Finnish Education in the News

Recently I read two different articles—and watched some video clips—about the high test scores of Finland's students, including their math and science scores. Apparently, the people at the Wall Street Journal and at the BBC are wondering why the Finns score so high.

The counter-intuitive findings include the fact that Finns start school later than do most countries' students. Kids in Finland don't start school until age 7, and much of the rest of the developed world starts students off at age 6, 5, or even earlier. (A majority of American kids, around 64%, go to pre-school by age 4. And many pre-school programs are more like "real" school than U.S. kindergarten programs were ten years ago, let alone 40 years ago. That means that most American kids go to school at least 3 years before Finnish kids.)

After starting late, Finnish schools also have the fewest class hours in the developed world. They assign less homework than schools in most countries, and they have far less standardized testing.

And wait, there's more:

Schools in Finland are more informal and relaxed than schools elsewhere, with kids walking around in their stocking feet, addressing teachers by first name, and even occasionally being allowed to sleep in class. Primary and secondary school levels are combined so that students don't change schools at ages 11 and again at 13, and they don't even change teachers often—the teacher interviewed had had her students for five years.

Perhaps most important, schools in Finland are based on a collaborative model that has little or no competition. Children are not separated by talent, and kids who have conquered topics are encouraged to help those who are struggling. (With multiple teachers in the classroom, kids who struggle also get extra help from teachers.) In Finnish schools, no child IS left behind.

All of this makes the Finnish public schools sound more like American homeschools than American public schools. Fewer hours, more informality, stronger relationships with fewer adults (one teacher even said she was like her students' "school mother"), more sharing and caring, less competition.

And Finland's students are at the top of world rankings.

One of the headlines claimed "Less is more." But of course, that depends on less what! As we have seen in various research studies, creativity flourishes in environments with collaboration, and wilts with competition, learning occurs more deeply when there is opportunity to teach as well, and is stifled by constant evaluation through standardized testing. The Finns have arranged their society and education system to have less of the negatives—but also more of the positives.

Other benefits of Finnish schools emphasized in the articles and videos are trust and independence. The school directors and teachers feel that their society values and trusts them. They aren't beholden to politicians, and they don't have to prove themselves constantly to non-educators.

Again, this is more like American homeschools than American public schools. I would also point out that Finnish teachers apparently trust their students and their students' parents more than most teachers in the U.S. trust theirs—which demonstrates once again that trust engenders trust in a two-way-street or even in a pay-it-forward phenomenon.

South Korean Schools in the News

Another, very different, sort of school system that made the news recently is the South Korean schools. Apparently, when President Obama visited the country in November, he had high praise for the nation's high-scoring students.

Yet both government officials and parents interviewed on the BBC program said that they were surprised by the praise, because in their minds, there is a problem with South Korean schools. The students are so highly stressed by academics, after school academic tutoring and classes, a lot of additional homework, and little sleep. All of it is high stakes as the students struggle to get into the best universities and therefore the best careers. Literally, the rest of their lives rest on their exhausted young shoulders. There seems to be some concern that the kids will max out on all this study—that maybe, eventually, there will be a kabloo-ey moment.

Of even more concern, apparently, is that most of the work and effort is going into mere memorization of information. Some South Koreans worry that students are not being challenged with higher-level thinking, creative problem-solving, and real-world critical thinking skills. These students may not be the innovators, the shapers of tomorrow. Some worry that all that work, and no play...will be for nothing.