Friday, July 22, 2011

The wonder of Finland

I tend not to do a lot on education in Finland, as we've got a long way to go until we approach their poverty rate (according to the UN, in 2010, Finland's was 4.4%; the U.S. rate was 22.4%).
And before we get into the "you think we have to fix everything before we fix education" downspin: no, I don't. But let's not pretend that having a 1 in 5 poverty rate makes no difference in education.
However, if you're not familiar with how Finland, generally agreed by just about everyone to be doing a good job in education, runs their educational system, you might read this abridged Salon interview with Professor Tony Wagner, narrator of the new movie The Finland Phenomenon: Inside the World's Most Surprising School System. Or you can listen to the whole interview here.
I'll keep an eye out and see when it might be local.

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