talents or capabilities. We study, we don't learn. We memorize materials that sometimes we don't fully understand. Both teachers and students are haunted to achieve the so-called satisfying numbers, resulting in such amount of stress and pressure among the both parties. While in Finland, I think ambiance play a great deal in there. If you come to school light-hearted, get a 15 minutes break in between lessons, and come home with barely a homework, it's not magical you'll love school and therefore able to absorb your lesson better.

Posted by Eyusa on March 19,2012 | 12:36 AM

It sounds lovely, there in Finland. I teach in an inner city public school in Buffalo. I don't know about the poverty levels in Finland, but being in the third poorest city in the US, the difficult, multi-faceted issues that children and families endure here are part of the reasons that students have trouble in becoming educated in math and reading. They come into kindergarten not able to get along with other students, not able to learn, and have parents and guardians with their own crisises-in education, economics, housing, nutrition, drug and alcohol struggles. Not to say that every student comes from a critically dysfunctional family setting(and you can see daily the students who shine because their home lives are stable), but there are enough to determine that the high school drop out rate hovers at around 50%. Social services does try to address the needs of the mostly African-American population, but it is too little too late. We teachers continue to do what we do during the 6 hours we have them in our care, but the state standarized testing has everyone scrambling trying to address students' literacy and mathematics weaknesses. And play has no part in it, sadly enough. Our students get physical 2 times out of our 6 day cycle. I would love to begin a recess revival-teachers and administrators say there is not enough time since we have to push reading and math for the better part of most days. It is a conundrum of what to do. I want the kids in Buffalo to have a bright future-and they are our most precious resource.

Posted by melinda on March 8,2012 | 10:25 AM

As a teacher in the U.S., I am always interested and open minded towards learning better practices. However, if we want standardization, then we should settle for mediocrity. If we want to make better students and teachers, improving our education system in the process, we need to be open minded, study what works, and figure out how to make it work for us. The system is broken. Too much regulation and testing has killed the creativity in students. Without creativity, problem solving skills begin to dissipate. The zest for learning disappears because our lessons become militarized and lack interest and color. Impersonal attitudes pervade the school system because we just do what we must to survive. In essence, the U.S. education system is in survival mode bringing the engine to a slow halt. So I have no problem learning about systems that work. I just wish that the powers that be would read them with a thoughtful mindset. I want a better school. The students want a better school. In order to see that, though, we are going to have to care enough as a society to make education, not testing, a priority.

Posted by Denise on February 29,2012 | 12:09 AM

Finland still has a very homogenous population, and also there is a great deal of social equality due to high taxation and social programs, and strong unions and laws protecting workers. So it may be not so much that the schools are different, but that the society is quite different from the US.

We had a Finnish exchange student at my kid's high school last year. She told us that all the extra-curricular activities that we have at our schools are not provided by the schools, they are the province of youth and community centers. So the school budget in Finland is devoted to academic activities only (they have gym class, but not school teams, it seems).

Posted by Karen H. on February 25,2012 | 09:17 AM

This article makes a big deal about Finland's diversity, but it has the least immigration in Western Europe. Finland has an educational system well-adapted to Finns by Finns for Finns.

Posted by Steve Sailer on February 24,2012 | 05:17 AM

well in Finland they dont teach much to. Like look at Estonian education system its one of the worlds roughest 6th grade children have education like Finnish have in univerity.

Posted by rokesto on February 16,2012 | 09:49 AM

Hi all,
It's great seeing how much you care about this important thing. I'm Finnish citizen and moved to CA to do my research at UC Berkeley. My family moved along and my two kids 6 years and 10 years has been in public school now almost a year.

I have to say, that there are philosophical differences in Finnish and US school systems. Biggest "evil" there is testing and how it narrows subjects, creativity, joy and respect of teachers. I like to share this keynote presentation given by Pasi Sahlberg as a eye-opening, concrete interpretation, why so.

Link: http://www.pasisahlberg.com/downloads/FinnFest_2011_edu_seminar_keynote.pdf
Pasi Sahlberg is Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation)　in Helsinki, Finland. He has global expertise in educational reforms, training teachers, coaching schools and advising policy-makers. He has worked as teacher, teacher-educator, policy advisor and director in Finland and served the World Bank (Washington, DC) and the European Commission (Torino, Italy) as education expert. His fields of interest include educational change, school improvement, cooperative learning and international education policy. He recently published a book "Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn about educational change in Finland". He has PhD from the University of Jyväskylä and is Adjunct Professor at the Universities of Helsinki and Oulu.

Hoping all the best to you and to our children in a road of joyful learning!

Posted by Petri Morko on February 7,2012 | 04:25 AM

A better question would be: Why are Estonia's test scores so high, consistently second in Europe and well outpacing the US, despite spending about half of what the U.S. (and Finland) spend? And, why are the test scores of the Swedish speaking minority in Finland so mediocre? The answer is, Finno-Ugric, spoken officially only in Finland and Estonia. It is a pure, simple language, extremely easy to learn compared to English and other cobbled together languages. The jump start Finnish and Estonian kids get in speaking carries benefit all the way through. Yet....you don't hear of any teacher union junkets to Estonia to see how they achieve so much on so little. I think half of Finland's GNP is on PR for their schools! Read all about it: http://finnish-and-pisa.blogspot.com/

Posted by RGJ on January 31,2012 | 04:02 PM

The size of the country has nothing to do with the quality of education which, in the U.S. is first and foremost a state/local responsibility. There are 30+ U.S. states with the population of Finland. The difference between Finland and the U.S. is the fact that Finland has put its money where its mouth is.

My daughter and grandchildren live in Norway which follows the Finnish system of education. They love going to school and they love their teachers who, in Norway as, in Finland, are extremely well-paid and are considered professionals, on a par with lawyers, doctors and university professors.

Posted by John on January 28,2012 | 06:35 PM

Look, I know this is not going to be politically correct, but the article does not mention what percentage of the "under-performing" races there are in Finland public schools. It said something about many immigrants being there, but not all immigrants are created equal.

Like I said, I know this is not politically correct. It's not what people want to hear. But study after study has confirmed that Asian and white students do better in school, and pretty much in everything else, than black and Latino students. Look it up, folks. The facts speak for themselves.

Posted by Lily on January 25,2012 | 11:06 PM

Hi there,

Most marvelous article - makes me want to go to school there right now!

LM

Posted by Leslie McGovern on January 24,2012 | 02:11 PM

This is an impressive article. I think the model can work here in the United States. There are some variations of the experiment across the country and mexico. One experiment designed by Dr. Sharon Sutton Of the University of Washington (Seattle) is called "The Urban Network Program for Elementary and Middle Schools." Please view or look up the 1994 book, "Weaving a Tapestry of Resistance:The Places, Power, and Poetry of a Sustainable Society."

Posted by William Fredrick on January 11,2012 | 07:53 PM

Are Finnish schools forced to make hiring decisions based on race as US schools are, or can they hire the most qualified teacher available, regardless of race? I have worked in public education for 28 years in three major metropolitan school systems. American schools will never be able to compete as long as racism is allowed to dictate who gets hired as a teacher. Race-based hiring quotas are at the heart of this issue. Let the highest qualified applicant get the job irrespective of race.

Posted by Harold Argus on January 10,2012 | 07:21 PM

Why is the American media obsessed with the Finnish success and ignore their neighbour to the north that ranked just below Finland and on many dimensions exceeded Finland.
We have so much more in common with our demographics the. us is almost as diverse as canada (over 50% of Canadians living in Toronto were not born in Canada and 50% do not speak english or French as their first language) we share so much more yet our school achievement is so much greater and a little known feature of the PISA is that the gap in achievement between the advantaged and disadvantage is the narrowest in Canada of any nation in the world exceeding Finland . Our teaching faculties attract applicants from the top third of college grads while US and U K draw their teachers from the bottom third. Of the top countries the most common feature is that we all have very strong teacher unions . There is a correlation between strong unions and student achievement . As a former superintendent I have been anti union for most of my career
Jdiakiw@edu.yorku.ca

Posted by Jerry diakiw on January 5,2012 | 01:43 PM

I think education system in any country must have their weakness. We must learn from others. We must modify their education system and then implement the curriculum into our own. We must not re-invent the wheel, but to make it suitable to use in our roads. But, this it is not an excuse to run away from our reponsibities as teachers to educate our students. Therefore, we have to use whatever methods from any country in the world which is most suitable for us. If you want to improve your system, you must admit that yours is still not up that standard and try your best to upgrade until one day it is much better than others.

Posted by Lim Keng Keh (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia) Graduate student in Mathematics Education on January 2,2012 | 03:41 AM

your school is nice and educational but some of your rules such as students cant go to school untill they are seven is a little unfair because children develope some learning in them in that age

Posted by on December 14,2011 | 08:14 AM

It is interesting to learn about education in Finland. Im very impressed as a South African and teacher by profression to see how important education is taken in that part of the world. I think a lot of us in the developing world can learn a lot from Finland.Our country might take a while to reach the level of Finlands' standard due to the huge level literacy between the rich and poor. I am very optimistic that our education system is heading towards the right direction.
I would like to interact with the educator(primary level) from that part of the world to share most of the good practice.

Posted by Dinoko Mphumela on December 10,2011 | 12:50 PM

Why do you compare apple with a pear .
USA has 300 million, Finland has 5.5 million .
Family size is USA is greater than Finland.
Just USA Cannot afford to educate 60 million K12
20% of population is studentsin USA 60 million.
15 % of population is student in Finland 1 million .
So what one do when sources are not enough for a problem, USE technology. If USA uses technology enough it can be better than Finland in 10 years .

Posted by Muvaffak GOZAYDIN on November 26,2011 | 06:30 AM

Indeed we do have a noticeable suicide rate, but that has nothing to do with our school system. Alcohol plays a big part in our culture, it has always been like that. So we're quite notorious drinkers, combine that with a melancholic mind set(we rarely see the sun during our long winters) and you end up with those figures.
Also the daycare system is something people seem to mix with a lebensbarn kind of system here. Children are not mind controlled to be obedient drones for the system. I played with other children all day and had caring people looking over me. I have only good memories of those carefree days. Of course I was with my mother, father and siblings after my mom or dad got from work, which was always a whole lot, and I'm under the impression that we finns have more payed vacations than you guys.
In Finland it's uncommon for a woman to be a "stay home soccer mom". We were the first country that allowed women to vote, and we truly beleive in equality(at least used to beleive). Finland is no utopia, we do have our problems and small minded idiots, who doesn't.

