Moving to Finland

There are days when I just feel like packing up and moving to Finland.  No, I am not yearning for dark, frigid winters or midnight sun.  I am not anxious to move away from family and friends.  But, I am more than a little fed up with contemporary education in the United States.

In a nutshell, I think our elementary school children are pushed too hard to learn too much too soon, with far too much testing and not nearly enough physical activity.  Too many schools "teach to the test."  Curriculum is boring.  Creativity is stifled.  Few allowances are made for differences in learning styles or innate abilities.  Children have little time to build relationships with their classmates and teachers.  Teacher burnout is high.  Student burnout is higher.

In Finland, the national curriculum offers only broad guidelines, rather than stringent requirements for education.  All education is 100% state funded, yet Finland spends 30% less per student than the U.S.

Finnish teachers are required to have Masters' degrees, which are fully subsidized. New teachers are selected from the top ten percent of college graduates, and are highly regarded at the same level as doctors and lawyers.  Additionally, teachers only work four hours a day with their students, and receive two hours of professional development every week.

But, most important of all, students in Finland are treated with respect.  Children don't start school until the age of seven.  Class sizes average about twenty students, and elementary teachers usually stay with the same class for five years, so they get to know their students well.  All children are taught in the same classrooms, regardless of ability.  Yet, the difference between the weakest and strongest students is the lowest in the world.

For the first nine years of formal education, Finnish students have virtually no homework and no standardized testing.  In fact, students are not tested AT ALL for their first six years of school.  Science classes are capped at sixteen students so they can perform science experiments daily.  30% of students receive interventions to help them achieve at their highest potential.  Elementary students receive an average of seventy-five minutes of recess every day.  And, amazingly, in spite of, or perhaps, because of these differences from most Western education practices, Finnish students consistently achieve at the highest rate of anyone in the world in science, reading, and mathematics.



43% of Finnish high school students attend vocational schools.  93% of Finnish students graduate from high school; that's 17.5% higher than the graduation rate in our country.  66% of Finnish students go on to college.

I think it's time for our nation's lawmakers to re-think the national education mandates.  Perhaps we need to take lessons from the world's most successful school system.  Yes, I know that our demographics are much different from Finland's.  I know that we serve many more children, from a myriad of cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.  Even so, I think we can learn some valuable lessons from those who educate their children so effectively.

Otherwise, some of us might need to think seriously about moving to Finland.