Prepare Kids for Life
Scandinavian schools spend a lot less money per student on education than the USA, don’t focus on tests and have more kids of immigrants in their elementary schools than most other countries. Yet Sweden, Norway & Finland top the world-wide education rankings over and over again. The Smithsonian took a look at Finland to see where this success is coming from.
It was the end of term at Kirkkojarvi Comprehensive School in Espoo, a sprawling suburb west of Helsinki, when Kari Louhivuori, a veteran teacher and the school’s principal, decided to try something extreme—by Finnish standards. One of his sixth-grade students, a Kosovo-Albanian boy, had drifted far off the learning grid, resisting his teacher’s best efforts. The school’s team of special educators—including a social worker, a nurse and a psychologist—convinced Louhivuori that laziness was not to blame. So he decided to hold the boy back a year, a measure so rare in Finland it’s practically obsolete.
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. This 13-year-old, Besart Kabashi, received something akin to royal tutoring.
“I took Besart on that year as my private student,” Louhivuori told me in his office, which boasted a Beatles “Yellow Submarine” poster on the wall and an electric guitar in the closet. When Besart was not studying science, geography and math, he was parked next to Louhivuori’s desk at the front of his class of 9- and 10-year- olds, cracking open books from a tall stack, slowly reading one, then another, then devouring them by the dozens. By the end of the year, the son of Kosovo war refugees had conquered his adopted country’s vowel-rich language and arrived at the realization that he could, in fact, learn.
Years later, a 20-year-old Besart showed up at Kirkkojarvi’s Christmas party with a bottle of Cognac and a big grin. “You helped me,” he told his former teacher. Besart had opened his own car repair firm and a cleaning company. “No big fuss,” Louhivuori told me. “This is what we do every day, prepare kids for life.”
This tale of a single rescued child hints at some of the reasons for the tiny Nordic nation’s staggering record of education success, a phenomenon that has inspired, baffled and even irked many of America’s parents and educators. Read on…
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about 1 year ago
once again another country shows us up.
and the sad thing is, this country will continue to do things wrong because the government can’t admit otherwise.
about 1 year ago
The United States is not Finland and can never be like Finland. For instance, the Finnish education system has only 600,000 pupils with much less diversity in ethnicity and social class. It is unlikely that the factors that make the Finnish model so successful can be exported outside the Nordic countries.
about 1 year ago
that may be true, but if [as is done there] our entire education system was run by people who are TEACHERS (trained educators), and NOT politicians, the students would benefit.
politicians have their own agenda, and that is for themselves to shine in the limelight.
teaches have an agenda as well, and that is to make the students shine.
about 1 year ago
Less diversity of ethnicity? The school they talked about in the article because it did so well would disagree.
Scandinavia is far away from having the ethnic homogeneity people always imagine to exist there. No other country in Europe has more immigrants per capita than Sweden for example.
As for “diversity in social class”… it might be true that the Scandinavian education system profits from the social equality prevailing there but that is nothing more than a question of political will. It wouldn’t be a problem at all for a rich country like the USA to achieve the same level of social equality and eventually the same quality of education if politicians would be willing to put people before money & power. That really is the only thing holding them back. But as long as socialism is used as a scareword in the political rhetoric over there that ain’t gonna happen obviously.
And the fact that they have more
about 1 year ago
Josh wrote:
‘Scandinavia is far away from having the ethnic homogeneity people always imagine to exist there. No other country in Europe has more immigrants per capita than Sweden for example.’
According to Wikipedia (List of countries by foreign-born population in 2005), Switzerland had 22.89% of its population born abroad,14.9% in Austria, 12.3% in Germany and Sweden as against 2.96% in Finland. So, unless things have changed radically in six years, my point about Finland stands.
about 1 year ago
National averages wash out specific instances. Away from the capital city I’ve no doubt the mix is something like 0% but that doesn’t mean it isn’t higher in the core city area(s).