Posted by en tiedä mistä puhun on November 26,2011 | 05:49 AM

Amen to João Xavier. They used to be the suicide capital in the world. Their divorce rate is higher, they practice infanticide, and depression is higher than it is here (and higher than just as dark in the winter country, Sweden--2x as higher). And they have compulsory military service (just read about a suicide that officials didn't want to make known).

When someone posted above about no on talking on trams--something sounded awfully dystopic about that (like from "The Giver" or "1984"), so I started digging and found several articles. I do appreciate some of the good their doing with education, like the music and arts, but it sounds like one really has to fit the model or they can't cope.

No thanks.

Posted by jjwalksin on November 22,2011 | 08:21 AM

The Finns do better because they care. The U.S. public school systetm, is by all measures, the worst of any industrialized nation. During the colonies we had the highest per capita number of college degrees and schooling was private and began with reading the Lord's prayer and progressed to learning Greek and Latin. We have learned much about various teaching methods, the brain, and made education mandatory. The problem is, we don't really care -- not about learning, not about right and wrong, and not about children. Money helps; but it is not money that makes one district in the poor Texas valley standout for instance; it is really caring and therefore working. We have a moral problem.

Posted by Sharon Sarles on October 27,2011 | 02:50 PM

Part #6

5.This is what I believe is at the very core of this success story. Finland has a great and profound design history. This has kept the country competitive since they first started as a nation. This had not changed. Their education system begins with good design. If technology becomes an international requirement they are the first to bring in experts from around the world, learn from them, and then design better products. Nokia is not a one off. Children wear Marimekko socks and drink out of Alvar Aalto glasses. Design, art, music, culture, nature are fundamental to the society and this is one reason why their people are so happy. They also very systematically introduce first and second languages to children. My students at University had what I would call a photographic memory. They could recall information from a page in a book and even tell me the page number. Finns use their minds. They exercise their brains with multiple languages.

Posted by Jack on October 18,2011 | 09:15 AM

Part #5

3. Your point 6 is accurate but it also is a bit misleading. Teachers have absolute freedom to teach specific things. They don’t keep re-inventing the wheel the way we do. They also do not have the influence of book companies who sell fads. They don’t pay millions for education research and they don’t force un-natural practices on teachers.

4. Finland is a very egalitarian society. Teachers are respected and are part of the political system. They have a multiparty system and unions. Teachers participate on all levels. All professions are equally valued so you see equal numbers of men and women and equal pay. This does not have a material impact on the curriculum or assessments. Kids don’t carry huge backpacks with fat books–they are presented with less information but they all learn everything that is taught. They do not pass failing children just to get them out of the class. They focus more on teaching than testing because it is easy to test something once a child has been taught. Recently, my husband and I looked at his A-level physics textbook. One book was used for two years. But with that one book you could pass the GRE math secion in the USA.

Posted by Jack on October 18,2011 | 09:14 AM

Part #4

2. Another issue that always bothers me is people point to the fact that children start school at age 7 in Finland as a factor in their success. People suggest we should leave our kids on their own and scrap our preschool system. Finns don’t start teaching subjects until age 7 that is true but the majority of women work in Finland and they have universal daycare. Most children have been in a system that encourages orderly behavior from birth. If you question this, go to Finland during the coldest and darkest months. It can be 40 below zero and people still stand and wait for lights to change. No one walks against the light. No one drinks and drives. People do not speak in public places like trams. Children in universal daycare also learn things like English or Swedish or other second language basics that prepare them for a rigorous system that starts at age 7. Seven year old children in Finland have few behavior issues because they have been treated equally since birth–they have been loved and encouraged by a system that values children.

Posted by Jack on October 18,2011 | 09:14 AM

Part #3
The courses add up to roughly four years if one were to go straight through. So, the MA that students have in Finland is a first degree. Some argue it is a BA but it really is much more rigorous than our BA. In England, students have a BA with roughly the same system. The UK MA program (my German husband got his MA in the UK so I am familiar with this one, too) is one to two years so their system is a bit easier to map to ours. All in all, saying Finnish teachers have an MA is not exactly correct. They have a first degree they call an MA. It produces very fine lawyers and doctors and scientists so I am inclined not to argue with this over simplification. But they have not spent 4 years

Posted by Jack on October 18,2011 | 09:13 AM

Part #2
1.Teachers have MA degrees. I have seen this written several places and it always makes me smile. The Finnish system is different. Like the German system, their students spend more years in high school.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_%28school%29) This is similar to first year at University in the US. Students then do something similar to the British A-level exam. This is very comprehensive. Few of our students would be able to pass these exams. There are main subjects you have chosen to focus on in gymnasium and other subjects that you have minored in. (ie My husband did his A-level exam in Math and Physics but he also studied Chemistry, English and French and Biology as sub-level subjects.) In Finland, students then must pass University admittance exams before being accepted to a program of study. These exams are grueling and few pass on the first try. Many students spend years studying just to get into University. No one helps the students. Students read books and take exams. Period. You can’t take a course like we do for GMAT or LSAT. There are no lectures. You read books and take the exam. Once admitted, students study subjects like law, education, medicine, etc. There is no time limit and since education is free most students take as long as they want to get their first degree.undergraduate and 2 years graduate school as anyone in the US must do to receive an MA in education. Our system becomes progressively more difficult and focused. Their system is always focused. Since their system produces the best results in the world, I think we should look to other factors because saying teachers have an MA in education is misleading and not an important factor.

Posted by Jack on October 18,2011 | 09:12 AM

I normally avoid writing about education systems unless I have lived in a country for more than one year and have had direct experience with that system. I am writing here because I would like to see more informed research being conducted about Finland and its education system. It is a success story and we need to move our system more in that direction. However, Finland is difficult to study for two reasons: Only 5 million people speak Finnish so we must rely on second-hand reports; and Their system is so radically different from the USA we cannot easily map ours to theirs so it is easy to make misstatements or generalizations that are not accurate.

I must admit, when I applied for a Fulbright scholarship to Finland I could only name one city in the entire country. I ended up living in Helsinki as a single mother for a total of three years–one year as a Fulbright scholar and then two more years teaching at the University of Helsinki.

(I write a little bit about my experience on my blog http://literacylady.com/blog/2011/08/kristian/ )

While I applaud your attempt to capture reasons why the Finnish education system has contributed to the highest literacy rates, best STEM scores, and some of the happiest people in the world, I think you have missed the mark on few points.

Posted by Jack on October 18,2011 | 09:09 AM

I still cannot help but wonder if the Finnish system would work in America? I am by no means an expert or even a teacher but as a student, I do not think that blindly reforming the American education system to model Finland's will fix all of our problems. There are more factors in play than every teacher having a master's degree, having a country-wide curriculum etc.

Posted by Hemi on October 17,2011 | 04:01 PM

No, and a thousand times no! American schools are superior. Yet again, another article about how Country X eats America's lunch, that bends the statistics to the point of deception. It's the play! It's the tests! It's the warm fuzzy way we feel about our kids! It's the carefully-chosen photographs to pretend we aren't a completely homogeneous country!

Rubbish. It's the demographics. Education articles in the popular press are largely Rorschach tests, where everyone sees what they want, and insists THAT is what's wrong or right about the system. The comments here: People claiming their existing prejudices have been confirmed, regardless of the data. American schools are superior: Asian-American students outperform children from their home countries. Caucasian Americans outperform European students (though Finland does as well as we do), American Hispanics outperform all Latina American students, and African-Americans hugely outperform all predominantly black nations.

http://www.vdare.com/articles/pisa-scores-show-demography-is-destiny-in-education-too-but-washington-doesnt-want-you-to-k

If you want to throw in discipline as a secondary factor I won't object.

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2010/12/pisa-forever.html

What we should do about that uncomfortable information, I don't know. But can we stop pretending that the difference is because the Finns/Swiss/Koreans/whatever have better chalk, or school uniforms, or more hamsters per classroom?

Posted by David Wyman on October 17,2011 | 08:27 AM

Excellent article. Adopting the concepts of the Finns here in the US would be a challenge. Are the elites in Washington and State capitals willing to give up control to the local school districts? Are they willing to give up measurement of teachers and schools? Are they willing to give up standardized tests? Are they willing to let teachers have discipline their classrooms? Do they understand the role of teachers is to teach students how to learn as compared to teaching to a test? Why are the following two sentences in the article? Some of the more vocal conservatives reformers have grown weary of the "We-Love-Finland crowd" or so-called Finnish Envy. They argue that the United States has little to learn from a country of only 5.4 million people - 4 percent of them foreign born. They add an unnecessary political bent.

Posted by Ival Secrest on October 12,2011 | 12:42 AM

I would love to see more articles about education. I am an English teacher in the U.S. I feel that there are some things we can learn from research on our own education system as well as research and information about the education systems of other countries. Please include more about education. Even scientific studies on cognition would be very helpful. I thought this article was wonderful.. I learned a lot about things we could be doing here in the U.S. to help our students and our teachers.

Posted by Cristina on October 11,2011 | 09:30 PM

It's funny how things are so great and then you get the third biggest suicide rate in the world. Obviously something is wrong with the system.

Posted by João Xavier on October 10,2011 | 10:23 AM

I think that the article is very interesting, but it must require substantial financial resources to (i) attract and retain highly educated people to the teaching profession, (ii) ensure reasonable and equitable resources are allocated to each school and (iii) provide for social workers and psychologists and remedial education specialists at each school. This is not an attainable standard for many countries. I would be interested to see a comparative review of costs per learner in such a school compared with UK, South African and USA schools.

In South Africa, despite government bursaries being available, few people want to be teachers. The conditions and pay are poor, professional status is low, class sizes are 40 children plus, schools are often without libraries, chairs or even electricity. The SA national curriculum has been overhauled and is now a very prescriptive outcomes-based model which produces matriculants who struggle to read and write.

The Finnish model is very admirable, but it is also completely removed from most nations’ reality.

Posted by Regan on October 9,2011 | 09:32 AM

Great article. I was just at an international conference in Kyoto and one of the sessions was on the declining interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) education in a lot of developed countries, and what can be done about it. Fortunately, there are some good examples.

Sweden seems to be on the same educational track as the finns in this regard.

In 2007 the USA NAS produced Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11625 which sounds very similar methodology/recommendations as this article.

As to why it's not implemented widely since then I don't know why not. Perhaps it's not actually in the interests of some of the powers that be to have an intelligent informed population?

