WEBVTT - Finnish Ed 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:14.560 Works dot com. Hey, wasn't it stuff to blow your mind? 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:16.840 My name is Robert Lamb and m Julie Douglas. And 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.200 you know, we don't talk a lot about education on here, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.239 but it's something that's that's always on our minds. I mean, 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:23.880 you as a parent, uh, me as a scene to 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:27.760 be parent and uh. And we're ultimately engaged in sharing 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.040 information with the world. We're a curiosity brand. We're about 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.199 discussing the science of of of the world most of 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.600 the time. And we've had the the privilege of working 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:41.879 with Discovery Education UM here and there to promote educational endeavors. 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.720 That's right. We actually worked with them on a STEM presentation. 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.640 This is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and STEM education. 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:53.600 The US has been on educators and policymakers minds for 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:55.640 for a while now, and one of the reasons is 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.800 that we've become far less competitive as a nation in 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:02.760 terms of knowledge based information. Right, that's kind of fallen 0:01:02.800 --> 0:01:05.920 away from our society. Yeah, I mean, it's a it's 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.840 a sad story and one that I think everyone's absorbed 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:12.119 through the media that we're we're not doing as well 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:14.640 at all on our on our science and our math 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:17.119 and our physics, where we're getting pretty good, I guess 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:21.080 about you know, learning about the science of magical aspects 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:24.200 of the world and how with the latest pop singers doing. 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:26.480 But we're not We're not necessarily all that great when 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.160 it comes to science and math, right, And so we're 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:31.320 not going to try to actually, you know, take this 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.240 hon as a topic of why the United States is 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.839 failing in this area. Instead, we're gonna try to look 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.720 at a model that is working. And it's actually in Finland, 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.240 and uh and it is actually predicated on on this 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:51.760 idea that all children have a good, solid quality education. 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.720 And it's a very simple idea, right, It's not like, hey, 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.320 let's create superstars here. Let's not you know, get the 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:01.600 number one rankings the world. But lo and behold, they 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:05.000 have done that. So um as the United States is 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.440 one of the richest industrialized nations, you kind of have 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.160 to sit back and wonder why would our education system 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:15.679 lagged so far behind less prosperous countries with far less resources. 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.000 So we're gonna try to, you know, take on Finland, 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:21.720 see what they're doing, and tease out what what might 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:24.320 be at the bottom of all of this for the 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:26.480 United States and really the rest of the world. Now, 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:28.560 I know what some of you are wondering, and you know, 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:30.560 no no judgment, but some of you are probably wondering, 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:34.600 where is Finland exactly and what is it? Well? Uh, 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:40.519 Finland is a far north European country. It is Scandinavian 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.320 and it borders Russia. So if you can picture the 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.840 I guess you call it the Horn of Scandinavia, then 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:51.440 Finland is a nice vertical slice of that bordering Russia. Yeah, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:55.400 it's one of the three fingers of that Nordic area. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:57.240 In fact, I always think of it as the quieter 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.680 sister of Norway and Sweden. Yeah. And I have to 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.400 say that I don't know a ton about Norway, but 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:07.079 I do know it's the home of Nokia. Yes, and 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:10.640 I do know that Lapland that area of Finland is 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:14.079 home to Santa Claus Village. Yeah, this is the reindeer 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.480 camp that your your brother keeps trying to get. My 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.320 brother keeps saying like they're they have real reindeers. There's 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.200 a Santa Claus. You take these reindeer rides, and I 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:28.360 just keep thinking about on their backs. Their backs are 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.799 two weeks. Yeah, and there are elves and all of 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.960 that freaks me. No, but I mean, you know, they 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.840 go to great links to make this look as as 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:41.920 realistic as possible. That you know where Santa might live, right, Yeah, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:44.920 well it's also troll country, so I would be very 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:47.560 concerned about that. I just keep thinking of the movie 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.080 Rare Exports. Yes, that was a finished movie. That was 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:55.480 a finishing which involves like these evils elves in this 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:59.960 crampus white creature. So whenever he brings it up, creature, 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:02.640 but crampus ish, I guess you could you could throw 0:04:02.680 --> 0:04:05.440 some Crampus in there. YEA Crampus is like the anti Santa, right, 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.600 wonderful the scenes with a lot of old man natity 0:04:09.640 --> 0:04:12.000 in it. That's great, great for the whole thing. Yeah. