Lots of homework? No. Ambitious and pushy parents? Nope. Standardized testing? Universal Pre-K? Gifted and talented classes?? No, no, no. So what is it that makes students in Finland outperform just about everyone in the world academically? According to the Wall Street Journal, “Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by ninth grade they’re way ahead in math, science and reading — on track to keeping Finns among the world’s most productive workers.”
The Journal reports that educators from more than 50 countries have come to Finland in recent years to find out how the Finns do it. “What they find is simple but not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on, kids do a lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their students….One explanation for the Finns’ success is their love of reading. Parents of newborns receive a government-paid gift pack that includes a picture book. Some libraries are attached to shopping malls, and a book bus travels to more remote neighborhoods like a Good Humor truck.”
“In November, a U.S. delegation visited, hoping to learn how Scandinavian educators used technology. Officials saw Finnish teachers with chalkboards instead of whiteboards, and lessons shown on overhead projectors instead of PowerPoint. Keith Krueger was less impressed by the technology than by the good teaching he saw. ‘You kind of wonder how could our country get to that?’ says Mr. Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking, an association of school technology officers that organized the trip.
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This story of Finland’s superior educational methods (and it’s been floating around since 2005) is complete bunk.
The answer to the question, Why are Finland’s teens score extraordinarily high on an international test? is so obvious just proves how dumb American educators (and the media) really are.
The reason Finland is doing so well on these tests has NOTHING to do with different education methods. It is merely because the Finns have practically zero immigration from third or second world countries.
They have one of the most homogenous populations in the world, nearly all lily-white. Their population is 93% Finnish; the biggest minority group at 6% is…Swedes! (next Russians at 0.4%, Estonians at 0.2%). And they score high on international tests? Duh!
Every other Western country brings in a lot of second and third world immigrants due to low birth rates, pushing mean test scores down. In fact, I believe the Swedes used to be on top before they had a few decades of massive Muslim immigration.
This whole silly story is like heading to Montana and trying to figure out why their educational “methods” are so superior to, say, Atlanta. Should we laugh or cry?
The real question the WSJ story is elucidating: are educators really this stupid? Or do they know the truth, and are just laughing their way to a few weeks vacation? It’s hard to tell.