Opinion Piece
Education is always being reformed. Nonetheless, the United States is still falling behind other countries. The question of how to fix American education cannot be answered by one person. Each state, school district, classroom, teacher and student has different needs and challenges. Even though there is so much diversity, reforms can still be made to improve the education system. I do not have the solutions, but I am here to tell you what I believe works in other countries and how that could be helpful in the United States.
Finland:
Everyone is always talking about how successful Finland is in education. When my teacher started telling my class about Finland, I had little to no knowledge of the country, let alone its education system. Since then I have watched the documentary, The Finland Phenomenon, and read The Smartest Kids in the World. From these resources I have found methods used in Finland that I believe we could use or adapt for the United States. One thing that Finland did was to find teacher prep programs that weren't successful and to do away with them. This may seem radical but if this was done in the United States it could have the potential to lower that amount of failing teachers. If universities aren't training good teachers these teachers won't be aiding to educating the future generation. This cycle of underachieving needs to be stopped. In Finland, there are only a few large education schools so that these prep programs are successful and fairly similar. Although we could not completely do this in the United States it is something to think about and learn from. When it comes to teacher prep programs in Finland it's all about the best of the best. It is an honor to be an educator and is a difficult field to break into. Doesn't that make sense? I've never understood why teachers in the U.S are some of the less educated. How could C students have enough the content knowledge to teach A students? In Finland, teaching is a hard field to break into and educators are respected. They are also trusted by their employers more so that teacher assessments are not needed. Teachers need to be prepared properly before they even acquire a teaching job.This is the biggest lesson we can take from Finland. Teachers need to be the best and brightest if they are going to build a generation that will give the country the best and the brightest future.
The atmosphere of Finland classrooms is completely different from most American classrooms. Kim, the girl who went to school in Finland, talks about how the kids see education as something they need to do. They actually have fun in class without the teachers using entertainment as a bribe. We need this thought process in the United States. Students should look at school as their job. In the United States, so much time is given to extracurriculars and sports and this is often held above education. We need a shift in our society to hold education at a higher level. Education is the root to any successful nation and should be treated as such. Unfortunately, there is no cut and dry to make adults and students care about education. We cannot just switch to Finland mentality but we can try.
Poland:
Poland is well known for improving their education drastically in a small span of time, despite the high poverty rates. Miroslaw Handke, Poland's minister of education, became what Ripley call the alchemist. He made large changes all at once. I know this may not be what Americans would want but it's not always about what people want but what they need. I do not necessarily believe that we should follow directly in Poland's foot steps but the steps they took can be adapted and learned from. In short, Handke injected rigor into education with a harder core curriculum, this gave an accountability. He also added standardized tests to see where children weren't meeting the needed levels. Another reform, which I fully support, is to have higher expectation for students. The last reform in Poland was to give teachers more autonomy. This meant letting teachers choose aspects of curriculum and their own textbooks. In the United States, many of these reforms would be extremely difficult to achieve and radical change is not as easily made in this country. Even if we can't do exactly what Poland did it's nice to know someone could. This is also perfect proof that students in poverty can learn and be successful.
South Korea:
Time to talk about the pressure cooker. In Korea, the children are under so much pressure, to the point that one child, mentioned in the book, killed his mother because he feared her seeing his grades. Obviously this is not the way education should be approached. The country may be performing well in education but children spending all their time on studying to the point where they just sleep in class and are stressed into murder is unacceptable. With that being said, Korea's education system should not be completely ignored when trying to craft the perfect system. Just think imagine how successful American students could be if they had just half of the drive that Koreans do. We should not put nearly at much pressure on our students as in Korea but, they need an understanding of the importance of education.
The aspect of Korea that I believe should be most noted is the parents. They are involved in their child's schooling. They don't necessarily go out and help in the PTA or attend school functions but they help at home. These "coach parents" as Ripley calls them remind me of how much of an impact parents have a student. My wish for parenting is simple: pay attention. Be aware of what your child needs. Where are they succeeding but also where are they falling behind and how can you help? If American parents spent less time with a blinding focus on sports and extracurriculars and more time on teaching from the family room their children would be more successful.