Statistics are a wonderful thing, but you have to know what they are doing to the data you’re looking at. For example the average income in some countries looks just fine … doesn’t mean there are no poor.
about 1 year ago
TigerPaw wrote:
‘National averages wash out specific instances. Away from the capital city I’ve no doubt the mix is something like 0% but that doesn’t mean it isn’t higher in the core city area(s).’
Indeed, and there is another thing: The United States has a figure of 12.81% of its population born abroad. but that is a vary poor indicator of its ethnic diversity, as there have been distinct ethnic groups, like Hispanics and Blacks, resident in the US for many generations.
about 1 year ago
Outstanding article! It could easily translate to a working program in the US but the politicians, unions and administrators will never let that happen. Too bad.
about 1 year ago
I don’t really think the unions are to blame.
about 1 year ago
In the US, the unions are a big part of the problem.
about 1 year ago
really?
about 1 year ago
Well at least that’s what they keep saying on TV.
about 1 year ago
And once again “No Child Left Behind” leaves us in the dust…
about 1 year ago
The National Education Associaition -the teachers’ union- has been working long and hard at destroying the American K-12 education system which was once the envy of the world, and replacing it with a curriculum of liberal political indoctrination. This union is run by bona-fide socialists and doctrinaire communists, and has succeeded in many parts of the country in corrupting the liberal arts with historical revisionism, class-warfare economics, junk science, and left wing humanities. They have created a population of ignorant, whining and depressed losers dependent on government – fertile soil for the planting and taking root of left-wing polititians.
When my children were in school, it was a regular duty of their mother and I to examine the bullshit they were taught, and to counter the brainwashing dysinformation -especially regarding American history, economics and civics. My kids were only exposed to the Federalist papers, the inaugural addresses of Presidents Washington and Lincoln, and the principles of American Exceptionalism through my efforts. Their exposure to, appreciation and comprehension of the “American Trinity” of E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, and Liberty came not from school but from home. It was we, not the schools that taught them about financial management, wealth-creation, capitalism, and the economic potential and opportunities America’s unique economic liberty offers. Without specifically revealing the secrets I am obligated to keep, both were given healthy doses of the virtues and morals of Blue Lodge and Scottish Rite Freemasonry and Christianity. They were trained in the martial arts, to safely keep and bear arms, and stay physically fit. Today, they are both happy, well-adjusted, highly successful and respected over-achievers, financially very well off, and living well. Thank God they are healthy.
The Parochial school system of the Roman Catholic Church in the USA spends a fraction of the money-per-student blown on the public schools, accepts students from every religious, racial and economic background, and generally achieves results consistant with the highly respected schools of Europe and parts of the Pacific Rim where they don’t eat doggies.
American higher education, college and post-graduate, is still the standard of the world for the sciences and skilled professions (medicine, architecture, law, engineering, etc.), but they too are a disaster in the humanities and liberal arts. Successful, ambitious foreign students annually flock to American universities and colleges by the hundreds of thousands.
about 1 year ago
No doubt the hard push in the southern areas to promote creationism in the biological sciences is another example of the conspiracy? And the rewriting of history books? We all know how places like Texas etc. are just teeming with communists and liberals.
As for the standard of the world, you need to get out and about more. The US is a standard certainly, but no longer of what you think it is.
about 1 year ago
TigerPaw wrote:
‘As for the standard of the world, you need to get out and about more. The US is a standard certainly, but no longer of what you think it is.’
Oh, I think he’s got a point about higher education: of the ten highest-ranking universities in the 2010 Times Higher Education survey, seven were American. An awful lot of people want to go and study and do research in the United States.
about 1 year ago
For extreme high-end technical fields I’ll grant … the rest of this was pure boogey-man under the bed nonsense.
There’s plenty of people to point fingers at on both the right and left. The problems of modern society cannot all be explained by a simplistic co-conspiracy of hippies and KGB.
about 1 year ago
TigerPaw wrote:
‘For extreme high-end technical fields I’ll grant’
It doesn’t matter what subject group you choose, e.g. social sciences, physical sciences, arts and humanities, American universities still come out on top, with a few British ones interspersed.