Posted by Paul Cohen on October 5,2011 | 10:38 AM

Education reform, no matter the ideas, takes way too long in the United States to be of value for today's children. Home educated students in the United States far outperform their publicly schooled peers, by 20 - 30 percentage points on standardized tests, even when their parents have little post high school education. I am a very typical example of a home educating mother: I was an average high school student with average tests scores and I went to college only two years. I home educated our three children from K - 12th grade, and the result is that one scored in the top 1% on college entrance tests so he's as a National Merit Semi-Finalist, one scored in the top 10%, and the other scored in the top 20%. All three were admitted to the selective liberal arts college of their choice, and they led their peers in the exchange of ideas. They key? They read, and I read to them, old classic rich books, we studied the Bible, and we performed community service.

Posted by Kim on September 29,2011 | 01:10 PM

Illuminating article and comments. We're nothing like the FInnish. Oh that we were! Health-care, early-childhood care, top rate schooling that includes university! Do our differences all hinge on the contrasting sizes of our countries? More likely it hinges on our intense dislike, one for another. We've (U.S. citizens) done big things before! Maybe we will get there yet. Must read the the Maria Montessori article next! Thank you.

Posted by Sheryl Morris on September 27,2011 | 03:17 PM

The question asked in Finland is how can we best produce educated childred. In the US it is how can we best make money off the public education system. This is my non-Finnish, non-Amercan perspective.

Posted by joe s on September 25,2011 | 10:13 AM

In response to the comments of Leon J. Luey, the United States does have a national curriculum. Rolled out in 2011, http://www.corestandards.org/ this curriculum will be assessed in the 2014/15 school year through a national test to be given in both fall and spring of each school year. The purported emphasis will be on individual, not group, achievement. Why this new curriculum is not getting ANY attention baffles my mind. As an educator entering my 22nd year of teaching, I believe this curriculum has the best chance of provoking real educational reform yet seen in the US educational system. If the curriculum and testing lives up to its claims, educators will finally have data on which to base their curricular decisions. Gone will be the excuse that "the group" did poorly on standardized test because they are, low, poorly cared for.... Parents and students will see their achievements and gaps. How educators, parents and students react to the gaps and achievements will make all the difference.

Posted by Margaret Peters on September 24,2011 | 09:08 AM

Comparing it to the USA is one thing, but the fact that we here in Norway still cling on to our idiotic ideas about education truly makes me angry. You would've thought that with the close proximity you might actually be willing to learn a thing or two from your neighbor.

My apologies for displaying my frustration in such an unsuitable manner. This is something I've thought about for quite a while and I truly can't understand why we haven't taken a cue from the Finns.

Posted by Isaac on September 20,2011 | 01:00 AM

LynNell Hancock demonstrates well that Finland's educational system should be a model for the world. Implicit but not named in her account, is the fact that Finland has a national curriculum, with standards for students and teachers. Every developed nation except the United States has such a national system of education. But American students are victims of local disputes and unstable local school boards. Students' educational needs do not change at county or state borders any more than their nutritional needs do.

Posted by Leon J. Luey on September 12,2011 | 12:37 AM

Based on the available statistics over 8% of the population in the Helsinki region is foreign born. About 30% of the kids attending elementary school have foreign-born parents, usually from Russia or Baltic countries.

I am not trying to draw any parallels, but it is hard to believe the challenge teachers face here would be any simpler than in the US. The Finnish teachers are just much better prepared for their job and supported by their peers.

I know, having been a teacher in Atlanta, GA for two years. Our kids attended regular Finnish schools, so I know the frustration of the parents not being able to help.

My family moved to Finland in mid-1990's from the US when my wife's employer had business in neighboring Russia.

Posted by Thomas on September 8,2011 | 01:29 AM

Why are so many people trying to poke holes in this argument? Clearly our current education system in the U.S. is not working. Clearly the Finnish education is working wonders. Instead of looking at how it can't possibly work for us, let's look at how it can. The bottom line is this: children are children. Let's do everything we can to give them the very best.

Posted by Andrea on September 8,2011 | 02:52 PM

Serious U.S. presidential candidates should visit a Finnish school for a couple of days, then come back with a workable plan suitable for the U.S. Of course, getting politics out of schools should be part of the President's initiative (as well as all governors). Hire good teachers; pay them professional salaries; stand back and watch U.S. schools soar to new levels. Can anyone deny that education is a national security and economic security priority? Every congessional district should have a federally funded; very selective highly technical vocational high school to help create a cadre of one million super computer and communication geeks (prep schools for MIT; Cal Tech; Ga Tech, etc). Bill Gates et al might even help fund the schools. Such national magnet schools would quickly drive us to the top and put us in a better position to save the world.

Posted by Al Jones on September 6,2011 | 09:08 PM

The A+ for Finland article in the Smithsonian Magazine is very interesting and educational. But the article failed to mention that Finnish (and Estonian, a close relative) is a phonetic language. That makes a huge difference in learning. It takes only a month or two for children to learn to read. Because every letter has only one sound, once the children learn the alphabet they can read and pronounce words. And because in phonetic languages every letter is pronounced distinctly, one can easily convert speaking to writing by just enunciating each sound in a word and assigning the appropriate letter to it. They don't use spelling and pronunciation dictionaries in Finland and Estonia.
For that reason, Finnish children can skip a year of grade school and start at age 7. And for that reason they can start learning math, sciences, and other subjects earlier than in native English schools. And they can spend more time on those subjects because they don't have to deal with difficult reading, pronunciation and spelling problems.

English spelling is in dire need of reform. A reform has been developed thatis based on Finnish and Estonian method of writing. See www.simpelfonetik.com.

A spelling reform is a basic requirement for bringing English native children up to the level of Finnish children. We need to make people aware of that. I suggest that Smithsonian pursue a follow-up article that discusses the spelling problems and solutions.
Allan Kiisk.

Posted by Allan Kiisk on September 6,2011 | 12:30 PM

This reader, a teacher for 40 years–grades 5 through university–found the article informative and inspiring. Why not celebrate a nation that has invested widely and wisely in its children, families and educational system?

And good on the Finns for sending children to school well fed and well parented. They deserve applause rather than the resentment of some earlier comments.

Apropos of being well fed, in the 1970's my colleagues at a poor urban elementary school were delighted when our students became much better morning learners when we started serving free breakfast in the cafeteria. Some resented the gratis nutrition, expressing the typical American (and invalid) belief that these children would demand free breakfasts every day for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately this antipathy to any help for the poor is now once again in ascendance. We continue to try to solve every problem through high finance politics, as in NCLB, rather than demanding high standards from the teachers, principals and other educational leaders who actually care about the nation’s children.

Of course, as others have commented, Finland is fairly small and has a mostly homogenous population, but that does not diminish its success. In our own country millions have fought against efforts to unify our people, or even work for common goals. Consider two centuries of slavery, secession, that separate-but-equal nonsense, and the new re-segregation of our big city public schools (See Kozol’s “The Shame of the Nation”).

Some continue to divide us to this day with for-profit schools gobbling up public money. Could we be a more unified people if many of us had not required a mandate in the 1950’s? Think how far we could have come if all of us had started working on national unity in 1787. But let’s give a loud Bravo! to the Finns for getting education right.

Posted by G. L. Barnes on September 6,2011 | 10:03 AM

We are trialling a new program here at Mill Park Heights Primary School whereby we identify students who are not socially, emotionally and academically ready for their first formal year of education ie Prep. Out of 174 students we offered parents the option of putting their child in one of two models, seven straight Prep classes of 20 students and then go straight into Grade 1 the following year or the option of two years in Prep, in two classes of 15 students. Huge benefits already seen with students in the 2YPP model.

Posted by Deborah Patterson Principal on September 5,2011 | 11:50 PM

As usual I find the comments more educational that the actual article. I am a teacher but will never say I'm an 'expert' in education. I don't know if there is such a thing. Learning is complex and one size does not fit all. I do not like standardized testing but it may have uses for government policy. Just don't do it to guide pedagogy. My recipe is/would be: the teacher needs to be well informed of the content as well as provide a diverse array of learning opportunities. Have a stress free, mistakes are ok, have fun environment. Encourage creativity. Get the students involved in their learning as much as possible. They choose, they search, they build, they explore, they assess, they do. I evaluate and guide. Keep everyone else out of our way.
Quit the arguing and let students fly.

Posted by linzel on September 5,2011 | 10:17 PM

I'm surprised at the vehemence and vitriol expressed in so many comments in response to this article. Are there differences between the United States and Finland? Assuredly there are, but it would seem to me that children are children everywhere. Can we not admire what Finland has accomplished and take what good we may from their example? When people react this defensively to a very positive article, it makes one wonder what is triggering such a defensive response. I have long maintained that if we paid our teachers as well as we do other high-value professionals, the best and brightest would be vying for the privilege of teaching because they would be compensated as they deserve to be. As Derek Bok stated so succinctly, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

Posted by Sylvia Pesek on September 5,2011 | 09:23 PM

Well, well I have been a history and civics teacher in Espoo, Finland, since year 1994. Being a realist I wouldn't go comparing the US-system and ours. We can't compare USA with Finland. It would be better to compare USA and EU.

Obviously your system is developed to your needs and our system is made for our needs. As a little nation Finland have to take the education seriously. Personally I pay happily high taxes to keep the educational level of our country high.

In Finland it doesn't depend on your savings and parents wealth that can you afford to study in college or the university. It's all about how bright you are. Someone can call it socialism, but for us it is only common sense. We take some socialism and some capitalism, mix it the way that serves us best. As a little country we can't afford to be too ideological or dogmatic.

We try to see what what we can learn from United States. Richard DuFour's ideas of Professional Learning Communities might help us to be better. - So, to say this isn't a one way street. You got good things in the US.

Posted by Birger Holm on September 5,2011 | 04:24 PM

Rather than taking sides for or against the Finnish education system, we should acknowledge that it works for them. We should also acknowledge there are some important aspects that could be successful in the United States. We will never be Finland, but requiring higher standards for teacher education, a more collaborative learning environment and treating those teachers as professionals would improve our educational system more effectively than more standardized tests. We have enough sound research to know what to do it. Our economic system that requires both parents to work to survive and our much greater diversity will always be a challenge, but shouldn't be an excuse for accepting the status quo.

Posted by Bob Anderson on September 5,2011 | 10:33 AM

Why is Finland's school system the envy of the western world? In the Aug. 23-30/2010 edition of Newsweek, Finland was ranked number 1 (out of 100 countries).

Although Finnish children have access to free, full-day daycare (up to age five), full-day kindergarten (age six), they don't begin Grade 1 until age seven.

