(NAME-MCE) Why are Finnish kids so smart?

[KispokoT at aol.com]

What Makes Finnish Kids So  Smart?
Finland's  teens score extraordinarily high on an international test. 
American educators  are trying to figure out why.
By ELLEN  GAMERMAN
February 29,  2008; Page W1
_http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html_ 
(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120425355065601997.html) 


Helsinki, Finland 
High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of  homework a 
night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no  valedictorians, no 
tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little  standardized 
testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start  school until age 7. 
Yet by one international measure, Finnish teenagers are among the  smartest 
in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old  students who 
were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the  world's C 
students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and  rules. 
Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online.  They dye 
their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by  ninth grade 
they're way ahead in math, science and reading -- on track to  keeping Finns 
among the world's most productive workers.      Finland's students are the 
brightest in the world,  according to an international test. Teachers say extra 
playtime is one  reason for the students' success. WSJ's Ellen Gamerman  reports. 
The Finns won attention with their performances in triennial  tests sponsored 
by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a  group funded 
by 30 countries that monitors social and economic trends. In the  most recent 
test, which focused on science, Finland's students placed first in  science 
and near the top in math and reading, according to results released late  last 
year. An unofficial tally of Finland's combined scores puts it in first  place 
overall, says Andreas Schleicher, who directs the OECD's test, known as  the 
Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA. The U.S. placed in  
the middle of the pack in math and science; its reading scores were tossed  
because of a glitch. About 400,000 students around the world answered  
multiple-choice questions and essays on the test that measured critical thinking  and 
the application of knowledge. A typical subject: Discuss the artistic value  of 
graffiti. 
The academic prowess of Finland's students has lured educators  from more 
than 50 countries in recent years to learn the country's secret,  including an 
official from the U.S. Department of Education. What they find is  simple but 
not easy: well-trained teachers and responsible children. Early on,  kids do a 
lot without adults hovering. And teachers create lessons to fit their  
students. "We don't have oil or other riches. Knowledge is the thing Finnish  people 
have," says Hannele Frantsi, a school principal. 
Visitors and teacher trainees can peek at how it's done from a  viewing 
balcony perched over a classroom at the Norssi School in Jyväskylä, a  city in 
central Finland. What they see is a relaxed, back-to-basics approach.  The school, 
which is a model campus, has no sports teams, marching bands or  prom.      
Fanny Salo in class 
Trailing 15-year-old Fanny Salo at Norssi gives a glimpse of the  no-frills 
curriculum. Fanny is a bubbly ninth-grader who loves "Gossip Girl"  books, the 
TV show "Desperate Housewives" and digging through the clothing racks  at H&M 
stores with her friends. 
Fanny earns straight A's, and with no gifted classes she  sometimes doodles 
in her journal while waiting for others to catch up. She often  helps lagging 
classmates. "It's fun to have time to relax a little in the middle  of class," 
Fanny says. Finnish educators believe they get better overall results  by 
concentrating on weaker students rather than by pushing gifted students ahead  of 
everyone else. The idea is that bright students can help average ones without  
harming their own progress. 
At lunch, Fanny and her friends leave campus to buy  salmiakki, a salty 
licorice. They return for physics, where class starts  when everyone quiets down. 
Teachers and students address each other by first  names. About the only 
classroom rules are no cellphones, no iPods and no  hats. 
TESTING AROUND THE GLOBE

 (http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_080228_sciencetest.pdf) 
Every  three years, 15-year-olds in 57 countries around the world take a test 
called  the Pisa exam, which measures proficiency in math, science and 
reading.
 
• _The test:_ 
(http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_080228_sciencetest.pdf)  Two sections from  the Pisa science test
• _Chart:_ 
(http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-FINN080229-sort.html?s=1&ps=false&a=up)  Recent scores for participating  countries

DISCUSS

Do  you think any of these Finnish methods would work in U.S. schools? What 
would  you change -- if anything -- about the U.S. school system, and the  
responsibilities that teachers, parents and students are given? _Share  your 
thoughts._ (http://forums.wsj.com/viewtopic.php?t=1591) 

