Finland is #1 in Education - Here's Why

[Michael]

This was a very interesting watch. Basically, when they changed their school system to No Homework, They went one the Global Education Rank from #29 in the world to #1:

https://youtu.be/54EpTVvm00A

This is also what we did with our children who were homeschooled.

[Leigh]

They also don't start school until age 7 there. It makes a difference. I'm constantly bullied by my family and friends to put my 4.5 year old in preschool. I just won't. I truly believe that play is what they need and ALL they need, and just won't put him in an environment with curriculum before that. The Finnish do have it right.

[Michael]

They also don't start school until age 7 there. It makes a difference. I'm constantly bullied by my family and friends to put my 4.5 year old in preschool. I just won't. I truly believe that play is what they need and ALL they need, and just won't put him in an environment with curriculum before that. The Finnish do have it right.

I just had this conversation with my wife and kids this morning over breakfast. We now live in a world where there is so much information and stimulation. Why not let kids find happiness in the things that interest them. Maybe in the past there weren't so many things to do and school was a way to provide the information and stimuli that were lacking. Well things have changed. While the government education system is trying to do the right thing, they in fact may be making matters worse. I guess I am back to the limited government has its place, but imposed and overbearing standards can suffocate creativity and the pursuit happiness.

[mommyneedsadayoff]

I just read a whole story on this not too long ago. They said that teachers can do "whatever it takes" to teach each child in the way they learn best. If the first way is not resonating with the child, they work with colleagues to find a new way. They only have one standardized test when you get to be a senior, so they don't do testing like we do and they don't base the performance of the teacher or the whole school on those tests.

(just to add, our method when a child is not keeping up is to label them LD, possibly medicate them, and force them to conform to the system of learning)

The other issue is that like the PP said, they don't start till 7 or later and they let their kids be kids! Meanwhile, we have a government that wants to start preschool at 3. We are failing kids from K-12 (13 years!!!) and yet we feel the answer is to start them even earlier?? Maybe we should see why 13 years of educating is not working and see how we can fix that before we add 2+ more years (take away 2+ more years of their childhood).

And while I am a limited government person and know this is not feasible in the US, the fact that parents can stay home with the child the first 3 years is kind of a big deal. I really think that the parental one on one time does so much for a child (and for the parent). Not sure how we could encourage or incentivise staying home longer, but more money and time focused on parenting and letting kids be kids would be a much better investment in our future.

[Thriftylady]

I think part of the reason our kids have so much homework is all the standardized tests. In kindy here in Ohio, they start teaching to them. And the homework I see is some of the same stuff on the tests. We moved here when DD was in second grade. She was a bit behind because of her late july Bday and the push I felt to put her in kindy, I wish now I would have waited. I was a childcare provider at the time. But in second grade here, her teacher called me and suggested we hold her back because she wouldn't pass the third grade test. Her teacher said she needed more maturity. And she did and now she does great that year did her a lot of good. We could have saved a lot of blood, sweat and tears over homework had I felt brave enough as a parent to keep her back a year from kindy! The push to start kids in school earlier and earlier is IMHO a bad move, based on my personal experiences. Not all kids are ready to be forced into learning.