Finland’s schools score consistently at the top of world rankings, yet the pupils have the fewest number of class hours in the developed world.
Why?
“The educational system’s success in Finland seems to be part cultural. Pupils study in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.” Furthermore, “There is an emphasis on relaxed schools, free from political prescriptions.”
- There is very little immigration.
- Relaxed school free from politicians.
- Finland values education and parents know they have a key role to play.
- They stress trust and not competition as they do in the US and the UK.
- No one fails in Finnish schools. They sometimes have two or three teachers in a classroom; one assigned to the slow learners.
- Primary and secondary schooling is combined, so the pupils don’t have to change schools at age 13. They avoid a potentially disruptive transition from one school to another.
While watching the BBC video on families and schools in Finland, it struck me how important family structure and parents putting time into caring about their children’s school work, is critical to the child’s success.
Unlike Finland, California has high immigration rates and from talking to teachers, I’ve been told that many immigrant families, (mostly Mexican in southern California) do not enforce or help their kids with school work. Since many parents do not read, write or speak English, how can we achieve the results we see in Finland without a radical change?
No wonder Finland has become the education tourism center of the world where educators come to see how things can be improved in other countries.
After seeing the movie: Waiting for Superman, a documentary about the state of education in the U.S., I wonder to what extent putting an emphasis on trust rather than competition, and relaxed schools free from politicians could improve the U.S. educational system.
What are your thoughts on this matter?
Schools certainly are stressful and put too much pressure on kids. Where's the FUN in learning and why aren't imagination and creativity on the syllabus?
Tests only show that you are good at remembering facts, which is what most of school is about. I'm sure that having a relaxed attitude and helpful parents must be beneficial.
Sadly we cannot just send some folks to Finland to check out what they do and then try to emulate it…
in the US, it is going to take an entire paradigm shift…one which I fear our leaders are unwilling to ever make.
I remember reading about early childhood education in Denmark, where children were encouraged to do things together, rather than individually trying to be the best (competition). I like that idea. In this world we need more "working together" in general, and it's a good mindset to cultivate in children, and to teach them the skills to make it possible.
I don't think anyone would care for my thoughts. But here goes. America has become a very lazy country. With each generation giving as much as they can to the next without expecting anyone to work for what they are given. It's become a mindset that we give all that we can to our kids without expecting them to earn it.
I do believe that my children hated us so many times as they had to earn all of there privileges which included keeping there GPA's at a certain level. My husband and I helped as much as we could and when it was beyond us we asked for help from teachers. As for the teachers, some were very good and some well, were no help at all.
Today our adult children are both very successful and I do believe that they understand why we were so tough on them.
That is my view as a parent. Now as for the school system in the U.S., I think it is horrible. At least here it is. I don't have any answers for a solution. I'm not smart enough for that. But to be truthful, I don't see it changing for the better in the near future because we as citizens have too become too lazy to gather to brainstorm for a solution.
The more technology that we acquire that keeps us holed up without interacting personally with our neighbors, just makes it worse.
Love Di ♥
Years ago I read an article in "Scientific American" about (American) inner city public schools. The article was about how people decried the inadequate education that the mostly black students were receiving, yet the Asian kids in the SAME SCHOOLS were graduating and going to college!
The key to the Asian kids success turned out to be their parents who would do their homework with their kids and support their studies.
Here we think the road to better education is through taking a carrot-and-stick approach to our educators. We are falling behind in education compared with the rest of the world. But it doesn't matter… America is falling behind the rest of the world on so many fronts already.
@Ladyfi
I wonder if Sweden is like Finland as far as offering more creativity and less stress on memorizing the facts.
@ Kelli
I trust your statement as I know you've taught in the U.S. and now in Denmark. This saddens me, however, my Danish friend said that Denmark is getting into all the testing that we're doing in the U.S. and that teachers have too much paperwork and less time to teach properly. I wonder if that's the same for you.
@Missfootloose
I agree, especially among females where statistics show that males are better at team work than females.
@Diana
Of course we care about your thoughts, and I do agree about the "lazy" attitude. Fortunately there are still kids who are willing to work and get good grades, and are motivated to go to college.
@Robert-the-Skeptic
I see the same thing about education falling behind, however, I've lived in the U.S. for 28 years and I don't think it's healthy to give up. I think we need to improve things while we still can, and a great education for our children with parents who care, is so important in my opinion.
Sonia, I wasn't talking about the kids. I was speaking of the parents. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
Only a parent can guide a child to laziness.
Love Di ♥
Thanks for sharing this….the BBC piece was quite interesting.
I have not had my kids in US schools seeing as we live overseas, so I am not one to be able to comment too much about the system in the US.
As for what I do see, it seems that when kids from the US come to our schools, they have a hard time adjusting to the more relaxed atmosphere of not worrying about tests.
There was one child where he could read beautifully…but never quite understood what he was reading because the stress for him at his last US school was about reading the words quickly…not understanding what they were saying.