Carl Honoré writes in Under Pressure: Putting the Child Back in Childhood (2009): "Their (Finnish children) early childhood is spent at home or in nursery programs where play is king. When they finally do reach school, they enjoy short days, long vacations and plenty of music, art and sports." (p. 122)

"Apart from final exams at the end of high school, Finnish kids face no standardized tests. Teachers use quizzes, and individual schools use tests to track their pupils’ progress, but the idea of cramming for SATs is as alien to Finland as a heat wave in winter. This presents a delicious irony—the nation that puts the least stress on competition and testing, that shows the least appetite for cram schools and private tutoring, routinely tops the world in PISA's (Program for International Student Assessment) competitive exams." (p. 123).

Honoré was interviewed in the 2009 CTV documentary, "Lost Adventures of Childhood", available from Distribution Access.

Is Kelly McMahon's description of increased testing and data collection of kindergarteners in Milwaukee public schools where other schools in the U.S. and Canada are headed? http://www.progressive.org/print/147874

At the very least, all state (U.S.) and provincial (Canada) governments should be investigating the Finland model and creating full-day senior kindergarten classes for those six-year-olds who would benefit.

For more info, read my August 2010 essay, "When did education become a race?"

http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/schoolview/2010/08/30/when-did-education-become-race

Posted by David on September 4,2011 | 04:13 AM

Michael, Finnish has 28 letters and 15 grammatical cases; the language is not easy, but rather complicated compared to English, which is easy even as a second language. English is commonly started from the 3rd grade and by the time we reach High School many of us read and write it better than average Americans.

I think Karl Simpson has a point, though. Some problems are missing from the Finnish education scene; especially it is true that in most parts of the country the Finnish language dominates and kids have much in common.

However, I am quite sure that the Finnish teachers do not have the luxury of the kind of students that Mr. Simpson describes without knowing any one of them. 40 years ago children behaved much better, there was no immigration to mention - but still the education system failed, and failed badly. There is no doubt whatsoever that the present education system in Finland is far better and gives far better results than our system 40 or 30 years ago. Three of my kids are being educated in the Finnish school system right now and I am absolutely certain that the single most important improvement since my youth is that the teachers today are of superior quality. It is not a question about a homogenous population, as we have had a homogenous population at least a thouand years; it is only now that we have the right people in the classroom, the best.

I have also spent a year going to High School in the US just like one of my kids, so I can try to compare. The American school is about sports, the Finnish is about education. And I am not saying one is more important than the other. If PISA happened to measure what kids really learn at school, including foreign languages, (typically English and Swedish for everyone, + optional German or French) the American authorities would really get scared.

Posted by Sam on September 3,2011 | 10:25 PM

Apples and oranges, oranges and apples. Any way you compare Finland and the United States will be unfair unless the similarities outweigh the differences. From what I just read, Finland, their primary characteristic is one that many Americans (and especially those who are against any of "big government") would tolerate: a national education policy that is supported strongly at all levels of society. Try setting something up like this in America!

Posted by Deborah A Dessaso on September 3,2011 | 10:11 PM

In 1978 in Minnesota we were working toward using an approach very similar to what you see in Finland. We had gone to flexible scheduling and were identifying where students skill levels were in different subjects and taking them forward from there since you cannot start a student where he/she is not. Imaginative and innovative methods were encouraged. At the high school level we offered strong vocational programs as well as college bound courses and not only special education to interdict specific learning difficulties but gifted programs that hooked students up with university mentors.

Other than special education, much of that stuff is gone. What happened? The state became more miserly with funds eliminating support personnel such as Nurses, Counselors, Curriculum specialists. The legislature decided they should micromanage school operations and instituted a series of tests that had nothing to do with increasing success in the classroom. Then the new wave of administrators who came into the profession were more public relations people than educators and teachers began to trade increasing class size and loss of aids and resources for salary and benefits. That, along with an attack on public education by the wealthy who send their children to private academies and see no need to support education of the masses has put a stop to much of the Minnesota Miracle.

Posted by B Emmel on September 3,2011 | 08:24 PM

While some of the critics of Finland's education system and of this journalist's article make some valid points, their dismissive conclusions are illogical. There is a lot to be learned from Finland and other industrialized countries in the top tier of student achievement. If you would look at the educational systems of all of them you will find commonalities that can be applied to other countries/cultures including ours here in the US. For example, most of the high achieving nations respect teachers, schools systems and CHILDREN and support them financially and with policy.

The reader who addressed to our difference in priorities and values gets at the most important point. Until and unless the US changes our cultural attitude toward children, teachers and education we simply will not be able to make significant improvements. We have the the knowledge and skills to educate our kids better, we don't have the political will.

Posted by Nancy M Kennedy on September 3,2011 | 09:22 AM

The demographic stuff is interesting - but I think the secret is simple, mathematical in nature, and in the first paragraph. The non performers have a much bigger impact on the standings than the high performers. Finland's focus on getting everyone up to minimum reading standards in first grade and maintaining them means that there are fewer massive failures, either at the individual level or at the school level. Further, high scoring states within the US tend to have relatively equal funding of all schools - non performing states tend to have local funding with small positive effects on the privledged, (my kids included) and disproportionately negative effects in the underfunded schools. The large negative effects more than offset the small positives.

Posted by Bob Schriver on September 2,2011 | 08:09 PM

We hosted 3 Finnish exchange students during the 90s. They never had problems with English or classroom studies. One comment from our son stood out. Harri said the teachers didn't want to hear what he thought about the reading material (stories or poetry). She wanted him to regurgitate what she told him to think. None had ever seen a scantron sheet, T/F, multiple choice or fill in the blank question. They wrote long answers explaining the subject. They studied some core subjects in English & Suomi. They learned Suomi, Svenska, English, and one language of choice. They had the best language skills of any students we hosted. When we visited finland, everyone spoke English. All three students have university degrees, including masters degrees. When I spoke at school about the differences in education here and in Finland, teachers & parents were defensive and felt we had the best system. We don't!

Posted by Linda on September 2,2011 | 01:57 PM

I have to agree with Jessica. Yes, there are differences between Finland and America but the main reason for the Fin's success in this area is their commitment to education.

A lot of people seem to be acting like Finland have had it easy (their language only "has 20 letters", "98% homogeneous population" & the "% of the Finish students come from single family homes without caring parents?"). I mean, seriously? America has the biggest economy in the world and has had for a while. Finland...does not, it has quite a lot of trees, though.

So, maybe they have high % of parents who care for their child's education because all of the parents of Finland received a good education when they were children and because of that they appreciate how important it is.

Also, treating Teachers as they should be treated, as respected professionals in a career that is of paramount importance to the future of the country, instead of viewing them as some kind of pariah probably helps.

If America was committed to education it would matter what the problems it came up against were, it would still succeed.

Posted by Ben on September 2,2011 | 11:37 AM

Very interesting.

I disagree with the first comment that uses Finland's "low" population as a reason for its high standard of education.

Finland is actually larger than New Zealand, where I am from, and more densely populated and yet New Zealand's education system (which recently adopted a more competition-based approach similar to that used in the US) is nowhere near as good as Finland's and becoming considerably worse as time goes on and competition-based policies become more prominent.

Posted by Alexx on September 2,2011 | 08:09 AM

After thirty years as an Art Educator, I do have an opinion on our schools in the USA. Although, they must vary in style and substance, because the US is a big country, with differing cultural backgrounds. Those teachers with whom I have had the opportunity to work in California and have come to California from many other states in the Union, all seemed to be enthusiastic about teaching. Often, we discussed the importance of working to help students to understand their own importance to society at large. To see students grow from a shy, insecure individuals to those whom are proud of their accomplishments. Regardless, if a student is one who earns constant A grades or one who earns low grades, they can still feel successful for rising from where they might have been. It is the teacher who must instill in the student the will to learn and how much fun it can be to get better by exerting more effort. Students will beome aware of their own positive self-image, if the teacher has been fair positive, consistently; the results cannot be otherwise.

In Mexico, I have observed teachers who were very positive and loving, even when they had little in the way of materials with which to work. The response from their students was positive and, truly, remarkable.

I must believe that as a teacher, one will gain considerably, with a little honey, rather than pouring on the vinegar.

Posted by Tom Wendt on September 1,2011 | 02:22 AM

Many comments on this article fall into: Yeah Finland is great. Or, Boo U.S. is better. They both miss the point.

We know Finland is different from the U.S. The question is - what can we learn from them?

The main points:
-let teachers teach
-pay them well
-no standardized tests

I think all U.S. teachers (and unions) would agree with those ideas.

Some other interesting ideas from the article that I think are good:
-“We value play.”
-"Homework is minimal"
-“It’s nonsense. We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.”
-government "provided guidelines, not prescriptions"

These are the ideas that are very counter-culture to the current American education system where standards are mandated top-down and tied to financial incentives. Besides, Big Education lobbyists, Who thinks that is a good idea?

Posted by Scott on September 1,2011 | 02:21 AM

@Michael The Finnish alphabet has 28 letters. Get your facts right.

Posted by Jason on September 1,2011 | 04:00 PM

Both the critics (cynics? naysayers?) of this wonderful article and the article itself fail to mention what is probably the most significant difference between Finland and the US - the astoundingly vast gap between the affluent and the poor in that latter. This, as much as anything, accounts for this country's relatively low standing in education.

Having said that, regardless of other differences - Finland's small population, its relative homogeneity, etc. - there is no question but that the US would be well advised to adapt and implement the philosophy and practices described in Ms. Hancock's piece.

Posted by Steve on September 1,2011 | 01:55 PM

Teachers in Finland apparently are considered professionals in the same class as doctors and lawyers. It is apparently as difficult to get certification there as it is to graduate from medical school. When I lived in Germany in the 1960s, I was surprised to discover that high school (Gymnasium) teachers had about the same respect (and salary!) as medical doctors. In the United States, alas, lackluster education departments attract lackluster students and produce lackluster teachers, who now are being forced to administer lackluster standardized tests. Of course, dedicated students here do become great teachers despite all these obstacles.

Posted by Jim Lacey on September 1,2011 | 12:09 PM

My reaction to Finland's successful education system is, "Common sense ain't so common" - Mark Twain

If you're a thinking person, you can't help but see the wisdom in their system. It just makes sense!

I really don't know why our US system is so standard-test oriented. I think the main problem was getting bureaucrats involved with educational decision making.

