Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This has been said earlier, but let me condense it into one sentence: They start by having no underclass.
But we could do better. We do very well with our upper class; I'd pit the graduates of New Trier, Sidwell Friends, etc. against the best that Finland has to offer. I'd like to see that model extended to everyone, with accommodations made for those with less than stellar IQs.
This is key. The underclass is very difficult to deal with because of its self-perpetuating and self-destructive nature. No underclass is the reward Finland gets for not having gone through a exploitative/colonialist phase in its history. The nations that did now have an underclass consisting mainly of the descendants of those they abused. While the US was never a colonial power in the same manner as England and France, we did something similar on an internal basis, and we all now have some common problems that emanate from the phase in our history. Nothing is free in this world, ultimately. You pay for it one way or another.
This is key. The underclass is very difficult to deal with because of its self-perpetuating and self-destructive nature. No underclass is the reward Finland gets for not having gone through a exploitative/colonialist phase in its history. The nations that did now have an underclass consisting mainly of the descendants of those they abused. While the US was never a colonial power in the same manner as England and France, we did something similar on an internal basis, and we all now have some common problems that emanate from the phase in our history. Nothing is free in this world, ultimately. You pay for it one way or another.
What works for a country with a population of 5.4 million doesn't necessarily work for a country with a population of over 320 million. Finland has 3% of its student population living in poverty vs. 20% of US students living in poverty. 5.5% of the population of Finland is foreign born vs. 13% of the US population.
Comparing these 2 countries is like comparing applies to oranges.
So, why not do it by state?
And why do you think we have such a high poverty rate? Because we use it as an excuse to not improve education that would address it.
I feel our system in America produces more innovative and creative individuals. Rank and file cradle-to-grave educational and welfare systems just churn out mediocrity. The best and the brightest end up leaving such countries to places where there is less government intervention and more free enterprise.
Unfortunately, government and the education system want us to think that MORE MONEY is the answer. Unfortunately, more money does NOT improve academic achievement. While most reformers (Michelle Rhee, for example) realize that it is critical to remove poor teachers and overthrow the top-heavy bureaucracy, they inevitably are overcome by teacher's unions' campaign contributions to pandering Democrat politicians.
Another part of the problem is how we define success: if you want (almost) everyone to graduate high school, you must lower the standards and deal with high-cost remedial education in college. Now that the working class has been destroyed, we can forget using public education to prepare youngsters for the workforce--maybe now we can throw out the current Progressive brainwashing, and educate young adults to be skeptical about what those in power tell them. A basic understanding of American history, particularly the decline of the American Middle Class over the last 30 years, would go a long way to offset the Big Government Progressive agenda.
Finally, all the best education in the world will not change the fact that there is such a thing as IQ--good ingredients plus a good recipe make a good cake; you simply can't make a Chemist out of someone with an IQ of 80. And the education system in poorer jurisdictions is fighting an uphill battle regarding the average intellect of their students, after many decades of punishing high IQ-families and rewarding low-IQ families via the income tax system. it's a good thing for politicians that IQ scores are "normalized" --even if average IQ has dropped significantly in the population over the last 30 years, the IQ statistics gathered wouldn't show any worrying trends.
There's a lot of nonsense and rhetoric in this post, so I'll keep my response simple: Rhee has no credibility and it has been Reaganist type policies that have played a significant role in the erosion of the middle class over the past 30 years.
The Finns know what they're doing. In the US a lot of school is just childcare+, not actually about learning, just killing time. The vocational thing is also a great idea. The US NEEDS more skilled tradesman.
Americans treat teachers like daycare workers. They expect teachers to teacher their kids behavior and manners but they are not allowed to discipline the kids. American parents are also too preoccupied with work and personal endeavors than working with their kids on their homework and school work preparations.
Finland is smaller than Montana and has only 5,480,000 residents.
93.4% are ethnic Finns. 89% speak Finnish, which is the OFFICIAL language. 73.8% of the country belong to the Lutheran church. Taxes & other revenues are 55.5% of GDP. If that was the US, taxes would amount to nearly $9 TRILLION per year.
The word today is HOMOGENEOUS.......
The United States is too large, too diverse and too full of 4th and 5th generation welfare wards who care nothing about themselves, their children, their communities or education.
If the US would announce a COMPLETE welfare cut off within 1 year for anyone who is not working or going to school full time (or ACTIVELY seeking to work), people would have to get off their lazy TV watching asses and help themselves.
And all that fine Finnish education has of course produced that world-famous... scholar...intellectual...inventor...writer...artis t...tech wizard...scientist....uh, (struggling to come up with any current outstanding person from Finland)
“Throw out the textbooks” and “missing link” are words rarely heard anymore in science, but that’s what researchers around the world are saying about the recent discovery of microscopic lymphatic vessels connecting the brain to the immune system.
Quote:
Within days of the Nature study, scientists in Finland reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine finding the vessels in human brains. Prompted by the recent discovery of lymphatic-like vessels in the eye that control eye pressure, researchers at the Wihuri Research Institute and the University of Helsinki wondered whether they could find them in the brain. They did, alongside other blood vessels and nerves, draining from the outer covering of the brain, the meninges, through the skull and eventually into the jugular vein.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
