Finland's Educational Success? The Anti-Tiger Mother Approach

Joshua Levine
"Finland's Education Success?  The Anti-Tiger Mother Approach"
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2062419-1,00.html
TIME
April 14, 2011

I loved this article!  In the last four global PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) surveys, Finland has usually finished in the top three in reading, math and science.  They have achieved such great success with shorter school hours, no national testing ("They just don't believe it does much good.") and a very short stated Math curriculum (only ten pages, up from 3 1/2 a few years ago).  Their secret for their success: their teachers.  "The U.S. has an industrial model where teachers are the means for conveying a prefabricated product. In Finland, the teachers are the standard."

Finland's teachers must have Master's Degrees to teach and many people compete for a few highly coveted positions each year.  In 2008, there were 1,258 undergrads who applied for the 5 year program to become elementary school teachers.  Of that number only 123 (9.8%) were accepted.  What is interesting to note is the word for teacher in Finnish (kasvatus) is the same word used for a mother bringing up a child.

Finland did not always have the best program and it took them fifty years to reform their school system.  What is interesting to note is their society is not known for its competitiveness so when they looked at how to make their school's better the Finns decided to make their worst students better.  So now there is little divide between the best and worst students.

What is heartening to read in this article is the focus of any education reform has to be the teacher and without a great teacher training program, schools cannot succeed.  It is also heartening to know that education reform can take place in a country and it can be successful!