What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success
The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality more than excellence.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/
A very interesting article on education. It seems the Fins (as I believe the Finnish people are called; if it is rude, please pardon me) decided that what was missing was equal opportunity to education to everyone AND that teaching should be a sought-after profession that is highly competitive and challenging to enter. As I have mentioned here before, in our country there is a very wide disparity between opportunity based on location and if you are in a poor part of the country then your educational opportunities (for the most part) suck and there is little to nothing you can do about it.
My primary objection to the common European format where children have to test into each area of academics is that some people (I consider myself an excellent example of this) are slow to get started (though how much of that was because I was in a crappy educational system is hard to sort out) and in the European method that would mean I would be relegated to menial, blue-collar type of work because I would never have been allowed into higher education. It is not clear from the article, but perhaps that is not the case for the Fins, perhaps they are allowed to take their education at the rate at which it suits them. Anyway, given the enduring unsuccess of our approach and the prospects of solidifying the educational industrial complex I think a breath of fresh air might be warranted.
