Article+on+Finnish+Education

Nathaniel MacDonald Article Review

Anu Partanen, What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland’s School Success, [|http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/#] (December 29, 2011)

Finland has a slightly different educational system than America, that is to say, it is completely opposite of what we practice here. In Finland, homework is not assigned, there are no standardized tests, and there are extended periods for recess. The purpose of this is to help their students with becoming more productive citizens, and to encourage a love of learning, rather than something to be feared or hated. The author addressed the idea that America needs to change its educational system to allow for more thinking outside the box, and that the schools needs to prepare them to live lives, not prepare them to take tests. This article addressed the educational system of both countries as a whole, and found out that in international test scores, Finland was in the top three for all the subjects, while the United States barely broke #30 on the list occasionally.

This article scared me, mainly because when the Finnish Minister of Education visited America, his ideas, and warnings, were ignored. Rather than reform the educational system that is clearly wrong, we have chosen to slowly roll forward to, in my opinion, a very bad conclusion that will hurt our society as a whole. I really have to ask, WHY are we ignoring these warnings? I can conclude that it is mainly due to politics, money, and ignorance, but this slow motion train wreck is very hard to watch, especially as someone who wants to be an educator. I would love to ask the author as to what they feel can be done on a broad scale for our educators, since they will suffer too much if this keeps going. I wish to implement ways to promote critical thinking in my classroom, as I have pointed out in my previous articles, and I hope that others will soon realize that we all must have this method of thinking in our classrooms.

As we live in a country that doesn't value education as much as other countries, I feel that applying what I've learned in this article will be difficult. I already plan on trying to move out of America once I graduate, but that doesn't help anyone who is still here. I feel that this article is useful in the sense that more people need to read it, and more people need to realize that we have a huge problem that needs to be fixed. Ignorance is our biggest hindrance here, and we need to counter it. I want to teach in the manner they teach in Finland: with social interaction, critical thinking, and providing opportunities to explore passions. Learning is a great thing, and we have lost sight of that in America. It is my job to bring that passion and excitement back, and I hope to do so by making sure my students are learning about what excites them, and linking it to other subject areas.

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