Fanny's more rebellious classmates dye their blond hair black or  sport pink 
dreadlocks. Others wear tank tops and stilettos to look tough in the  chilly 
climate. Tanning lotions are popular in one clique. Teens sift by style,  
including "fruittari," or preppies; "hoppari," or hip-hop, or the confounding  
"fruittari-hoppari," which fuses both. Ask an obvious question and you may hear  
"KVG," short for "Check it on Google, you idiot." Heavy-metal fans listen to  
Nightwish, a Finnish band, and teens socialize online at irc-galleria.net. 
The Norssi School is run like a teaching hospital, with about 800  teacher 
trainees each year. Graduate students work with kids while instructors  evaluate 
from the sidelines. Teachers must hold master's degrees, and the  profession 
is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single  job. Their 
salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally  have more 
freedom. 
Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape  students to 
national standards. "In most countries, education feels like a car  factory. 
In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs," says Mr. Schleicher,  of the 
Paris-based OECD, which began the international student test in 2000. 
One explanation for the Finns' success is their love of reading.  Parents of 
newborns receive a government-paid gift pack that includes a picture  book. 
Some libraries are attached to shopping malls, and a book bus travels to  more 
remote neighborhoods like a Good Humor truck.      Ymmersta school principal 
Hannele  Frantsi 
Finland shares its language with no other country, and even the  most popular 
English-language books are translated here long after they are  first 
published. Many children struggled to read the last Harry Potter book in  English 
because they feared they would hear about the ending before it arrived  in 
Finnish. Movies and TV shows have Finnish subtitles instead of dubbing. One  college 
student says she became a fast reader as a child because she was hooked  on 
the 1990s show "Beverly Hills, 90210." 
In November, a U.S. delegation visited, hoping to learn how  Scandinavian 
educators used technology. Officials from the Education Department,  the National 
Education Association and the American Association of School  Librarians saw 
Finnish teachers with chalkboards instead of whiteboards, and  lessons shown 
on overhead projectors instead of PowerPoint. Keith Krueger was  less impressed 
by the technology than by the good teaching he saw. "You kind of  wonder how 
could our country get to that?" says Mr. Krueger, CEO of the  Consortium for 
School Networking, an association of school technology officers  that organized 
the trip. 
Finnish high-school senior Elina Lamponen saw the differences  firsthand. She 
spent a year at Colon High School in Colon, Mich., where strict  rules didn't 
translate into tougher lessons or dedicated students, Ms. Lamponen  says. She 
would ask students whether they did their homework. They would reply:  " 
'Nah. So what'd you do last night?'" she recalls. History tests were  often 
multiple choice. The rare essay question, she says, allowed very little  space in 
which to write. In-class projects were largely "glue this to the poster  for an 
hour," she says. Her Finnish high school forced Ms. Lamponen, a  spiky-haired 
19-year-old, to repeat the year when she returned.      At the Norssi School 
in Jyväskylä, school principal  Helena Muilu 
Lloyd Kirby, superintendent of Colon Community Schools in  southern Michigan, 
says foreign students are told to ask for extra work if they  find classes 
too easy. He says he is trying to make his schools more rigorous by  asking 
parents to demand more from their children. 
Despite the apparent simplicity of Finnish education, it would be  tough to 
replicate in the U.S. With a largely homogeneous population, teachers  have few 
students who don't speak Finnish. In the U.S., about 8% of students are  
learning English, according to the Education Department. There are fewer  
disparities in education and income levels among Finns. Finland separates  students 
for the last three years of high school based on grades; 53% go to high  school 
and the rest enter vocational school. (All 15-year-old students took the  PISA 
test.) Finland has a high-school dropout rate of about 4% -- or 10% at  
vocational schools -- compared with roughly 25% in the U.S., according to their  
respective education departments. 
Another difference is financial. Each school year, the U.S.  spends an 
average of $8,700 per student, while the Finns spend $7,500. Finland's  high-tax 
government provides roughly equal per-pupil funding, unlike the  disparities 
between Beverly Hills public schools, for example, and schools in  poorer 
districts. The gap between Finland's best- and worst-performing schools  was the 
smallest of any country in the PISA testing. The U.S. ranks about  average. 
Finnish students have little angstata -- or teen  angst -- about getting into 
the best university, and no worries about  paying for it. College is free. 
There is competition for college based on  academic specialties -- medical 
school, for instance. But even the best  universities don't have the elite status 
of a Harvard.      Students at the Ymmersta School near  Helsinki 
Taking away the competition of getting into the "right schools"  allows 
Finnish children to enjoy a less-pressured childhood. While many U.S.  parents 
worry about enrolling their toddlers in academically oriented  preschools, the 
Finns don't begin school until age 7, a year later than most  U.S. first-graders. 
Once school starts, the Finns are more self-reliant. While some  U.S. parents 
fuss over accompanying their children to and from school, and  arrange every 
play date and outing, young Finns do much more on their own. At  the Ymmersta 
School in a nearby Helsinki suburb, some first-grade students  trudge to 
school through a stand of evergreens in near darkness. At lunch, they  pick out 
their own meals, which all schools give free, and carry the trays to  lunch 
tables. There is no Internet filter in the school library. They can walk  in their 
socks during class, but at home even the very young are expected to  lace up 
their own skates or put on their own skis. 
The Finns enjoy one of the highest standards of living in the  world, but 
they, too, worry about falling behind in the shifting global economy.  They rely 
on electronics and telecommunications companies, such as Finnish  cellphone 
giant Nokia, along with forest-products and mining industries for  jobs. Some 
educators say Finland needs to fast-track its brightest students the  way the 
U.S. does, with gifted programs aimed at producing more go-getters.  Parents 
also are getting pushier about special attention for their children,  says Tapio 
Erma, principal of the suburban Olari School. "We are more and more  aware of 
American-style parents," he says. 
Mr. Erma's school is a showcase campus. Last summer, at a  conference in 
Peru, he spoke about adopting Finnish teaching methods. During a  recent afternoon 
in one of his school's advanced math courses, a high-school boy  fell asleep 
at his desk. The teacher didn't disturb him, instead calling on  others. While 
napping in class isn't condoned, Mr. Erma says, "We just have to  accept the 
fact that they're kids and they're learning how to live." 
Write to Ellen Gamerman at _ellen.gamerman at wsj.com_ 
(mailto:ellen.gamerman at wsj.com)  



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