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.160 So unfortunately that that's sort of like my baseline of Finland, 0:04:15.400 --> 0:04:17.760 you know, in addigit the fact that it is the 0:04:18.000 --> 0:04:23.839 home of like two thousand lakes, right, beautiful and very cold. Yeah, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.640 I guess my main you know, I obviously I've never 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:30.159 been to Finland. Uh. I have a great deal respect 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.280 for their sauna culture. As as sana traditions fell out 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.159 of practice with the most of the rest of Europe, 0:04:37.440 --> 0:04:40.760 Finland held onto it the most and it remains a 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.440 strong part of Finnish culture. If you if you're if 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.200 you live in Finland, if you're finished, you have a sauna, 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.159 or you make sure you have access to a sauna. 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.640 Even if you are in the army or in prison, 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:53.560 you will have a sauna because it is that important. 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.280 And I love a good sauna. I wish I had 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:58.560 time for more of them, or the office would finally 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:03.159 install man Um. I love a good sauna. The fins 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.280 love a good sauna, so I can't help but love 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:09.600 the Fins on that count. Also the Russo finished productions 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.120 of such films as Jack Frost as they were made 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:16.880 famous over here by Mry Sentence Fetter three thousand. I'm 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:18.520 a big fan of those. And then also they have 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:21.320 a rich folk tradition. You have some monsters such as 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:26.120 Yoka Heinen vast frost giant formed and primordial times from 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:28.440 the melting of giant icicles at the edge of the world, 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.160 and he lives in the far North. Um there are 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:35.360 the Mahas, which were earth dwellers, little people and guardian 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:37.960 spirits that live in the ground. And then this is 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:42.280 pretty cool too. There's a tonto, which is a household spirit, 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.040 and the way to get a Tonto was to make 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:47.600 a pack with the devil at a graveyard, okay, and 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:49.960 then this invites the Tonto back to your home, where 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:52.840 you make sure the tonto has access the spirit has 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.680 access to the best accommodations and a really nice seat 0:05:56.680 --> 0:05:59.719 at the dinner table. And in return, the tanto enriches 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:03.760 your alse, generally at your neighbor's expense. So there you go. Well, 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:06.039 so that's so much better than living in Sweden and 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.360 just going to Ikea. Yeah, exactly, you can. You can 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:10.359 go to well, yeah you can. You can go to 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.680 Ikia where you can can here in Atlanta if you want. 0:06:13.960 --> 0:06:17.760 But you know, as Ikeia had its beginnings in Sweden, 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:20.520 I say, hey, there you go, Sweden, you know, little 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:22.320 thumb of the knows there. I should also point out 0:06:22.320 --> 0:06:25.080 that Finland is a parliamentary democracy, that's right, and get 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.920 that out. Yeah, And they had emerged to um hite 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.560 succeeds I believe from from from Soviet influence, and I 0:06:31.560 --> 0:06:34.719 guess they're right up there. They're the neighbors, you know, exactly. Hello, Um, 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.640 so they really did try to remake their society, to 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:41.040 try to to hearken back to their rich folklore, their 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.800 rich tradition. They're rich history. And part of that is 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.520 of course rebuilding with a great education system. So when 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.080 we talk about Finland today and all that it has accomplished, 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:55.640 we're talking about something that has been in the making since, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:07:00.520 uh the seventies. Really, so what have they done? Okay, Well, 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.839 they have ranked at or near the top in three 0:07:03.960 --> 0:07:07.760 major international education studies since two thousand. We're talking neck 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.520 and neck with superachievers like South Korea and Singapore. So 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:16.640 the students in Finland have been, you know, in some 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:21.120 cases sort of outranking these other countries. And yet they're 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:25.480 not putting in nearly as many hours studying and preparing 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:30.760 as their counterparts in some Southeast Asian countries. So recently, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:34.240 