‘the rest of this was pure boogey-man under the bed nonsense.’
Oh no, the reds are not under the bed, they are _in_ the bed!
about 1 year ago
Just as long as they’re cute, well-mannered, brush their teeth, and like to snuggle afterwards. :)
about 1 year ago
You have to consider the price for this, though. Universities are symptomatic for american society: you have a very strong elite, but the rest of people (coincidentally the poor ones) are left in the dust.
They’re going to realize that this is not a sustainable model when those people start knocking on their door. This is the reason their society went belly up, and it’s only gonna get worse from this point on. I call it a “trickle up downfall”. Have fun.
about 1 year ago
Xellfish wrote:
‘You have to consider the price for this, though. Universities are symptomatic for american society: you have a very strong elite, but the rest of people (coincidentally the poor ones) are left in the dust.’
It’s interesting how many people from Europe and other places want to go to America to join that elite. At the other end, there are many Latin Americans who are prepared to face considerable dangers in order to be able to live and work (illegally) in the United States. Being left in the dust in the USA is better than being left in the dust at home, it seems.
about 1 year ago
If a child cannot learn the way you teach, you must teach in a way s/he can learn. It seems that throughout all of Scandinavia the human element has not been over shadowed by what is quantifiable and statistically significant. Learning styles are radically individual. In order to assess that and connect with a student is an art.
In so many ways the U.S. is a nation in its adolescents, a bit spoiled and clinging to the contempt of the ignorant.
about 1 year ago
Nicely stated, Bruce. I especially agree w/ your para #1.
about 1 year ago
Thanks. Are you one of my goons?
about 1 year ago
@ Bruce – it was nicely put!
goons?
about 1 year ago
Scroll down to Allen T.
about 1 year ago
Another case of Josh’ uninformed pro-Scandinavia propaganda. If you had actually been in a Swedish classroom, you wouldn’t be making posts like this.
Signed, Swedish school system survivor.
about 1 year ago
But this is Finland. Nordic but not Scandinavian, surely?
Talking of Scandinavia, I have just read on aftenposten.no that Aud Kvalbein, deputy mayor of Oslo, wants to introduce uniforms for the capital’s schoolchildren, similar to those worn by her grandchildren in England! We can all learn from each other.
about 1 year ago
I’m not saying you’re wrong but can you give us some examples, just to counter Josh’s saccharine sonnets.
about 1 year ago
If you would have ever been in a German classroom you would know how much worse that is in comparison. And looking at PISA and other rankings this is most likely true for most other countries as well.
about 1 year ago
(I tried posting something like this before, but it seems it has not passed moderation.)
Josh wrote;
‘If you would have ever been in a German classroom you would know how much worse that is in comparison. And looking at PISA and other rankings this is most likely true for most other countries as well.’
Looking at the PISA 2009 figures, I note:
Country Reading Maths Science
USA 500 487 502
Germany 497 513 520
Sweden 497 494 495
Average 493 496 501
Germany beat Sweden in all but reading. Further, Sweden was below average in all but reading. USA was close to the average throughout but did a little better in reading than Germany and Sweden.
about 1 year ago
I never would have read this, had it not been here. This is a good reason to be on this site. Art, appreciation for the naked body and human interest stories.
Keep us glued, Josh.
P.S.
I like the yuks as well (Bikini cartoon post).
about 1 year ago
My thoughts exactly. Yet I feel guilty about coming here. I guess old habits die hard.
about 1 year ago
Well you SHOULD feel guilty about coming here Bruce after the way you treated that young Thai boy that posted here last week.
Did you really think that anyone in Asia would think kindly of you after telling them you were part of the American war machine in Viet Nam, and that’s why you like Asians? It would be akin to a German telling a Jew he understood him because of the time he served in the German army at Buchenwald.
