Helsinki, Finland
In class this week, we have spoken quite a bit about education, and about the ways in which the U.S. education system has failed us (i.e. you.)
A recent article in The Atlantic, ‘What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success,’ notes that today’s ‘economic superpower’ is Finland, a country which has no private schools, no standardized tests, there are no lists of best schools or best teachers, and where for the past 30 years “the main goal of the education system has been to ensure that all students have the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality.”
The article concludes that “The problem facing education in America isn’t the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad.”
The article is well worth looking at as you think about education, and as we begin our discussion of Europe.
Do you agree with the article’s argument and conclusion?
I first became aware of Finland’s remarkable educational system when I read a very similar article in Smithsonian Magazine (link below). As an Education student at UMW, I was floored that a) Finland (of all places) was so far ahead and b) none of my Education professors had even mentioned Finland before. I find Finland’s approach refreshing and inspiring and as such, I hope to one day see the US’s educational system follow their lead.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html
I fully agree. I am also an Education student and I’d never heard of this before either. In reading the article posted by Laura, I found myself thinking, “Wow, that’s where our values in education should be too.” It is no secret that America’s educational system is flawed, and I think the competitive, data-only mindset, while probably well intentioned, is a big part of that. I find it absurd that we are allowing big businesses such as Apple to essentially advertise for free in our classrooms. Perhaps if we did follow in Finland’s footsteps, as Laura suggests, our priorities (and the American educational experience) could right themselves.
Many thanks for the link, Taylor. I cannot agree more that to have good students we need good teachers. I was interested to learn that “professionals selected from the top 10 percent of the nation’s graduates to earn a required master’s degree in education.” This, of course, means that teachers have to be respected (by society as a whole) and that they need to be compensated properly, and that they need to have a workload that allows them the time and energy to give individual attention to students. We are not doing this in the U.S., and countries whose education systems are at the top of the list are.
It is worth noting the Finnish students begin studying geography in the fifth grade!