they scored first in science and second in reading in 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:37.920 math on the standardized test administered by the Program for 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:41.400 International Student Assessment, and this is conducted among industrial niche 0:07:41.520 --> 0:07:46.600 industrialized nations every three years. And then in contrast, American 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:50.120 students finished twenty five in math, seventeen in science, and 0:07:50.160 --> 0:07:55.040 twelve in reading on the latest UH PISA assessment. Yeah, 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.120 it's it's such a contrast between like U schools. Increasingly 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:02.160 it's all about these standardized tests. It's about prepping for 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:04.680 these tests, and it gets to where it has a 0:08:04.680 --> 0:08:07.120 tendency to suck out a lot of the creativity that 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:11.720 goes into teaching a classroom. We my mom's a kindergarten teacher. 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:13.520 I even hear from her all the time, and you 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.880 generally think of the kindergarten classroom as a pretty open 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.760 and creative environment, but there's she's always talking about. I'll 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:21.600 ask about, oh, do you still do that thing with 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:24.480 the with the ublic or with the with this book 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:26.680 or that book or this art project, And there's so 0:08:26.680 --> 0:08:29.160 many of those things you can't do anymore because they 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.760 have to make room for these tests. UM. I encountered 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.240 it just a little bit when I very briefly taught 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:37.080 high school. Uh, And you know, it's like a whole 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:39.280 part of the year ends up being just about prepping 0:08:39.280 --> 0:08:41.880 for these tests, getting ready to take these standardized tests, 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:44.959 rehearsing for these standardized tests, and it becomes more about 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:49.600 um preparing yourself for a simulation of knowledge rather than 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.120 an actual understanding of knowledge, which is really specific, and 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.880 it's handed down from policymakers at a national level, which 0:08:57.920 --> 0:09:00.240 is then interpreted at a state level. Some of the 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:02.840 problems that we continue to have in the system have 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:05.319 to do with no child left behind because again we're 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.960 talking about the stringent testing. Um, So trying to throw 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:11.840 off those shackles and again find more room for the 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.160 actual teaching and learning as opposed to as you say, 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.440 preparing is really important here. Well, you know, it comes 0:09:17.440 --> 0:09:19.520 down to a very American way of dealing with problems. 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.200 You first thing you do, you have a meeting about it, 0:09:22.400 --> 0:09:24.720 and then you have another meeting about it, and then uh, 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:26.680 and then if you reach it the bureaucracy level, then 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.440 you start making some mandates. And that includes all these 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:33.240 mandated tests. How many mandated tests does Finland have? Uh? 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.960 They have one at age sixteen, you enter at age seven, 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.760 and then at age sixteen you have one one mandatory test. 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:44.360 So already you can begin to see that this is 0:09:44.800 --> 0:09:48.440 very contrary to what we do here in the United States. Um. 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:52.000 This is from and you partin in from Atlantic magazine. Uh. 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.160 She had said that when she spoke with Passy Salberg, 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.320 who wrote a book called finishal lessons what the world 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:02.320 can learn from educational change in Finland? That he said 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:06.080 that Americans are consistently obsessed with certain questions. How can 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.160 you keep track of a student's performance if you don't 0:10:08.200 --> 0:10:11.280 test them constantly? How can you improve teaching if you 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.160 have no accountability for bad teachers or merit pay for 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.000 good teachers? How do you foster competition and engage the 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:23.320 private sector? How do you provide school choice? Now, he says, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.840 for finished educators, none of these questions are relevant, none 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.680 of them. And uh, we should take a quick break, 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:31.920 and when we get back, we'll get into why they're 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:36.040 not relevant Finland and and perhaps why this is part 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:48.240 of the reason they're so successful in academia. All right, 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:50.160 we're back. Just want to grow a more quick set 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:54.240 around here before we go into the land of Finland's um. 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:58.320 The two thousand and nine National Assessment of Educational Progress 0:10:58.400 --> 0:11:02.079 found barely one third of fourth graders in the United 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.640 States were at or above the proficient level of science, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.840 with those proportions slipping tot in eighth grade, in twenty 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.480 one in twelfth grade. What this means is that we 0:11:13.520 --> 0:11:17.240 have a large population here, some of whom are going 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:20.800 to college and they're not actually prepared, particularly in the 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.040 area of science. So what does that spell out for 0:11:24.160 --> 0:11:27.680 the future of science brainiacs here in the United States? 