Finland:
Everyone is always talking about how successful Finland is in education. When my teacher started telling my class about Finland, I had little to no knowledge of the country, let alone its education system. Since then I have watched the documentary, The Finland Phenomenon, and read The Smartest Kids in the World. From these resources I have found methods used in Finland that I believe we could use or adapt for the United States. One thing that Finland did was to find teacher prep programs that weren't successful and to do away with them. This may seem radical but if this was done in the United States it could have the potential to lower that amount of failing teachers. If universities aren't training good teachers these teachers won't be aiding to educating the future generation. This cycle of underachieving needs to be stopped. In Finland, there are only a few large education schools so that these prep programs are successful and fairly similar. Although we could not completely do this in the United States it is something to think about and learn from. When it comes to teacher prep programs in Finland it's all about the best of the best. It is an honor to be an educator and is a difficult field to break into. Doesn't that make sense? I've never understood why teachers in the U.S are some of the less educated. How could C students have enough the content knowledge to teach A students? In Finland, teaching is a hard field to break into and educators are respected. They are also trusted by their employers more so that teacher assessments are not needed. Teachers need to be prepared properly before they even acquire a teaching job.This is the biggest lesson we can take from Finland. Teachers need to be the best and brightest if they are going to build a generation that will give the country the best and the brightest future.
The atmosphere of Finland classrooms is completely different from most American classrooms. Kim, the girl who went to school in Finland, talks about how the kids see education as something they need to do. They actually have fun in class without the teachers using entertainment as a bribe. We need this thought process in the United States. Students should look at school as their job. In the United States, so much time is given to extracurriculars and sports and this is often held above education. We need a shift in our society to hold education at a higher level. Education is the root to any successful nation and should be treated as such. Unfortunately, there is no cut and dry to make adults and students care about education. We cannot just switch to Finland mentality but we can try.
Poland:
Poland is well known for improving their education drastically in a small span of time, despite the high poverty rates. Miroslaw Handke, Poland's minister of education, became what Ripley call the alchemist. He made large changes all at once. I know this may not be what Americans would want but it's not always about what people want but what they need. I do not necessarily believe that we should follow directly in Poland's foot steps but the steps they took can be adapted and learned from. In short, Handke injected rigor into education with a harder core curriculum, this gave an accountability. He also added standardized tests to see where children weren't meeting the needed levels. Another reform, which I fully support, is to have higher expectation for students. The last reform in Poland was to give teachers more autonomy. This meant letting teachers choose aspects of curriculum and their own textbooks. In the United States, many of these reforms would be extremely difficult to achieve and radical change is not as easily made in this country. Even if we can't do exactly what Poland did it's nice to know someone could. This is also perfect proof that students in poverty can learn and be successful.
South Korea:
Time to talk about the pressure cooker. In Korea, the children are under so much pressure, to the point that one child, mentioned in the book, killed his mother because he feared her seeing his grades. Obviously this is not the way education should be approached. The country may be performing well in education but children spending all their time on studying to the point where they just sleep in class and are stressed into murder is unacceptable. With that being said, Korea's education system should not be completely ignored when trying to craft the perfect system. Just think imagine how successful American students could be if they had just half of the drive that Koreans do. We should not put nearly at much pressure on our students as in Korea but, they need an understanding of the importance of education.
The aspect of Korea that I believe should be most noted is the parents. They are involved in their child's schooling. They don't necessarily go out and help in the PTA or attend school functions but they help at home. These "coach parents" as Ripley calls them remind me of how much of an impact parents have a student. My wish for parenting is simple: pay attention. Be aware of what your child needs. Where are they succeeding but also where are they falling behind and how can you help? If American parents spent less time with a blinding focus on sports and extracurriculars and more time on teaching from the family room their children would be more successful.