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Finland has a population of 5.3 million people which for a cross comparison is about 1/4th the population of just one state: Florida in the US and about 1/8th of the population of the state of California.
That country has bascially one language, one unified culture, secure borders and a very limited immigration policy along with being primarly a socialist country (without the use of force and/or a rigid and militiaristic socialist government). The people in Finland are all essentially of the same race aside from some Finnish-Russian heritage that remained after World War I.
So in a nutshell, any advantages or benefits to attempting to duplicate or mimic the type of school success that Finland has had on a larger scale like in the US would be a futile attempt that would end in failure if you consider all of the other variables and factors that exist within a country like the US which are far too numerous to mention, but include a pseudo-capitalistic economy bordering on neo-facist, different races, cultures and languages, a border that is not secure as well as a lack of an objective immigration policy and the fact that as a country, the United States is bankrupt.
Finland has a population of 5.3 million people which for a cross comparison is about 1/4th the population of just one state: Florida in the US and about 1/8th of the population of the state of California.
That country has bascially one language, one unified culture, secure borders and a very limited immigration policy along with being primarly a socialist country (without the use of force and/or a rigid and militiaristic socialist government). The people in Finland are all essentially of the same race aside from some Finnish-Russian heritage that remained after World War I.
So in a nutshell, any advantages or benefits to attempting to duplicate or mimic the type of school success that Finland has had on a larger scale like in the US would be a futile attempt that would end in failure if you consider all of the other variables and factors that exist within a country like the US which are far too numerous to mention, but include a pseudo-capitalistic economy bordering on neo-facist, different races, cultures and languages, a border that is not secure as well as a lack of an objective immigration policy and the fact that as a country, the United States is bankrupt.
Finland has a population of 5.3 million people which for a cross comparison is about 1/4th the population of just one state: Florida in the US and about 1/8th of the population of the state of California.
That country has bascially one language, one unified culture, secure borders and a very limited immigration policy along with being primarly a socialist country (without the use of force and/or a rigid and militiaristic socialist government). The people in Finland are all essentially of the same race aside from some Finnish-Russian heritage that remained after World War I.
So in a nutshell, any advantages or benefits to attempting to duplicate or mimic the type of school success that Finland has had on a larger scale like in the US would be a futile attempt that would end in failure if you consider all of the other variables and factors that exist within a country like the US which are far too numerous to mention, but include a pseudo-capitalistic economy bordering on neo-facist, different races, cultures and languages, a border that is not secure as well as a lack of an objective immigration policy and the fact that as a country, the United States is bankrupt.
Eh. Some parts of Finland speak primarily Swedish. While it's a much more homogenous society than is the U.S., it (the cities in particular) is getting much more diverse in the past. Plus, it isn't basically one "race." Aside from the Finnish-Russian, there has always been the Saami. They have a completely distinct culture from Finns, especially those who still live traditionally.
It might help to read the article since the point it somewhat different than what people here are saying.
From the article. Just a couple of points:
Quote:
Yet one of the most significant things Sahlberg said passed practically unnoticed. "Oh," he mentioned at one point, "and there are no private schools in Finland."
Quote:
Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success today, was never excellence. It was equity.
Quote:
Samuel Abrams, a visiting scholar at Columbia University's Teachers College, has addressed the effects of size and homogeneity on a nation's education performance by comparing Finland with another Nordic country: Norway. Like Finland, Norway is small and not especially diverse overall, but unlike Finland it has taken an approach to education that is more American than Finnish. The result? Mediocre performance in the PISA survey. Educational policy, Abrams suggests, is probably more important to the success of a country's school system than the nation's size or ethnic makeup.
Quote: Yet one of the most significant things Sahlberg said passed practically unnoticed. "Oh," he mentioned at one point, "and there are no private schools in Finland."
This is a red herring. The discussion is already about public schools and to bring the absence of private schools into the discussion invites an emotional response. There are thousands of private schools in the U.S. and they are not going away no matter how great the situation is in Finland for "the masses".
Anyway, it seemed such a weird fact that I looked it up and found there is "at least one" private school in Finland. The topic of Finnish education was recently discussed on a Finland cultural bulletin board.
Quote: Decades ago, when the Finnish school system was badly in need of reform, the goal of the program that Finland instituted, resulting in so much success today, was never excellence. It was equity.
The U.S. public school system already has "equity" as its goal rather than excellence. That is what Brown v. Board of Ed., Title IX, and a host of other issues are about. I believe the practical result of "equity" in this country is often that the higher is brought down to the level of the lower, and the rich go to private school.
Finland has a population of 5.3 million people which for a cross comparison is about 1/4th the population of just one state: Florida in the US and about 1/8th of the population of the state of California.
That country has bascially one language, one unified culture, secure borders and a very limited immigration policy along with being primarly a socialist country (without the use of force and/or a rigid and militiaristic socialist government). The people in Finland are all essentially of the same race aside from some Finnish-Russian heritage that remained after World War I.
So in a nutshell, any advantages or benefits to attempting to duplicate or mimic the type of school success that Finland has had on a larger scale like in the US would be a futile attempt that would end in failure if you consider all of the other variables and factors that exist within a country like the US which are far too numerous to mention, but include a pseudo-capitalistic economy bordering on neo-facist, different races, cultures and languages, a border that is not secure as well as a lack of an objective immigration policy and the fact that as a country, the United States is bankrupt.
The USA does not have an education system. Each individual state does, and 30 states have populations less than Finland's 5.3-million, and a high degree of freedom to educate the state's children according to it own state priorities.
Americans have been using this cop-out for decades, that the USA is too big and complex to act like a grownup. For example, Canada's single-payer health care plan started out as provincial plans, first in Saskatchewan, and there is nothing to stop an American state from having health care like Saskatchewan's or schools like Finland's.
And about 10% of Finns do not speak Finnish at home. And Finland has no border control at all, within the Scandinavian zone, just a sign stating the speed limit in Finland (50 mph), like a US state border.
a sign stating the speed limit in Finland (50 mph), like a US state border.
Come on, the Finns are not complete panty-waists. The speed limit in cities is 50 kph (kilometers per hour) and on limited-access highways it's 120 kph (about 75 mph).
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