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.920 A little dim? Right? Meanwhile, in Finland, children are begin 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.439 setting outerbra geometry and statistics in the first grade. Yes, 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.080 and by age fifteen they tend to speak three languages. 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:41.000 Though that's not really that uncommon in Europe because you're 0:11:41.000 --> 0:11:43.280 gonna have the local language. You got Russia right next door, 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.640 you got English kicking about so well. In the official 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.920 languages are Finnish and Swedish, so you can't really just 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.760 hang out which is Finnish language if you want to 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.679 hang out with the rest of the world, right, especially culturally. Right. 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.720 So Okay, we talked about this education reform happening in 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:01.840 the seven in these in the eighties and that finished, 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:07.320 policymakers wanted to really try to recast their education system 0:12:07.320 --> 0:12:11.040 because they felt like that would bolster the entire country, 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:13.880 and they would do this by providing equity, by making 0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:16.080 sure that each kid got a fair shot at a 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:19.800 good education. It was actually a pretty prescient move of them, 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:21.760 because I think that this put them on a track 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.160 to really compete globally because they realized they didn't have 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:27.400 much to be competitive with. They couldn't rely on manufacturing 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.120 or natural resources, and they instead had to invest in 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:34.160 a knowledge based society. Now what does that sound like today? 0:12:34.360 --> 0:12:36.480 Very much like the United States, though we do have 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:40.240 American exceptionalism, right, don't we have? No? Well, maybe we 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.960 don't have that sometimes that I don't know about that. 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.720 So what does their school system look like? Percent of 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:50.560 the schools or public. Only a small number of independent 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:54.079 schools exists in Finland's that's three percent that are independent 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:58.520 or private, and they are all publicly financed. Finland offers 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.199 all pupil's free school and meals, easy access to healthcare 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:06.920 which is really important, psychological counseling, and individualized student guidance. 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.360 So it's not just hey, we have a great education system. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:13.800 They have everything in place to actually support uh, everything else. Right, Yeah, 0:13:13.840 --> 0:13:16.079 and this family is really telling as well. The people 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.440 in the government agencies running these schools, they're there and 0:13:20.440 --> 0:13:24.240 this goes from national offices to local authorities. They are educators. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:26.600 They're not business people. They're not military leaders and not 0:13:26.679 --> 0:13:30.120 career politicians. Um and uh. And every school has the 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:33.240 same national goals and draw from the same pool of 0:13:33.400 --> 0:13:36.079 university trained educators. Yeah. It really is one of those 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:39.640 things where it's so homogenized, but it works. Right. The 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:43.520 homogeny here is quality. So if you have quality across 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.720 the board, then everybody gets the same education. Uh. And 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.880 that is where you began to see these numbers, these 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:56.000 incredible numbers. Fully of Finns graduate from high school. That's 0:13:56.040 --> 0:14:00.240 seventeen point five points higher than American students. And stick see, 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.520 six percent are accepted to college and that's a higher 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.280 rate than the US in every European nation. And they 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:09.120 have a zero dropout right right, there's no there is 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:12.360 no Why would they drop out? Is sort of their idea, Okay, 0:14:12.360 --> 0:14:14.720 because they're moving through this system and they're really learning 0:14:14.760 --> 0:14:19.880 from it now, and all of this with significantly less homework. Yes, 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.240 that's true, that significantly less homework. Actually, don't I think 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:26.680 they have said that from from most of the reports 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.440 that we read in Smithsonian and Atlantic that at the 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:33.600 most maybe a half hour of homework. Yeah, because I mean, 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:35.960 I'm going to sound like you know, twelve year oldier, 0:14:35.960 --> 0:14:38.480 but homework is ridiculous. It's kind of like, I mean, well, 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.080 why you spend all day there and then you have 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.360 to go home to supposedly learn the stuff that you 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.320 were doing during the day. That well, then half the 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.560 people or more aren't gonna do it. So yeah. Yeah. 