I wanted to engage that Thai boy in conversation about his country but you and your goons made sure he would never return.
about 1 year ago
First of all, you accusations are baseless. Let me give you a brief history lesson concerning serving in the Vietnam War:
The last four yrs of the war, there were no student deferment allowed, no psych deferments and no conscientious objectors. After your physical and eval, if you were physically fit and passed all health requirements, you were sent to basic….period. Nixon made sure that he had the most possible bodies available to put before bullets, for the last half of the war.
So you had two choices back then as a young man; you went underground and fled (to places like Canada), or you went to basic. Or a third I guess, would have been suicide.
Bruce has never said (that I read) he ever killed anyone over there. Even if he did, the penalties were severe for desertion and AWOL. Bad enough that they would be haunting him to this very day, if he had survived his prison term.
So no, Bruce has NOTHING to feel “guilty” about for being involved in that shithole of a war that was forced upon us all at the time. If he developed and eye and appreciation for Thai boys while over there, how does that make him a bad person? Cretin…..
about 1 year ago
Ah… he was just following orders. That’s what they all said at Neurenberg and were nevertheless found guilty and hanged.
Tharp SHOULD feel guilty about driving a young Thai boy from posting on this forum through his tactless and aggressive responses. And Tharp expressly stated that he WAS afraid to have an “eye and appreciation” for Thai boys. That was one of the main points of contention.
In case you have never noticed, Tharp has frequently expressed the deep seated fears and neurotic conflicts he has with regard to young boys, and his statement above is yet another confirmation of that fact.
about 1 year ago
The lessons of the Vietnam War are lost on you I guess. Especially if you’re really from the US, mores the pity. When you’re forced into a war by your own government and if you objected they hit you with dishonorable discharge or imprisonment…how strong do you think you would have stood in defiance?
Guess we’ll never know, but I’m betting you would have fought to survive like the rest of the front line grunts……this has absolutely no relation to the Neurenberg Trials, where accounts of German WWII atrocities rocked the world.
I think that Bruce has always been honest here and self-deprecating to a fault. He obviously has internal issues, but he doesn’t attack people here. It’s very possible that the Thai boy was completely contrived and a poser, just to sully Bruce further. I don’t think he was run out at all, his puppet master just got tired of pulling the strings.
about 1 year ago
You live in a world of fantasy Real1. That’s what makes you such a good goon for Tharp. No point in talking with you since you make up the “facts” to suit your fancy.
Talk about having one’s strings pulled.
about 1 year ago
Well I guess that would be true, if all but you were from a lesser God. Nothing you have said has any validity in fact, nor made any inroads in the logic dept. I’m nobody’s goon and said nothing during the Thai boy debacle, until now. However, what I do observe is that you are a ‘goon’ of your own ilk and by design.
You’re right though, no point in further dialog as you are a lost cause to real facts.
about 1 year ago
@ Real1 – well said all around my friend, well said.
about 1 year ago
I would say that the education up in Scandinavia as well as the Netherlands, Germany,Austria etc etc is a million times better than here in the UK in general. It’s not the kids fault here but the crappy way teachers are trained, a useless curriculum and trendy teaching methods. If I ever have kids I will either have to be rich enough to send them to Private School (I was lucky enough to go to one) or get them educated abroad.
about 1 year ago
Talking from a long experience as a teacher, I think you are overestimating the state of the education in the Netherlands. Too many managers and politicians who want to change everything nearly every year.
about 1 year ago
Well, if the PISA scores mean anything, then the Netherlands are doing rather well. They get respectively 508, 526 and 522 for reading, maths and science against an average of 493, 496 and 501. That makes them the second best European country after Finland, so those politicians and managers haven’t managed to ruin everything for you, unless it was after 2009, when the tests were last done.
about 1 year ago
Most of these comments reek of ”the grass is greener..” style thinking. I’ve yet to come across a state-run education system that is not hopelessly out-dated as well as primitive. I recommend; http://edu-lu-tion.com//
about 1 year ago
A couple of points – Finland is not a Scandanavian country, and neighboring Norway’s schools perform at about the same dismal level as those in the US. Both points are actually made in the article itself!
about 1 year ago
Let’s face it. On the whole, kids growing up in America and Western Europe are pretty stupid today. Who knows what is to blame? The parents? Society? The state? The teachers? Some combination of all of these?
