The Seeds of Life Part 1

I was browsing a few sources and came across a few info-graphics about Finland's "revolutionary" education system which has produced highly successful students for the past decade. I won't lie to you, I was curious about it, so I looked it up. I found a Smithsonian article which took a close look at the steps that Finland took to re-furbish its dying 1960s model of public education. There are a lot of things that I wish could be adopted in the US system, but alas I know they cannot.

One of the biggest things that Finland's system emphasizes is play and equality of all children. That is simply not the mindset in America.  Americans (like me) are workaholics who believe play is pretty much being lazy and wasting time. While developmental psychology describes play as a learning model in which children can explore and learn about their environment and society, in US public schools, play is structured sports or running.  One stark difference is that Finnish children get an hour and a half of playtime while students in the US get less than half an hour.  That might not seem like much, but that's a lot of time for the brain to understand how the environment works and make social connections.  Part of the reason why play is decreased in the American school system is probably because there are simply too many children in the public school system.  Imagine the nightmare it would be to let 100+ children out to play and one goes missing?

The other main difference which I noticed is that the Finnish education system is almost entirely educators. By minimizing bureaucracy and aiming to do whatever it takes to HELP STUDENTS LEARN, the Fins were able to make drastic improvements.  All teachers have masters degrees and superb qualifications. Society treats teachers like doctors and lawyers. Its all dandy and wonderful. They even get paid a COMPETITIVE amount. In an ideal world, American teachers would get paid a competitive salary, garner a lot of respect, and be a part of a very successful system.  However, the issues stopping that right now is a) the government spends too much money on tests and bureaucratic measures b) bad teachers are left in the system because of unions c) public education reeks of inequality even within districts.

I'm going to continue researching this and report back more studies and findings about how I think we should reform the public education system. Ok, maybe not how to reform the system, but what things are causing this decrepit system to continuing affecting American children. I want to have children one day and I hope that by the time, the school system will be good enough again.