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.400 The other thing is that, um, through throughout the school day, 0:14:53.480 --> 0:14:56.440 especially for the younger children, they have like forty five 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.240 minutes of school and then fifteen minutes of play. Forty 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:01.800 five minutes of school, fifteen minutes played throughout today, so 0:15:01.920 --> 0:15:04.080 you do get those mental breaks. And we've talked about 0:15:04.120 --> 0:15:06.040 this before how important it is to be able to 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.160 sort of take that break so that your brain can 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:12.640 absorb the information. So they're certainly doing it the right way. Um. Okay, 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:14.600 So some people might say, well, I think this is 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:18.560 super expensive. Well, okay, here's the big news here. Finland 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.160 spends about thirty percent less per student than the US 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:26.720 does to achieve which is obviously far superior results. Let's 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:29.200 talk about the teachers. Who are these who are these 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:31.520 these cogs in the system that are making making this work, 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.600 because they're more than just cogs for starters, We're talking 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:38.240 about highly educated people university degrees and then they have 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:41.479 a remarkable amount of freedom and how they educate their classroom. 0:15:41.560 --> 0:15:43.800 I've I've heard it. You know, they're not having to 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:47.560 worry about about sticking to some sort of rigid, standardized 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:51.400 curriculum all the time, and they're able to creatively engage 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:55.120 the students. Right. So, at the the national level level, 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.240 or by UH, I should say, the education ministry, they say, okay, 0:15:59.360 --> 0:16:01.720 when it comes to math, here are ten pages of 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:03.520 things that we want you guys to cover and make 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:07.400 sure um kids are learning now that is and start 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:09.920 contrast to like hundreds of pages that are usually handed 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:13.360 down by education systems, and by the time it gets 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.360 to that particular school or that teacher, they still are 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.320 allowed to have a bit of interpretation of what that 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:23.280 means and flexibility and how they teach it. How is 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:25.680 a really big part of this, right, So you have 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:29.200 a centralized government that is helping to structure it, but 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.560 they are giving uh teachers that that leeway. Yeah, I 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.080 mean it also gives them the ability to look at 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.160 the classroom and say, how am I gonna engage this 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:40.320 group of people, Like, what is what is going to 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.160 engage them? Is it going to be reading the Great Gasbee? 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:47.360 Probably not? All right? Right? And here's another thing, Um, 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:50.360 some people might say, oh, they must be getting paid, 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:52.440 you know, an amount that we just couldn't do here 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:55.200 in the United States. Well finished teachers starting salaries are 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.040 lower than in the US, but high school teachers with 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.200 fifteen years experience make one two percent of what other 0:17:01.280 --> 0:17:04.920 college graduates make in the US. UH the figure is 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.240 six of that. So eventually, over time, finished teachers are 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:13.720 paid more than UH United States teachers. But still, um, 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.320 they're not too off in terms of the payment. What 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:22.160 the big story here is is that teachers in Finland 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:27.440 are regarded very highly. And um. This is from The Atlantic, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.680 the article why are Finland Schools so successful? It says 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:33.720 the critical decision came in ninety nine when reformers required 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.800 that every teacher earned a fifth year master's degree in 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:39.680 theory and practice at one of the eight state universities, 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:42.719 which are free, by the way, at state expense. So 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:44.840 they did at state's expense. From then on, teachers were 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:48.879 effectively granted equal status with doctors and lawyers, and applicants 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:52.160 began flooding teaching programs, not because the salaries were so high, 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.840 because we know they aren't, but because autonomy and respect 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.919 made the job attractive. In two thousand and tends some 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:02.359 sixty applicants vibe for six hundred and sixty primary school 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.919 training slots. So we're talking about here is really passionate 0:18:06.960 --> 0:18:11.080 people who you know, they get to occupy the status 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:15.160 as molders of um, you know, the future of Finland. 