I know for a fact that kids from places like India, China, and even several smaller countries in Asia make their Western counterparts look like fools in the educational system and in the work force.
about 1 year ago
When you walk into a library or the coffee shops around any major university what do you see? You will see asian kids in groups and studing hard. They may be naturally bright to begin with but they they work very hard.
about 1 year ago
Bruce,
I think as long as the kids are just spoiled – as long as they only have to do that what they want, which will keep the status quo. A common saying of young people here in Germany for 30 years: “I can not stand” (ich habe keinen Bock) – we are talking about “zero bracket society” (Null Bock Gesellschaft).
As long as these adolescents and young adults behaved according to the guidelines of the economic life and consume the “hell-bent” as long as the state elite is satisfied.
Nikki
about 1 year ago
Maybe so.
about 1 year ago
This is quite funny to read this kind of an article here and these comments as well.
I’m actually studying in one at the moment.
I don’t think there is anyone in here that has ever been in a Finnish school, is there? Well, I’ve been
People have been speculating here about what makes Finnish schools so different in comparison with the schools for an example in the States. I’ve never been in an American school but I guess one thing that is good in Finnish schools that might be a problem in the States is that all schools are public. If I’ve got the right impression of the American schools, there are a whole lot of diverse schools that teaches different things and take different kind of people into the school to study. In Finland all schools teach the same things and every student has the same opportunities to study further and the schools all are free of charge. No one has to feel that s/he is studying in a bad school and no-one gets to brag about being in a better school than somebody else. The education also is compulsory from the first to the ninth grade and after that you’re free to drop out school if you want but there isn’t that much people who does it. I think that one aspect that affects on Finnish people is that the Finnish culture has already a long time been emphasizing the significance of education.
Someone wrote also about American and Western European students and youth in general. If I remember right the text was about something that in the western countries people are stupid. I study myself in a Finnish high school and thinking about the most of the people in my school I really would agree with that argument. But in my opinion almost anyone, even a stupid person, can learn things. It might be harder to some people but anyone CAN learn things from a book and with a good teacher.
In Finnish high schools the quantity of different subjects that are compulsory is really high. Thought you might not be interested in maths you still have to study it for a long time. Students are forced to study also that kind of subjects that they are not at all interested in and studying that kind of things can be hard even for the “good students”.
I really think countries and schools should concentrate a lot more on their curriculum and think about what kind of things are really useful to teach, also here in Finland. Studying can be hard and frustrating if you’re studying things that you feel you won’t ever need in your life after leaving the school.
One thing that also might affect on Finnish students and teachers is that the class sizes might be really small sometimes. There’s so few people living on the countryside that in smaller cities and villages schools might be really small and that affects positively in the students studying. What comes to the immigrant here in Finland is that there are quite many immigrants in the biggest cities of the country and a big number of the students in the schools of our capital Helsinki are immigrants from all over the world. But then on the country side the number of immigrants drops dramatically. So that’s with the speculations of the number of immigrants in Finland. There are immigrants, but they have not been spread out around the country.
Och TJÄNA alla Svenskarna där ute!:D Det är faktiskt roligt att ni har deltagit i denna diskussion. Jag tror att ni har ett ganska liknande situation där i Sverige som vi här i Finland! Jag tycker det är helt onödigt att börja lista ut vad det är med fel med vilken land så som många har gjort här i kommentenra till denhär artikel. Hoppas ni har det bra där i Sverige! Hälsningar från Helsingfors och ert östra grannland Finland! : )