What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120425355065601997-7Bp8YFw7Yy1n9bdKtVyP7KBAcJA_20080330.html

by mqt • 18 years ago

34 28 18 years ago

online.wsj.com

mqt• 18 years ago

"Movies and TV shows have Finnish subtitles instead of dubbing. One college student says she became a fast reader as a child because she was hooked on the 1990s show 'Beverly Hills, 90210.'"

Interesting. I remember when I began using IRC at the age of 10. The rate that I read at increased considerably within several months. It's unfortunate that many kids today watch TV without subtitles and SMS each other unintelligibly. If they're on the internet, they're probably looking at pictures of cats on Digg.

How the hell are kids supposed to learn how to read these days?

tac-tics• 18 years ago

The answer is simple:

http://www.roflcat.com/images/cats/270915355_c8b9ae48e6.jpg

Edumacation

Learn me a book

curi4• 18 years ago

good anime has subtitles

eru2• 18 years ago

SMS is poetry. Kind of.

asdflkj• 18 years ago

The real answer is: introversion. I have a few Finnish friends, and not only are they all introverts, but all their Finnish acquaintances seem to be, too. Finnish social customs reflect this. It would be interesting to figure out why. Finland does have a somewhat strange history.

This article strikes me as politically correct cargo-cultism. The features of Finnish schools that it talks about wouldn't work in just any society.

shiranaihito6• 18 years ago

Hi.

I'm a Finn and I don't think introversion has much to do with why our educational system works as well as it does.

Us being introvert doesn't translate to all children sitting quietly in classrooms, absorbing information. There are .. problematic kids too.

I'd say it's more about the good foundation, as the article seems to imply. The curriculum is pretty solid too.

Finnish social customs are certainly way too uptight though.

pg• 18 years ago

Do you think Finnish social customs are the explanation of this phenomenon? I.e. that it's not cool to be stupid the way it is in large swaths of the US?

Alex39172• 18 years ago

The Finnish school system sounds very much like the ideal learning environment that Alfie Kohn describes in Punished by Rewards.

curi4• 18 years ago

There are severe limitations on how far Alfie Kohn and his following will follow the implications of his ideas. They have gone so far as to ban discussion of certain ideas, basically because parents were too uncomfortable about being asked to do that much better.

Alex39172• 18 years ago

I'm really interested in this. Do you have any links, or else could you post/email_me a synopsis of what's going on.

misterbwong• 18 years ago

I'm not discounting the Finnish school system or anything but I would take any results based on standardized tests with a grain of salt. Many tests of this nature have been shown to be biased or skewed to the benefit or detriment of certain people. The IQ test is a prime example...

maximilian• 18 years ago

I just had a look through some of the questions of the test and it seems very fair to me. Simple scientific sorts of questions that have good clear questions with answers that can be very definitely said.

I would chock it up to finland being a more homogenous society. Many of those small european countries have top notch education systems, but they are small and everybody is well off. I personally think that the US needs to find its best way to educate, not somebody else's.

They also have free college. I'm jealous.

defen• 18 years ago

You can't deny that IQ is an important indicator of an individual's ability to be successful in a post-industrial society.

http://www.lagriffedulion.f2s.com/sft.htm

metoo• 18 years ago

I am a Finn and I agree on introversion. In our culture hard working in solitude is respected and showing your feelings is suppressed; both good for classroom study. In sports this culture shows too: we do generally very bad in team sports.

The whole society is based on leveling differences. The week ones drop out and the good ones are held back but on the average everything looks good. It is also very rare to be self-employed. If you want to accomplish something out of ordinary you have to leave the country; think of Linus Torvalds for example.

About history: Finland has been part of Sweden and Russian and we are still been constantly reminded about it. For example, our current president Tarja Halonen refuses answer questions about democracy in Russia. I think the whole country needs a psychotherapy about the Russia issue.

You should think a Finn as passive-aggressive, risk-avoiding, self-loathing, highly educated native with inferiority complex. Those qualities with the lack of courage to speak up makes us the ultimate slave race.

gruseom• 18 years ago

You remind me of a joke I heard, and I'm curious to know if it's a common one. It goes something like this: A Finnish farmer answers a loud knock at his door to find a detachment of Russian soldiers. The officer informs him that Russia is taking over this land and demands on penalty of death to know which side the farmer chooses to belong to, Finland or Russia. The farmer replies, "It has always been my heartfelt wish to once again be part of mother Russia. But at my age, I couldn't take another Russian winter."

I wonder if you would detect the "passive-aggressive" temperament you mention in this joke? It could be described that way, though it strikes me more as a kind of shrewdness, based in long experience of managing much more powerful neighbors. (I didn't know that Finland had gotten it from both sides.)

gahahaha• 18 years ago

I think the comments so far in this discussion are misguided in attributing the good school performance of Finnish pupils to some character trait of Finns. That's like saying blacks in America do worse in school because of black culture.

Finland has a great educational system. It's that simple. And that hard too. It takes decades to create a good educational system, and you can't do it with handing out more money or new laws.

shiranaihito6• 18 years ago

I agree.

Anyway, our educational system is pretty much uniformly great all the way to the end of upper-secondary school.

After that though, there are only a handful of good universities to attend.

It seems that among colleges etc, there are lots of really good choices in America.

For example I went to a polytechnic, "majored" in IT, and learned next to nothing about programming there.

Now I'm relatively far from being a Real Programmer (tm), but trying to slowly make my way towards being one.

mynameishere• 18 years ago

The Finnish scores are not very high when compared to, eg, Minnesota.

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

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