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:18.200 And I don't mean to disparage any teachers in United States, 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:23.120 because there's so many wonderful passionate teachers, UM. But there 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:26.040 are also a lot of people who could also be 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:29.240 wonderful passionate teachers, but they don't because when you look 0:18:29.280 --> 0:18:32.200 at being a teacher here in the United States, UM, 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:36.440 it's just not as as highly positioned as other things, 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:40.680 right correct. Um. You know, Also, when I was looking 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.520 around at various articles and blog posts about this, you 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:49.640 inevitably encounter somebody talking about, oh, what's it's a socialist system, socialism, 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.160 and especially in the United States that the term socialism 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:58.280 is often thrown about without any real understanding of what 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.639 it means. But I find it interesting that um Clark 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.880 Howard uh was a local, uh well not a local 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.800 you can hear all over the country, but based in Atlanta. 0:19:07.160 --> 0:19:09.840 Generally he's about, you know, finding cheap ways to live 0:19:09.840 --> 0:19:12.760 your life for more economically feasible ways to live your life, 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:14.399 that sort of thing. He's a big fan of the 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:19.720 Finland system and he actually compares it compares the teacher's 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.639 freedom in the classroom to their approach to the way 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.880 an entrepreneur would treat a business. Lots of ability, you know, 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.719 on the field in the classroom, doing what's best for 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.480 this environment and making it as as you know, great 0:19:33.480 --> 0:19:36.199 a classroom as possible. You know, what's really cool too, 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:39.639 is that the teachers do individual assessments of the children 0:19:39.720 --> 0:19:42.240 throughout the year. So again there's no big test, but 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:44.359 what they're doing when they do that is they're looking 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:46.919 at the strength and the weaknesses of that one child 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:49.640 and then they're figuring out, well, okay, this kid might 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:51.719 need more support here in math or reading or so 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.600 on and so forth, and creating a curriculum that is 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.960 geared just for that child. Right, um, so, and now 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.679 away you do have the homogeneous everybody gets a quality, 0:20:04.720 --> 0:20:07.560 high quality education. But at the same time you get 0:20:07.600 --> 0:20:11.200 that everybody gets the support that they need to access 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:14.880 that information and to learn it, which is really key. Yeah, 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:16.679 and you know a lot of the reason that they 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:18.879 can do that is that they spend fewer hours at 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:20.520 school each day, and they spend less time in the 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.840 classrooms than American teachers, and they use the extra time 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:27.359 to build those curriculums and assess their students. So again 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:32.720 they're not hamstrung by all of these different uh bits 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:37.960 of standardized testing that are handed down. That being said, 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:41.080 American schools, at least you've got good football programs. So 0:20:41.440 --> 0:20:46.480 there's always that now, But the hope here is it's not. 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:48.360 You know, the whole reason we did the spot podcast 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.240 was not to be a little American education. Um. I mean, 0:20:51.240 --> 0:20:54.359 certainly we're both products of American education. I'm a product 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:58.560 of public schools, um for better and worse. But but 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:00.359 but but no, we we want to point out that 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:02.160 that this is a system that a lot of people 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.199 are looking at and they're saying, there's stuff we can 0:21:04.280 --> 0:21:06.359 learn from here. There's this is not something just some 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:09.120 sort of a foreign model that doesn't mesh with our 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:12.439 culture or our system. We could easily adopt some of 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:16.000 these same principles, apply them to our own educational system, 0:21:16.200 --> 0:21:18.840 and years from now we could be the success story 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:21.199 that we've had. So many of us feel entitled to 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:24.080 well that'll be the interesting thing to see Finland in 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:27.040 twenty years because already, you know, their quality of life 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:30.040 is pretty high, their economy is doing, you know, fairly well, 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:33.400 and then they have this education system to boot support 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:35.959 all of the rest of it. So you know, in 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.200 twenty years will they be a major player. I don't know, 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:42.200 but some people will look at this and say, well, 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.040 you know, they're a smaller country and it's much more feasible. 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.040 Well so are their counterparts, Norway and Sweden, and they 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.639 still with their system, they best them in terms of, 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:56.040 you know, how their students are performing. And if you 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.480 look at the United States, most of the school systems 0:21:59.480 --> 0:22:03.040 are stay run and you have at least eighteen states 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.199 that have the same population as Finland. So there are 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:10.040 certainly opportunities to to test this model out to see 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:12.440