Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?

[elleng]

The country's achievements in education have other nations doing their homework.

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.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Part of it is the Finns don't have a major political party that vilifies teachers

and proposes abolition of the department of education and runs against science and reason.

[tabatha]

2. or basically vilifies every human, not a right-wing Christian..

[mzteris]

3. the real reason is the lack of poverty and discrimination. n/t

[txlibdem]

4. The example they used: individual learning at the child's own pace

and taking into account his or her strengths and weaknesses.

Self-paced learning is the only possible way to improve America's educational system.

[mzteris]

7. which can only occur

in smaller classrooms.

and teachers who are trained to work on multi-levels. Too many want to get up and give a lecture and a handout, and assign chapter 4 with the odd questions answered at the end.

(Yes, I know NONE OF YOU GUYS ARE LIKE THAT! But we ALL know too many teachers who ARE! :( )

[mopinko]

10. big reason lots of people home school.

i had a kid whose pace was so far ahead of his age that it was just a crime to stick him in a room with 30 kids.
we stuck it out for 8 years. said kid is a straight a college student, taking grad classes as an ug.

[SmashTheRight]

5. Finnish society in general

Finnish society in general is secular, liberal and pro-intellectual.

American society on the other hand is mostly fundamentalist christian, conservative and therefore anti-intellectual.

If you look at international studies, you see that certain parts of the US score the same as countries like Saudi Arabia or Syria, while other parts score with Sweden and Switzerland. It's not a surprise to guess which parts are like Saudi Arabia and which are like Sweden.

[mzteris]

8. which is why you see so many liberals

starting to homeschool in the uber fundamentalist areas of the country.

People around here like to bash homeschooling, but if their schools were like some of the ones I've seen & heard of, they'd hs, too.

[MKChang]

6. Teachers are actually respected in Finland

That goes a LONG way in recruiting the BEST and BRIGHTEST people in Finland to be teachers. And they STAY as teachers because they are respected and are treated as professionals.

Here in the U.S., can the same be said? I don't think so. In WI, it feels like a lot of people only say they respect teachers but that doesn't really seem to be the case. From the looks of how things went in Wisconsin since Scott Walker took office, and from the many blunt, negative comments about teachers that I hear now from people, there seems to be a lot of anti-teacher people out there.

It's a sad society when teachers are reluctant to tell others that they teach for a living. As if it's a "bad" thing.

[txlibdem]

9. I agree that teachers should be respected, perhaps honored for the job they do... IF they do it well

The cases you cite are probably influenced by contact with teachers who don't give a crap (I've had dozens of them from Grade 1 all the way through college). These are the teachers that need to find another occupation but "tenure" keeps them from being fired. I believe in tenure, I just think there should be some minimum standard that has to be kept or tenure is revoked.

I also believe that it is the fault of the school board and school administrators when a bad teacher is kept on staff. There are, as the saying goes, far too many chiefs and not enough indians in the school system. And the chiefs think they have all the answers and won't listen to the people who *actually do have the answers*... the teachers on the front lines.