Quote:
Originally Posted by DiegoArmando
It's not as simple as that. And using language like 'decline' is completely misleading.
Finland's school system is light years ahead of the UK's (but bear in mind that England&Wales/Scotland/N.Ireland each has a separate system), and in my opinion the Asian countries at the top don't even come close to Finland either.
In Finland they don't do anything academic until age 7, instead focusing on learning through play and interaction with peers, which teaches valuable social skills. Their children soon catch up and take over those who started learning maths and English at 4/5.
Their system is cooperative, that is they all pool their resources and children all have the same access regardless of where they live, rather than the competitive model we have in the UK, although in Scotland they're beginning to realise that if the Curriculum for Excellence is to work, they need to be putting their heads together rather than striving to look better than every other school. There are no fee paying private schools allowed in Finland.
Finnish teachers too are the best, with their entry requirements tougher than those to become a doctor or a lawyer. Of course, they are also paid accordingly!
It's all fine and well having this league table of countries, but it kinda paints false pictures of reality. Our higher education system, which is totally ****in elitist, pulls us up the rankings a lot. But that doesn't even begin to tell us how exclusive it is, with international students, who often pay 3/4/5 times what UK kids do, given preference over natives.
The Asian system is just ridiculous. Getting beaten with a stick will never ever produce better humans than a system like Finland's, and memorising tons of information is ****ing useless.
Sir Ken Robinson has spoken a lot about schools 'killing creativity', basically through the idea that making mistakes is bad - doing so is part of the creative process (he defines creativity as 'the ability to come up with original ideas that have value'). He cites an 1800 company sample in finding creativity and adaptability as the 2 most important qualities required to compete.
I know that in recent years it has been getting better in Scotland, with schools now employing teachers to teach subjects such as drama, for example, but the problem is that it doesn't focus enough on the equality aspect that makes Finland's system so successful.
So, I agree with the 'ott' idea of TheDefiniteArticle - ban fee paying schools and focus on providing equal access to education for all children. It's difficult to see how the elite will ever 'allow' that to happen, but it's certainly something for the rest of us to strive for.
Great post. We have examples of this kind of education in the UK such as the famous
Summerhill School. However, I didn't realise any country had taken some of the learning practices at Summerhill and applied them at national level so thanks for highlighting this example.
As far as Grammar schools go, I'm probably mildly in favour of them, however there are some compelling arguments against. I think the main reason I'm in favour is the education system in the UK does allow people to enter further education relatively easily as a mature student, so your potential isn't capped at 11, 16, 18 or whenever.
Intelligence testing at 11 is also strongly correlated with GCSE results, so it's not like some crapshoot at 11 years old where lots of talent is slipping through the net.