Posted by Joan Tabb Waisbein on September 1,2011 | 11:43 AM

If U.S. public school teachers all had masters degrees, and could earn $100K, or more, per year, after four or five years of teaching, and come from the top 15% of their college ranking, the demand for these jobs would be enormous. We would no longer have an "education problem". The inner city teacher would get a substantial bonus, and would be limited to a three year term, after which he or she would be transferred to a more representative neighborhood (to avoid burn-out). The inner city bonus would, however, continue. This would make these assignments highly desired.

Posted by J. A. Nelson on August 29,2011 | 08:10 PM

Bruce wrote:
"Unless we resolve some of the dysfunctional aspects of our society (drugs; poverty; lack of family values; fatherless children; etc) we will always have a large subset of our children who simply can't be educated under any method or philosphy."

How are you going to do that, Bruce, without improving education?

The people who lack values, take drugs and abandon their families were children once.

Posted by Joy on August 28,2011 | 11:16 PM

No matter where you stand on the debates over standardized testing, data-driven instruction, etc., it just seems abundantly obvious that the Finnish refusal to abandon the inherent humanism in education only makes them stronger as a culture.

Posted by Jesse on August 28,2011 | 01:54 PM

As a veteran teacher, 2 yrs in Los Angeles, 23 years in Finland perhaps I can shed some light on these 'miracle' stats. First of all Finland, a mono culture, pop. est. about 5.5 million with about 200 thou. foreigners, has about 1.5 million students in Elementary and Middle school from age 7 to 15. Not a huge number for a country roughly the size of California. There were 10 million people in LA county alone when I left there in 1989. The Finnish language is completely phonetic and there fore extremely easy to teach to read. (I learned how to de-code in a few months but understood very little of what I read ;-) ) All of the Finnish teachers are now required to have masters degrees in teaching their area of endeavor. They are a bit harder to come than many American University degrees. Finns do have high standards. All in all I believe from my experience here that because of the relatively small numbers of students involved in the system in Finland its just easier to manage.

Posted by Scott Rizzo on August 28,2011 | 06:14 AM

Thank you for the article that makes one blush. I would like note that there still exist problems with the youth and there upbringing. Kirkkojärvi's example is a good one. but not all teachers are the same. and in many schools such a large percentage of differe.t origins is not true.

This is something worth noting. Finnish children are being taken care of but when problems do arise often it happens that there is known track for kids to get off track. Even when teachers and curators realize a major socialdisorder there often is no place to direct the kid to. I have even heard rumours of health care officials forbidding schools to send these kids into municipal health care for psychologist care.

These may seem minor problems but as a Finn I must realise the downsides as well.

Posted by saku heiskanen on August 28,2011 | 03:50 AM

The most obvious lesson from Finland is that immigration policy is educational policy: Among first world nations, Finland has the fewest low skilled immigrants outside of East Asia. Not surprisingly, Finland and East Asia lead the world in PISA test scores.

The U.S. isn't so bad at aschooling when you break PISA scores down ethnically. American Asians outscore most Asian countries, American whites outscore most European countries, American Hispanics outscore all Latin American countries, and American blacks score much higher than black countries do on the rare occasions when they take international tests. However, about 1/3rd of all are students are black or Hispanic compared to virtually none in Finland.

http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/12/amazing-truth-about-pisa-scores-usa.html

Posted by Steve Sailer on August 27,2011 | 11:07 PM

The fact is that almost 100% of the 18 year olds in Finland can Read, Write and know simple Arithmetic. Far superior to the same age group in USA. ...This includes children originally from places such as Somalia e.t.c.....

Posted by Aiea Leaver on August 27,2011 | 07:26 PM

The U.S. has approximately 74 million school age children. Finland has 1,1 million. It was a nice article, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Posted by L. Forest on August 27,2011 | 06:40 AM

Lars Alfors- Finnish Fields Medalist

Posted by penny on August 27,2011 | 04:20 AM

Michael, the Finnish Alphabet has 29 letters, all of A-Z and a few umlaut variants on top. Only about 5.3M speakers of the language live in Finland.

Otherwise I have to agree.

Posted by Tero H. on August 26,2011 | 02:42 PM

There is a corollary.

http://www.finlandforthought.net/2007/06/21/jantes-law/

The system was a 70's import from the DDR.

"The differences between weakest and strongest students are the smallest in the world... “Equality is the most important word in Finnish education...”

Statistics obviously isn't Olli's forte... the root cause is that the most talented are left behind. I went thru the system myself at its most dumbed-down, absolute-equality-for-all phase in the 80's, and let me tell you, here is why Finland as a whole is doomed to utter mediocrity.

The lowest common denominator isn't really that common.

Sure, the overall picture is very good. True 100% literacy, high average results on many fronts. But there is a place for competition as well, for some. This part fails and will continue to do so, because the majority can't handle the fact that it'd be good to entice some to go the extra mile, to benefit everyone in the end.

To update Churchill: the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of mediocrity.

Everything about the Finnish society is geared towards this twisted equality: progressive taxation, open hostility towards entrepreneurship, sweeping political correctness. All incentive is designed to motivate you to drop the ball at the 80th percentile and call it a day.

Finland is staunchly refusing any meaningful cuts to its absurdly heavy public spending, which is leading to unbearable debt. In a Jantean logic, they keep arguing the order in which the taxation should be further tightened. Only Sweden and Denmark tax their residents heavier IIRC.

To directly quote Thatcher: "Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money."

All of this IMHO hails back to the Jante Law which permeates my former homeland. This is why I'm not considering repatriation any time soon, if ever.

Posted by Tero H. on August 26,2011 | 02:27 PM

Every state legislator and state superintendent of public instruction (especially Tony Bennett of Indiana) should have to read this to keep his/her job.

Posted by dpd on August 26,2011 | 11:46 AM

in north america, instead of spending 82, 000 Euro (or the equivalent) on "positive discrimination," we'd spend it on a focus group to come up with a better name, one that didn't have "discrimination" in it.

Posted by justin on August 26,2011 | 11:39 AM

@donthitme got it right. While there may indeed be some better teaching methods, philosophy, or mechanics in Finland, that is only 1/2 the equation. What % of the Finish students come from single family homes without caring parents? Unless we resolve some of the dysfunctional aspects of our society (drugs; poverty; lack of family values; fatherless children; etc) we will always have a large subset of our children who simply can't be educated under any method or philosphy. Our liberal educators have thrown tons of money at this wall - and none of it is sticking because it's the wrong wall.

Posted by Bruce on August 26,2011 | 08:29 AM

First of all Findland is not a socialist country. If you check their trade and federal budgets over say the last 20 years they have been mostly in the black - they export more than the import in most years. Their federal budget was in surplus until the down turn in 2010.

This article is giving us as Americans an example of a schools system that works very well. No we can not duplicate in all areas, but we might just learn something from people that have been a civilization way before a white man set foot in this country.

One will also find that in all the Nordic countries their citizens are always in the top ten of contented people in the world - we are near the bottom.

Of course they to not go around trying to be the world's policeman. Funny how much we can waste on wars and then scream 'socilist' if someones says "why can't we have healthcare for all our citizens." Most of those sceaming socialist and communist would know know one if the meet them.

Posted by RandyT on August 25,2011 | 10:00 PM

Readers might be interested to know there is a wonderful university, Finlandia University in Hancock, MI, from whence I graduated when it was a two-year college, that offers an excellent education. Check it out! As for this story, the success of Finnish schools is amazing and commendable. See what happens when we trust teachers to teach and fund their efforts.

Posted by Nancy Mitchell on August 25,2011 | 03:39 PM

One of the great things I get to experience is the joy of teaching (20 years). You have many teachers in the USA that work just as hard as the other countries you see at the top of the "list." The one thing you have trouble finding is the support from the country. States are continually cutting funding yet increasing requirements. Federal and State government want schools to run like a business, in a business you can make changes for cheaper costs. Schools and teachers don't have that option, I educate the students I am given to my best ability. The one thing that people hate to say or hear, drive for an education doesn't come from school, it comes from home. I can pick the students out in class that have that support/expectation from their parents/guardians, and that number gets smaller every year.

I can't wait to share this article with our exchange student...from Finland.

Posted by Kevin on August 25,2011 | 11:27 AM

"So how many great strides in technology and medicine have come from Finland's socialist redistributed society?

Posted by Jim Wilemon on August 22,2011 | 05:29 PM"S

More than will come of a country which can't keep pace in producing competent scientists and engineers, or which consistently produces politicians who will cut funding for such strides in favor of more weapons and who will hamper the school systems out of ignorance.

Finland's social, political, and economic culture might be terribly different from any given country, the US especially, but surely they're doing something which can be generalized or adapted to the local culture. For example, the master's degrees for more teachers, and the educators making decisions instead of career politicians and businessmen of the type who care for little more than money.

Posted by Benjamin V. on August 25,2011 | 11:13 AM

it's true that the US is demographically different. On the other hand, it's also true that the US is very different in terms of economics and cultural values. Economically, the US has (or had) enough money to educate its citizens every bit as well as the Finns. We have more people, but they are (were) providing more income to the US government than Finns. the difference is how the US chooses to spend its money, and that is the crux of the problem.

The US values power and domination and competition. the budget is divided according to what will give the US more global power and affluence and domination. Every economic and political policy we have had for years attests to the true values of the US. Education has long been at the bottom of the list of national priorities, despite political lip service to the contrary, and education for the sake of learning has never made it to the list at all.

the Finns decided 40 years ago to make education of its citizens the keystone of all other policies, and all other programs (providing adequate food, healthcare, and maternity leave to nourish the young child, free MA degree programs for teachers, free kindergarden, play based curricula) came as a result of their focus on creating healthy children able to focus on learning and above all, LEARN. Americans don't have the attention span (we can't wait 40 years to see results) nor the cultural vlaues necessary to repeat the Finnish succcess story. the problem really has nothing to do with demographics. It has to do with priorities and values. Unless that changes, very little else will change in terms of US educational success (or lack thereof) and "Finnish envy" or whatever else is a waste of time and energy.

Posted by Jessica on August 25,2011 | 04:55 AM

The Finnish Alphabet has 20 letters, an ethnic population of 0.25%, low immigration and 8 million speakers of the language.

Finland is not some amazing leader in the field of education - it's a frozen monoculture of highly taxed individuals whose greatest claim to fame is the production of Nokia phones.

Getting excited about their educational achievements is a waste of time.

Posted by Michael on August 24,2011 | 12:31 AM

One of the most misguided articles I've read in the otherwise excellent Smithsonian and an article that epitomizes the type of thinking that prevents the US from making serious progress reforming its schools.

