Why Education Is The Most Important Thing Is That Everyone Gets A Chance?

The American education system has many flaws. It is becoming more and more ineffective. To society, school is a competition especially in colleges and universities. People care so much about the grade they get that they forget the real reason why we even go to school; to learn. All everyone cares about is the grade that we receive. It has become so bad that we have lost sight in what’s really important; our growth as humans. We are taught that we need to get good grades in order to go to a good college, we are constantly judged on how well we do on tests using a grading, and most of the material being taught to us doesn’t even prepare us for what’s in store in the real world.

In the 1970’s Finland was not at the top of the education chain, in fact their education system was doing poorly (NEA). Finland has been changing their education system over the past 35 years to make their education system better. They have changed their education system to become very successful. When looking at the differences between the United States education system and Finland education system has obvious differences between the testing, the paths for the students to take, time management during school hours, and the environment of the classroom.

In this Article, Partanen states the differences in America’s education system and Finland’s education system. She mentions that one of the leading Finnish authorities on Education reform, Pasi Sahlberg, visited the U.S. In this visit, there were many things revealed on how Finland has been so successful with their education,

In Anu Partanen’s article “Finland’s school success, what Americans keep ignoring,” she talks about how Finland transformed its education system to one of the top education systems in the world. First Finland’s success comes from engaging student’s creative imaginations, and demanding less in homework. In addition since the 1970’s, the education policy in Finland is that no child would be left behind. Regardless of background, every child will have the same opportunity to obtain an education.

There are already many articles about how Asian countries are surpassing America in education, but what about Finland? Finland, which is about the size of Minnesota, is top ranking in math, science, and language arts. Despite this, Finland’s education standards are more laid-back than ones in America. America's education system is lackluster in comparison to other countries, but it’s fixable by recognizing the problem, observing other countries, and updating our own standards.

The Finnish Model will work well on reforming the U. S. because it provides equal education and opportunity for everybody. In the country of Finland, “there were no high-tech, interactive whiteboards in her [Kim’s] classroom…no police officer in the hallway” (p. 83). This suggests that these students do not need fancy equipment or armed protection to be the smartest kids in the world. In addition, the Finnish want everyone to be successful despite their circumstances at home, and one way they do so is possessing academic and vocational schooling. This gives students a choice between two equitable options of education instead of forcing them down a one-way path to graduation. The U.S., in my opinion, would greatly benefit from allowing this option in their schooling system because it allows students freedom over their future.

For instance, in Korea their “pressure cooker”(24) style of education “school never stopped”(57). In comparison, Korean student typically went to school from 8am to sometimes 10-11pm, while in the United States generally school is from about 8am to usually at the latest 4pm. With this style of schooling the Koreans never use excuses found commonly in the United States such as, “the test was unfair or not everyone can be good at math”(57) instead their mindset was “You didn’t work hard enough”(57). While Ripley and Korean Education minister Lee Ju-Ho think this method is extreme she uses this comparison to show that their is no denying that working harder in school whether it be more rigorous or lengthy improves scores tremendously. In Finland the utopia of education, many comparisons were linked to the teachers as well as students. In Finland “all education schools were selective”(85) meaning that most finnish teachers had received “the highest levels of education in the world”(85), in comparison to the United States where an Oklahoma algebra one teacher’s college had “low standards and little rigor”(88). This comparison also shows how seriously foreign countries take teaching compared to the United States where “jobs were protected by powerful unions”(84). Many finnish kids also were

School Standards and Testing Everyday, schools all over America are pushing students to the brink of insanity. They are giving many quizzes and tests, along with anxiety and sleep deprivation. Teachers have very high expectations, leaving students to worry about keeping their grades up. Meanwhile, students have to juggle with five to seven different classes, learning new material for each class, keeping up with sports and other after-school activities, studying each night for tests, etc.

As America is not a leader in academic achievement, it would be helpful to take note of what more successful nations are doing for their students. Finland is regarded as one of the best at educating their students, according to the World Economic Forum. As the New York Times Article “From Finland, an Intriguing School-Reform Model” describes, there are many lessons that we can take from their successes. Many of their practices seem unorthodox to us, but it is hard to argue with the results. Finnish students do not start school until they are seven years old, and they are not given homework or tests until they are well into their teens. They are also given on average three times as long of a recess as

Finland and USA have many different strategies when it comes to education. When it comes to school days, recess, and salary the US and Finland are the complete opposite. Each places have very unique ways of teaching compared to each other. Technology is used constantly in the US but is almost never used in Finland teaching. In my opinion I think that the US is better than Finland.

In contrast to America’s competitive system, Finland’s school system is structured on equity and cooperation. While American schools compete among themselves, Finland’s public schools are assured to be equal in their abilities to educate. Following a series of trials that included war, oppression,

In the 1970’s, Finland didn’t have a spot at the top of the education chain; in fact they had a poor education system (NEA). Finland has changed their education system over the past 35 years to make it better. They have changed their education system to become successful. When looking at the American education system and the Finland education system there are obvious differences between the testing, the paths for the students to take, the time management during school hours, and the classroom environment.

Nearly 1.3 million high school students in the United States don't graduate on time yearly while 66% of Finnish students go to college which is the highest rate in all of Europe currently. The percentage of Finnish students who graduate high school is also 17.5% higher than the US which is not surprising. This is not surprising because the United States is facing a lot of problems right now with education as we can see and it looks like they aren't in any current position to fix it either. One of the biggest stats that could be the reason for such improvements in Finland is that the student to teacher ratio is a lot smaller than in the US. In New York City alone, there are the same amount of teachers as there are in Finland but Finland has around 500,000 fewer students.

American education and Finnish education systems are different in many ways. For example, American educations systems focus on standardized tests and base students intelligence on it while Finnish education systems only have one standardized test. Another is that all Finnish teachers must qualify using the same standards in order to teach while in the US standards that make a teacher qualified vary depending on the school system. Finland’s censorship is very similar to the US,but they sill contrast. For example, both countries have freedom of speech and press, but in Finland the citizens are allowed to see all government documents while in the US government documents  are secured from the public. Also, the US has restrictions on what books

Finland is a country with a well known reputation for excellent education. Finland is ranked twelfth in the world for education, whereas the United States of America is ranked fifteenth (Iceland is number one). (Human Development indices) Finland also has the highest PISA scores in the world. (Human Development Indices) The U.S. used to be the top, but now we are slowly falling behind. Perhaps the U.S. should examine the Finnish education system and use some of its ideas to revamp our system.