Reply to TO THE MOM WHO RED SHIRTED HER SON AND COMPLAINS HE'S NOT CHALLENGED

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
This goes against all recent research about early learning.  Check out the Finnish school system. 93% graduation rate from high school, and 100% literacy rate.  And their kindergartens are completely play based. “Play is a very efficient way of learning for children,” [said a Finnish kindergarten teacher] “And we can use it in a way that children will learn with joy.”  Which means they don't push reading at this stage.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/

http://stuff4educators.com/index.php?p=1_77_Finland-World-s-Best-Readers

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/why-are-finlands-schools-successful-49859555/?no-ist
[/quote]
I wish people would stop comparing us to Finland.  Did it ever occur to you that maybe Finnish children do much better than American children because they have a *much* better social welfare program than we do?  And that they don't have as much ESOL learners, or kids who live in poverty compared to the US?  And also, the system itself in Finland attracts only the highest caliber of teachers, and they view teaching as a prized profession, unlike here where people regularly denigrate teachers and an education degree is one of the easiest degrees to get.  In Finland, teachers must complete a 5 yr masters program, and competition to get into these programs are quite fierce.

I read an article about the Finnish school system.  There was this one immigrant kid who was failing in school. The teachers, admin, para-educators, etc.. rallied around this kid to help him.  They have the resources to do this.  A lot of school districts in the US don't even have enough resources to have music or PE.

[list]Twenty percent of U.S. students speak a language other than English at home. Over 400 different language are spoken by students in U.S. schools. [/list]
[list]Most English language learners(ELLs) go to the poorest schools and live in abject poverty. Lawmakers are ignoring poverty as one of the reasons for the achievement gap.[/list]

Finland:
[list]All students receive free lunch and access to health care, mental health services and guidance counselors. So all students are more likely to be well fed and healthy both mentally and physically and thus more prepared to learn.[/list]

[list]there are no private schools in Finland. Every school from preschool to university is public. So all Finnish citizens support the public school system, rather than draining money, energy and resources on alternative school systems. The gap between the top students and bottom students in Finland is the smallest in the world. [/list]

So, if the US could change its entire society and culture to mimic  Finland's, I'm thinking our education system would be vastly different.[/quote]

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