Ms. Hancock willfully dismisses Finland's homogenous population in examining its education system and she clearly shows her angle/hand with phrases such as, "...and in contrast with Finland's 'reputation' for ethnic homogeneity." Reputation? is it true or false Ms. Hancock? When examining the reason for a country's success in education, it looks like one important characteristic of the country would have been examined more thoroughly.

Without accounting for the homogenous population when mentioning many Finnish teachers dismiss standardized tests, Ms. Hancock exacerbates the faultiness of her analysis and again shows her angle. Is it possible that Finnish teachers dismiss standardized tests because they have the luxury of knowing that most of their students (98% homogenous) behave the same way overall, are serious about learning and have responsible parents that are serious about their children's education? When one is dealing with attributes that characterize almost an entire population, it's easier to dismiss stringent ways of testing. Unfortunately, US teachers don't have this luxury.

Posted by Karl Simpson on August 24,2011 | 09:27 PM

Jim Wilemon asked "So how many great strides in technology and medicine have come from Finland's socialist redistributed society?"

From the top of my head:

Very recent innovations: Mobile phones (SMS), Linux operating system, MySQl database, SSH (network security protocol) and an older invention: AIV fodder.

But how much you can expect from a population of 5,5 million?

Posted by Jussi on August 24,2011 | 05:28 PM

Jim Wilemon wrote:
"So how many great strides in technology and medicine have come from Finland's socialist redistributed society?"

You may not know these (or perhaps you know), but rest assured, every audiophile knows Genelec, every information security expert knows F-Secure and Mikko Hyppönen, every meteorologist knows Vaisala, every nerd knows Linus Torvalds and Linux, your kids know Angry Birds and Habbo Hotel, construction workers know Konecranes, if you need the best paper machine you call Metso and when talking about producing finest papers and nonwovens you just can't bypass Ahlstrom. And guess where world's biggest cruise ships got built.

And I intentionally left out the ones you already know. ;)

Posted by Tero Tilus on August 24,2011 | 04:45 PM

An important point in Finnish success is they realize that the public school system is a microcosm of the greater society; they choose to deal with societal issues in the public school system. This impacts their society as a whole. As issues arise w/i the school system, the officials have the funding & latitude to address them. This potentially saves the nation money as early intervention ensures that students will be more successful in their education & will become productive citizens as adults.

In American, most of the politicians making the decisions have never been a teacher. Many of them say they understand the work of the public school teacher but they base this so-called "understanding" on the memory of the teachers they encountered as a student or upon the observation of teachers when they visit a school or classroom for a few minutes during their campaign to earn some positive media attention. Most have absolutely no understanding of the bureaucratic red tape that public school teachers sift through daily.

Groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a group of corporate trade groups & corporations were behind every attempt at so-called "educational reform" recently. Legislation presented in WI, NJ, TN & many other states making national headlines was penned by ALEC & carried by conservative Republicans. ALEC is not interested in educational reform; they are interested in diverting funds from public education to their membership's corporate subsidiaries that now find that there is much money to be made in the industries of standardized testing, virtual schools, & data analysis.

Only when politicians stay out of education & educators are allowed to do the job they are trained to do, will true reform ever be possible.

Posted by sss7575 on August 24,2011 | 01:53 PM

Why are we competing with the educational systems of India and China, when 68% of adults say their children are under too much pressure in school? Rather, Shouldn't we look at the Finnish system of education

Posted by Stephen hirshon on August 24,2011 | 12:41 PM

This article confirmed my feelings as a mother and a concerned citizen about current (2011) education in the US.
I absolutely agree with Kathy's comment above: 'magic and inspiration' lost for the sake of statistics!!!
What is our government doing?

Posted by Ora on August 24,2011 | 12:19 PM

The article only lightly touches on what is the main difference between the Finnish and American school systems. At age 15, about 50% of students in Finland enroll in academic high schools, while the other 50% enroll in trade schools (not "vocational high schools", as the article mistakenly calls them). In America, supposedly a less egalitarian country than Finland, such tracking (based largely on cognitive ability) is unthinkable, with the crazy idea that everybody has what it takes to attend college reigning supreme.

Another detail that might shock an American progressive is that religion is a mandatory school subject in Finland. Most Finns are Lutherans and thus attend Lutheran classes, while other religions have their own classes (the non-religious take ethics classes).

A couple of factual corrections:

Teacher compensation in Finland not anywhere near that of lawyers or physicians, nor is the social status of teachers. Teaching is a respectable middle class profession, whereas lawyers and physicians tend to be upper middle class.

It's not true that "There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions". For example, selective high schools only accept students with high GPAs, and newspapers publish annual rankings of high schools based on the results of the Matriculation Examination (which is a series of standardized tests typically taken over a period of several weeks at the end of high school).

Posted by Jack on August 24,2011 | 09:21 AM

As the former director/principal of two charter schools in Ohio I must share we embrace very similar philosophical stands. I certainly applaud the Finnish leaders/educators who have chosen to serve the student/family...vs...the state.

We know this approach works...and see it daily. Our teachers opt for no free period and love sharing lunch with their students. We personalize and do what ever it takes to allow our students success,voational choices, and the knowledge that they "belong". Our community schools are the change agent we need in this wonderful country. As the old brochure openly declares "When riding a dead horse one must get off!"

Posted by Marcia B. Ward on August 24,2011 | 07:41 AM

Indeed, a very different system with very high and uniform expectations for every student, highest esteem and requirements for all educators and a belief that all students can meet these expectations.

We cannot easily, if at all, transform our social/economic/political system, but we can provide all our students with a curriculum that challenges them to inquire about and think through complex, authentic problematic situations, conduct purposeful research and learn to think critically about the almost infinite varieties of information to be found in our globalized world.

What could help is if every one of us held her/his students to Sheindel Rabi's highest standard for her son, Izzy, (who grew up to be a Nobel-Prize winning physicist--radar, MRI). A colleague asked how he became such a famous scientist. He replied, "My mother made me become a scientist without ever intending it." Rabi continued, "Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask their child upon returning from school, "So, did you learn anything today?"

"But not my mother. She asked a different question,"Izzy, Did you ask a good question, today?" That difference--asking good questions--made me become a scientist," Rabi said.

And that difference--asking good questions--could transform every home and school on the planet, and not cost one dime.

Will it transform the US into Finland? No, certainly not.

But it would transform our expectations most significantly.

Would that there were more Sheindel Rabi's in our classrooms and homes.

Posted by John Barell on August 24,2011 | 07:03 AM

The chart "Annual amount spent per secondary school student" is simply wrong. The comparison fails to take into account numerous factors.

First, there are no health care costs for schools in Finland. Health insurance is provided by the federal government. In the US, school systems pay for health insurance for its employees. As has been often reported, that takes a large amount of the budget. Second, there are no school sports in Finland. Lots of children play sports, but for club teams paid for by the parents whose children participates. Third, there is no "school transportation system". Public transportation is cheap and widely available. Children learn to use public transportation to get back and forth to school. In the US, school systems have a vast array of buses to transport children.

Posted by Ray Wood on August 23,2011 | 07:56 PM

I find it facinating that people have a hard time understanding that we are comparing apples and oranges when it comes to comparing the two systems.The Finnish have a school system that,for the whole country, is in the same student/schools/educators numbers range as some STATES in this country.People are also having a problem understanding that what may work on a small scale may not translate to a large scale model.This is why so many educational "pilot programs" have failed in this country. Additionally,most people seem not to have read the end of the article.Finland is now starting to experience what we in this country went through in the sixties and seventies.They are now having the problem of the more affluent sending their children to other schools to avoid sending their children to school with the "underclass" of students.They have gone from a homogeneous,everybody is on the same page,type of society to one that must make accomodations for a new class of poorer people.It will be interesting to see how things shake out with this system in the new reality of the world economy.

Posted by Jessica Glynn on August 23,2011 | 05:21 PM

Also, it seems quite strange to claim that "There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions" when entry to Finnish high schools is solely decided by your grades (yes, this can be done if the nation is sufficiently ethnically homogeneous), which at least in towns large enough to have several high schools, and especially Helsinki that in recent years has enjoyed the fruits of Third World immigration, has resulted in heavy stratification of high schools to elite high schools where everyone continues to the most competitive universities, versus the mass high schools.

It would also come as very surprising news to most Finnish elementary school teachers that they are equal in status with doctors and lawyers. This status definitely does not show up in their salaries: the average teacher is paid 2654 euros per month, whereas the average medical doctor is paid almost twice that, 5107 euros per month. (As an aside, the average teacher in USA is paid 5266 dollars per month, which really makes me wonder about these complaints of how American teachers ought to be paid as much as their Finnish counterparts. Remember also that taxes make this salary disparity even more massive.)

Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen on August 23,2011 | 04:46 PM

As a Finn who left the country a decade ago, I just had to laugh at this article and its comments. It's Margaret Mead all over again, visiting exotic natives whose adorable customs somehow magically just happen to confirm every idea and belief that she already held herself and desperately wants everyone else to believe.

The content and especially its tone very much reminded me of the now-infamous Finnish State Radio programs from the seventies where the useful idiots "educated" those uneducated and ignorant Finns of how much better life and everything always was in the Soviet Union, reporting of their visits to some fake and artificial model kolkhoz where everyone was happy and well-fed (as they eagerly and completely spontaneously told you) and most importantly equal in every possible way. Of course, the reality on the ground that these people never visited was very different.

Those of us who can follow the actual news from Finland, instead of the feelgood pap that some carefully chosen trendy Green Party voter knows his foreign visitors are desperate to hear, know that schools in Helsinki currently have a serious middle class flight going on as Finnish parents try to yank their kids out of schools that are increasingly populated by various problematic immigrant groups who monopolize the class time and prevent anybody from learning anything. It's rather odd that this reality has evaded the author of this article so completely. (Then again, she also seems to think that vocational schools actually are high schools, so we can excuse the confusion.)

Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen on August 23,2011 | 04:44 PM

Mike: "2. Finnish teachers are selected from among top 10%. Teachers are revered (and compensated) on lines with doctors and lawyers (though I question reverence of an attorney) :)"

The claim about compensation is not true. Teachers in Finland are paid something like 2700 € per month, gross salary. Lawyers are paid about twice as much on the average (5300 €); doctors a bit more (5800 €).

Progressive taxation evens it out a bit (difference in net salary is smaller), but teachers are not that well paid in Finland. But it is a very popular profession, so it is relatively hard to get to the training programs.