I feel that teachers are a key part in this equation also. There are some great teachers out there…and usually it is because they love what they do. This is like any job, unless you really love it, you will not be giving your all to it. that's a tough position to have as a teacher…and one that I wish there was some way to change.
We must keep working on how to improve our schools. I hope that we as parents never give up in wanting the best education possible, and working at new and different solutions on how to achieve it!
BG
@Diana
I'm sorry. I made it sound like the kids were lazy, however, I do agree that some parents are too. Maybe the stress of making money and working has taken away time from many U.S. families, to have the energy to help their kids. I admit, I have been fortunate to feel more relaxed as a stay at home mom when my kids were little and thus had more time.
I remember years ago telling my children that they would be lucky if they received as good an education through college as their grandmother had received when she graduated from PS 414 in Brooklyn.
I believe that parents are the key. And then teachers. And, not being able to get rid of the teachers that are not producing results.
My son has taught at a parochial K-8 school for 15 years, the first five in Santa Ana, where 99% of the parents spoke English as a second language and now in Dana Point, where the parents have their own set of problems: high expectations and busy lives. I am sure he would agree with your comments about US schools. It is interesting to see what Charter schools are doing to cope with the issues.
It is certainly true that learning starts at home from an early age- parents need to spend as much time as they can reading with their children.
Also teach them mathematics by involving them in counting things, and money used when shopping.
I think that if a child starts school with more of the foundational skills such as knowing letter sounds, recognising and being able to write letters and some short words, then that child will have a head start.
Learning continues all the way through life so if a child is encouraged to learn in every situation, then we should also lead by example and show how we learn something new each day.
I just learnt something new- I didn't know that Finland's schools were at the top in results.
I think parents need to get way more involved. I think that would make all the difference in the world.
It's clear that a lot of countries could benefit from following the Finnish model in many respects, but there are always going to be particularities in which they have to find their own unique solutions that best fit their own unique culture. We have a fair deal of immigration here too, and that's not going to change, but if introducing students to new people from new places isn't a great educational opportunity I don't know what is!
This is the first time I comment anything here, although I've occasionally visited you.
I am a Finn (and proud to be one). I have lived most of my life in Finland, but also four years in the U.S. when after having finished high-school I came to study at I.U.
Much water has passed under the bridge, but I clearly remember how my American equivalents were very much behind, ie. I did repetition at least for the first year. And we don't have gym (unless you plan to become gym teacher), public speaking etc. in college/university curriculum, BUT in high-school.
We also study languages (we are a bilingual country with Finnish and Swedish languages, some Same in Lapland), English is nowadays the most common first foreign language which, by the way, just about everyone from a taxi-driver or cleaning personnel, understands. 8-yr old kids start to study their 1st foreign language. When my Mom was young, it used to be German. French, German, Spanish, Russian (very useful in eastern parts of the country) are chosen at a later stage. I for one speak Finnish and Swedish, of course, but also German and French, I also studied LAtin which is a base for many a language.
Kids are eager to go abroad as exchange students. And parents let them.
Religion is not an issue nor a hindrance in studying biology and evolution. We believe in facts. And just about 99% of the kids go to schools, they are not home-educated. And they all go to public schools, pay (so far) nothing for the tuition, get a free healthy and balanced meal there. Coke and candy automats have been taken away from schools.
And there definitely is no politics at schools.
Women have held jobs for as long as I can remember, there aren't that many housewifes, not even in the highest income bracket: we want to be independent in that respect, too. The only sad thing is that sometimes the female euro is only 80% of the male one.
And universities are being "invaded" by female students: very many of the future dentists, vets, doctors, teachers will be women!
I agree with you and your readers – it starts at home, continues at day care, school…
In Finland we try to learn to understand what we study, not just study for exams.
We are taught to think and have our own opinions.
Unfortunately life in Finland is as busy as everywhere else on the globe.
Some parents think they are 'best friends' with their kids, not their parents.
We all know what that leads.
On the other hand Finland is a small country and population only about 5.4 million – it's easier to have good educational desicions than in bigger countries.
In Helsinki they started new idea: one vegeterian food day per week at school. Yes, children get free meal at school.
(unfortunately poverty has raised in Finland too, there are some kids whose only warm meal is served at school)
If you have any questions I try to answer or to get one!
Very interesting especially for all those who do really care about the education. Well done Sonia. Congratulations for choosing such an interesting topic to present to us!
Had to come here again to tell that today's major newspaper told that Robert Schwartz from Harvard University with his team has visited Finland this week. Their conclusion was that it is almost impossible not to learn in Finnish schools.
http://www.pearsonfoundation.org/oecd shows what has been done in schools in Ontario, Canada as well as in Shanghai, Poland and Finland. If you are interested, have a look!
@eeva
Thanks so much the extra information you sent me. I went to your blog and couldn't comment there.