Posted by Pekka Taipale on August 23,2011 | 04:03 PM

Greg: I'm afraid your comment about emphasis on vocational schools in Finland is a bit off. Unfortunately we have a very similar, and perhaps even stronger tendency to theoretical over-education as you describe - everyone wants their children to go to college/university.

Jim Wilemon asked: "So how many great strides in technology and medicine have come from Finland's socialist redistributed society?"

Some. A lot of the technology for modern wireless communications was developed by Nokia, in Finland. The company is now not as strong as it used to be, but I think it will rebound, and anyway it's not because of redistribution in Finland, it's because of recent complacency in the company management.

Finland is also home to a lot of health research, and much of this is due to the society model which provides uniform services and a very reliable and relatively uncorrupt (and not excessively heavy) bureaucracy, combined with population that is genetically well traceable and does not move about quite as much as e.g. the U.S. population. Thus you have good records of vaccinations and similar things, for the whole population, over a fairly long time period. That's very good for doing statistical studies of health issues.

Note: I'm defending the redistribution here because you are attacking it, and back here I'm much more critical of it because of the burden that socialism creates for us. I tend to agree with your comments about the impact that parents and their attitudes have.

And yes, Finland is a small country; therefore comparing it to US in general is not necessarily very meaningful. You should pick a state with as closely similar demographics as posible - say, Wisconsin - and compare to it.

(I happen to live just a few km from Kirkkojärvi school, so it is interesting to read about it here. Of course, the nice stories are mostly "human interest" and just anecdotal, not really proof about how great the schools are here.)

Posted by Pekka Taipale on August 23,2011 | 03:46 PM

Are any people on this message board teachers or have studied education? As someone who wants to teach, and is studying Writing/Reading and Education in order to teach English at a High School. I only have had one helpful Education class, all my good experience has come from observing in a classroom and working at a summer camp. I would not tout a Master's Degree as an end all be all of proving that teachers are good.

Posted by Carl on August 23,2011 | 11:25 AM

Short version: Hancock is comparing apples to oranges.

Long version: Hancock makes little mention of Finnish society's homogeneity in any meaningful terms: racial, ethnic, linguistic, geographic, economic. Those are the main source of challenges that American public education faces, and it's not, as donthitme suggests, that different groups are essentially more or less interested in educating their children. It's that things like socioeconomic level has a huge impact on school readiness, school achievement, graduation rates, and test scores, so that the amount of variation across communities and school districts is huge. Yet Americans' test scores are averaged across all that variation, which brings the overall scores down. If we look at test scores from schools with very low levels of federal lunch subsidies, we find that those scores are highly competitive internationally.

I'm not saying that poor schools in the US shouldn't get attention, or that the heterogeneity of American society is a weakness. I'm saying that there are things about Finnish demographics that simplify their educational challenges, something that the American system doesn't have.

Posted by michael on August 23,2011 | 10:40 AM

Is there any way to look at families in different social or ethnic groups and measure their motivation or engagement in their children's upbringing?

We all want to draw parallels between the Finnish and the U.S. approaches. So, maybe it would help to know how Finnish immigrant families from "Somalia, Iraq, Russia, Bangladesh, Estonia and Ethiopia" compare with the large groups in urban U.S. communities. Many students in these communities have intensely motivated and engaged parents who strive to support their children's learning and growth. Others do not.

Does the past 300 years of being poor in the Caribbean and Latin America, and the African-American experience (including slavery, race relations, colonial economics) have an impact on how the survivors view education, childhood, achievement, etc.?

I think America has a very different society than Finland, in ways that have nothing to do with blondness, blue eyes, and Lutheranism.

Posted by donthitme on August 23,2011 | 09:24 AM

Probably the Finnish school system does not have the same kind of "leaders" as we do. I live in south Florida and usually the news about the school boards show up right in the police section. I am sick and tired of reading about this or that board that misused/wasted/"lost" (check all that apply, usually all of them at once) X amount of money, time after time, and NOTHING happens. Ever. But this is not limited just to the school system, it has been successfully adopted at every level, all the way up to the Congress and Supreme Court. Money rules, morals are totally out of fashion. And nothing will change until we fix this very basic problem.
In the meantime our "leaders" will continue to make grandiose lectures and promises that nobody believes anymore, while trying to pocket as much money and power as possible.
And I am not making anything up, just read the news. It is all (and more) there. This is the "education" we give to our children.

Posted by Jose Altube on August 23,2011 | 08:46 AM

Is '@rob ford' advocating a 'faith-based' education system? His suggested reforms are not supported by research or results. TV and video games outside of schools are a distraction and a litmus for ineffective parenting, but probably outside the control of schools. Are these reforms justified simply because we believe in them?

America is smarter than the rest of the world -- just ask us! For example, why, in the second decade of the 21st century, do we still use the English system of weights and measures? Even the English haven't used it in 100 years!

As long as we refuse to learn from others because "we know better", we will be mired in mediocrity.

Posted by Greg on August 23,2011 | 08:27 AM

Did anyone notice that a significant fraction of Finland's HS graduates attend VOCATIONAL high schools? In the US, we have the wrong-headed idea that everyone can and should go to college. This goes against what we know about different forms of intelligence and has resulted in a shortage of skilled applicants for manufacturing jobs (which are returning to the US because of high energy costs and political instability in the developing world). Siemens (a major manufacturer of, among other things, wind turbines) currently has 3400+ unfilled jobs because they can't find qualified applicants -- people who can read, do math, and have mechanical aptitude. They are not looking for college grads!

As the baby boomers age, who will fix our cars, houses, and all the other things we don't know how to do? Jobs such as these cannot be outsourced to a call center in Calcutta.

Would you rather spend a week without your computer or a week without your toilet?

Posted by Greg on August 23,2011 | 08:15 AM

You should REALLY write about Chile's educational system which is a total disaster these days and compare it to the finnish system.

Posted by CC on August 22,2011 | 11:19 PM

I wish I had gone to this type of school when I was growing up. I'm sure I would have found learning much more exciting.

Posted by Mary Lou on August 22,2011 | 08:49 PM

So how many great strides in technology and medicine have come from Finland's socialist redistributed society?

Posted by Jim Wilemon on August 22,2011 | 05:29 PM

Comparing Finland to the U.S. is like comparing Portland, Main to Brownsville, Texas. The demographics are completely different.

I live in the Southwest where a large number of students are ESL students. Many come from broken homes. Many were born single mothers in poverty. Many have family members in jail or on drugs. Many become teenage parents outside marriage.

It is actually amazing what the good teachers(AND THERE ARE MANY)can accomplish in these environments. The U.S. has increasingly thrown more and more money at schools asking them to accomplish what is outside their ability. A 1st generation Cambodian family may send four kids to college while another family that has been here 200 years may have kids dropping out in the 8th grade,getting pregnant, doing drugs, and trying to live on welfare.

The answer is in society and family expectations. Kids are generally lazy and rise to the lowest expectations and requirements. They are also very good at scamming good hearted but naive adults.

Posted by Jim Wilemon on August 22,2011 | 05:26 PM

Umm, because they actually get funded?

Posted by Cog on August 22,2011 | 07:46 AM

Like your snippets of information and background illustrations. Here are mine on my website blog posted recently. http://in2edu.com/learning_blog/learning_blog.php?id=4322555121819459545

Posted by Warren Grieve on August 22,2011 | 04:15 AM

This is an amazing system. I fully agree with their entire system of not separating kids by ability and providing educators with Masters Degrees. This system is really good.

Posted by Marie on August 21,2011 | 12:32 AM

Great article. If the U.S. didn't have such a big ego they might learn something.

Posted by Christine on August 21,2011 | 08:32 PM

Rob Ford seems to be suggesting exact opposite to the Finnish approach, which is less time spent in school, more time playing and a trust based working culture for teachers to allow them to dynamically meet the needs of students.
In fact, I wonder whether he read this article at all, or indeed any literature on the matter. Comments on the internet have been known to have low standards, but this is getting a bit absurd.

Posted by Sob on August 21,2011 | 08:26 PM

I hope that I am not repeating myself. I'm not sure my first comment got sent.

I definitely agree with Timo Heikkinen's words: "If you only measure the statistics,you miss the human aspect."

In our drive to improve the statistics, sometimes the magic and inspiration, which drives motivation, is lost and forgotten.

Posted by Kathy on August 21,2011 | 03:19 PM

I had a similar experience but from the student side. My brother and I were born in the same year (he February, me December). My mother worked full-time so I started school at the same time as my older brother; I was too young. Teachers said I paid attention but never did well. In grade eight I had the principal for a teacher (Ken House, Thunder Bay/Prince Arthur, Ontario, Canada). He seemed to take a special interest; I began to catch up, intellectually, with my physical age.
I made it most of the way through highschool (a bit of a late bloomer) then, a couple of years later went to University as an adult student. By the age of 28 I became an elementary school teacher. I have two BA degrees and eventually completed most of the work towards a Master's. More importantly, I think I had a better understanding of learning than most who breezed through school.
My highpoint? A student who phone me years later to say he'd won a national science award and thanked me for getting him interested in science.

Posted by Ken Erickson on August 21,2011 | 11:06 AM

1. It isn't just about seat time. Students need to be engaged. Standards based education is the direction we need to go.
2. Agreed. But tell me how you measure this fairly.
3. Parental participation in their child(ren)'s education.

Posted by Vern Campbell on August 21,2011 | 10:33 AM

1. More time in class does not necessarily equate to more learning. Quality, not quantity. If you DO require more time - compensate the already underpaid teachers!
2. Pay teachers based on THEIR performance. Experience and longevity ARE important - just as in ANY profession! If a teacher is bad - get rid of them!Faithful and dedicated teachers have already shown " merit".
3. That's a parent issue - not a teacher's.

Posted by Geno on August 21,2011 | 08:44 AM

As a high school teacher in Finland, I must disagree with Rob's comment number three. We have kids who are addicted to video games, tv and devices. This is Nokia land. No one limits these distractions from them, so don't think we don't have that problem. I struggle with it every day. Especially for the reticent Finns, communicating through devices is especially attractive and time-consuming.

Posted by Finland on August 21,2011 | 08:38 AM

"3. Severely limit TV, video games, and any other device that usurpts accademics"

These are actually great teaching tools. It's the substandard content that you pump out that's the problem.

Posted by JKL on August 21,2011 | 06:48 AM

Rob Ford, you clearly either did not read the article, or you didn't understand it.

1. Finland is getting better results with not just a shorter school year, but a shorter school day and a later start to formal education

2. Teachers are paid based on their expertise and they time they actually spend teaching their kids, rather than obsessing over test scores and pie charts and many other things that have nothing to do with teaching and everything to do with marketing.

3. There is strong focus on ensuring that kids get *enough* free time - as the article says, "homework" as we know it is almost unheard-of - so that they are relaxed, well-adjusted, and don't feel rushed or pushed into going through meaningless motions or jumping through pointless hoops that, again, have little to do with teaching them how to learn and much to do with putting on a show for politicians so they can win funding.

Posted by John Henry on August 21,2011 | 06:43 AM

Intriguing - I always knew that the education system here in Finland was good, but THAT good?

A few comments:

* Child Benefit, which is paid currently completely regardless of the amount of a family's income, is closer to an average of 100 €/month than 150 €. Lone parents do get an increase in the benefit, though (see http://www.kela.fi/in/internet/english.nsf/NET/231101154958EH?OpenDocument for more details)

* Kapteeni Kalsari is the base form of the noun, "kalsarin" is genitive. Just a little quirky detail of our language.

* It is mentioned that schools provide food; what is not mentioned is that the school lunch is in fact a warm, balanced, healthy meal, free of cost. The rule of thumb is that it's supposed to cover one third of a child's daily nutritional requirements. The lunch menus are planned to ensure that the children get have a healthy, varied diet. I'm certain that this also has an impact on the learning, and does set an idea of what a proper meal is supposed to be like. Fast food is out of the question in Finnish school cafeterias.

* The state funding does not end at elementary school; universities, which are all state owned, are currently not charging any tuition(!). The student body membership fee (entitling to a student card which gives you discounts in lots of places like public transportation and museums) for Helsinki University is around 80 euros a year. We have extensive student libraries, so it's rare that you have to buy books. The state not only will back a student loan, it actually pays students a Study Grant of up to 298 euros a month, plus a Housing Supplement if applicable. And let's not forget the smaller things like meal subsidies.

The system creates a greater equality between families of different income, and does its share to prevent "inherited" poverty. It's called redistribution of wealth. It's funded by higher taxes - and it's worth it.

Posted by K. Kröger on August 21,2011 | 05:51 AM

1. In Finland we have a shorter school year compared to the school year in US or UK. We believe in quality, not measure.

2. Teachers in Finland are in fact paid based on their own education level and tenure.
Paying by merit would be impossible as we do not measure students (or teachers) statistically against each other. Teachers in Finland are well respected academic professionals and have a wide freedom of use any teaching strategies and methods they believe in.
We are not that far from the origin of existential learning ideas introduced already in sixties in UK - we simply drove it much further than anyone else.

3. We do not believe in limiting anything by force or giving out excessive amount of homework, but simply making it fun to learn in the classroom. Limiting television or video games would just be another battle against windmills. They are a big part of the world of kids today.

"Rob Ford wrote:
1. Increase school year
2.Pay teachers based on merit not tenure
3. Severely limit TV, video games, and any other device that usurpts accademics"

Posted by JM from Finland on August 21,2011 | 05:30 AM

Wow! I'm so sick and tired of hearing this praise about Finnish school system. There are so many things wrong there.

Hancock says it well, just read carefully: "Nearly 30 percent of Finland’s children receive some kind of special help during their first nine years of school"??
Special help doesn't apply only to immigrants in Finnish schools!

Doesn't this tell you anything about the teaching methods the schools might have? Don't you wonder, why third of students seek actively to get the special help instead of sitting in their "normal" class?

There are, however, few excellent exceptions in teachers. I have had the priviledge to know some of them. I sincerely hope they'd have courage and persistence to continue their good work.

Pls, dig a bit deeper before you praise our system so highly. PISA is just one indicator. It doesn't tell all...

BR
Frustated Finnish Mom
(two children who have attended both American and Finnish school systems)

Posted by Anne on August 21,2011 | 04:14 AM

Thank you, Lynnell Hancock, for a brilliantly researched & presented look at Finland's K-12 education system.

How does one find fault with Finland's system?

How could conservative Republicans criticize LESS money spent /child? Of course, political interests want to privatize and demand even more testing for corporate fatcats to profit off K-12 testing, testing materials & scoring.

From the article, I pulled several powerful excerpts such as this one: "...We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.”

Of course, this statement from the article clearly presents the dichotomy b/t US and Finnish children: "Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. 'We have no hurry,' said Louhivuori. 'Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?'”

Amazing! Logic prevails in Finland as American political interests condemn many American children to a prison term inside K-12 classrooms...all under the guise of "reform."

The only reform taking place is with billionaires, who continue getting richer at children's expense.

Mike Payne

Posted by Mike on August 20,2011 | 11:20 PM

But that is the opposite of what Finland does. Merit pay has been shown to be innefective and in fact was discontinued in New York and Tennessee. And what is merit?

I bet you're not a teacher

Posted by Barbara on August 20,2011 | 11:16 PM

@Rob Ford - 3 strikes and you're out. Did you even read this article?

1. Finnish children spend LESS time (in school) than American children.
2. Finnish teachers are selected from among top 10%. Teachers are revered (and compensated) on lines with doctors and lawyers (though I question reverence of an attorney) :)
3. Article didn't address Finnish children's out-of-school activities. Keep in mind, what kids do after school is a parent's decision. Certainly, I'd prefer my kids staying active & not stuck in front of a computer or video game.

Still, kids needs "play time," even as teenagers. Even if they choose to watch TV, play video games or text their friends playing in moderation does NOT "usurp academics."

With respect,
Mike Payne

Posted by Mike on August 20,2011 | 11:07 PM

Fascinating article. I think the biggest difference between us and Finland is the education level of the teachers. In Finland, it's the top 10% of the Master's program that become teachers...here, it's typically the bottom ten percent of the bachelor's crowd. Furthermore, in the U.S. ,any challenging subjects like sciences and maths are taught by coaches who really have no interest in education but only teach so that they can coach. I am willing to bet that sports are not a part of the school's job, but are something done outside of school within the community after school has let out. Students in Finland spend the first three years of life with their mothers at home...here, most kids lucky to spend six weeks with their mothers before being shuffled off to daycare. Schools here are way too large, they make it a point in Finland to keep them small. We've taken the fun out of learning, put the emphasis on sports, and made teaching a career for those who cannot find work elsewhere. We worry too much about being politically correct, rather than teaching facts and skills to help children succeed. In Finland, the entire country is the size of most metroplexes in the U.S. We would do well to shut down the Dep. of Education and give the power to educate back to the states.

Posted by Amy on August 20,2011 | 10:05 PM

This article spells out the difference clearly, encouraging the top 10% of graduates, educating them from the public purse, as well as rewarding them as if they had taken up law or medicine.

By comparison, i once had a maths teacher who did not understand algebra, but was paid at a rate comparable to a factory worker on evening shift.

Posted by Jacob on August 20,2011 | 09:31 PM

Very impressive. However, If teachers in Finland can try what every works, then they should be allowed to try competition among students that can profit by it e.g. those that go into business.

Posted by Edward Krull on August 20,2011 | 08:40 PM

I don't think you read the article, Rob Ford!!!

It's about well/equitably-trained staff, small class size, a strong national framework powered by local control/insight, easing up on punitive/publicized accountability...and more!!

Posted by Liz on August 20,2011 | 01:34 PM

Don't know how @Rob Ford got that.

Decrease school for kids, give teachers more money and free professional development, give universal early childhood education, decrease the number of students per school/teacher, get rid of standardized tests, increase vocational education.

That sounds very good.

Posted by Colred on August 20,2011 | 12:20 PM

"1. Increase school year
2.Pay teachers based on merit not tenure
3. Severely limit TV, video games, and any other device that usurpts accademics"

Did the poster even read the article? We get what we pay for in terms of teachers. I am a veteran teacher and love my work. My community pays well and my school has first class teachers that stay for decades teaching a varied and challenging clientele. We have many of the positives mentioned in Finland, but we have one huge, dark cloud overhead: NCLB. Our testing mania is disheartening, to say the least. Dump the tests, and raise the status, requirements and pay for teachers!

Posted by Linda Allen on August 20,2011 | 12:14 PM

Why increase the number of school days? Emphasis should be on quality, not quantity. As to "merit" pay, I have yet to understand how that can be applied fairly to all teachers. How will merit be measured? Test scores? We're already overly enamored with statistics and theories. As this article clearly shows, we need a little more flexibility and autonomy, not to mention innovation, added local control and an attitude that sees our children as people, not products or statistics that pad some educrat's resume. These things will NOT come to fruition with politicians and business interests (like Gates and his crowd who have their OWN hidden agenda, believe me) running the show or with a focus on test scores that pits teacher against teacher and school against school.

As to the tea party crowd and their disliking the Finnish way of doing things, they've no clue about many things. Being "conservative" is just a convenient excuse to be selfish and put your own needs ahead of the general welfare.
Public education is the great leveler for all. If we don't invest in it, we're doing ourselves harm.

Posted by Bill Toth on August 20,2011 | 08:08 AM

Thank you for trying to explain to Americans why the Finnish education system works. Did anyone share with you, that when the Bible was translated to Finnish, you could not get married, unless you showed a proficiency in reading.

My father grew up in the years that the article described as "only the rich and lucky got educated". He was not from a privileged background. His parents made it a priority for him to get educated, even through harsh war times.

When I was at school in Finland, teachers did test us (starting after age 12?). Time spent in school and on homework grows as the students age.

There is a rigorous, multi-subject National high school exit exam, which you have to pass to graduate.

In addition to having shorter days, spending less $$/student than American children, the kids in Finland spend hours each week studying foreign languages. Learning a foreign language begins after sentence structure in Finnish is mastered.

The teachers that teach "challenging" classes (such as classes lacking perfect grasp on Finnish), get extra pay for the extra work.

Finnish kids are taught to do the work on their own and take personal responsibility for it, and the "PTA money raising/room parent/school party/teacher appreciation" mentality is absent.

Here in America, only the very privileged with savvy parents get well educated. This is not good for the society at large. It leaves too many kids without basic skills (math, reading, sticking to a task).

The longer you wait to implement changes, the farther you have to close the gap between America and the other countries that have their education system figured out.

The simple things that could be applied here in the States: #1. Utilize only highly qualified teachers, not just people who want to teach. #2. Recess after each hour of teaching, no matter what the weather. #3. No testing in elementary school.

Posted by Helena Stokes on August 19,2011 | 11:17 AM

1. Increase school year
2.Pay teachers based on merit not tenure
3. Severely limit TV, video games, and any other device that usurpts accademics

Posted by rob ford on August 18,2011 | 02:06 PM

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