The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian magazine, entitled "Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?,"\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian magazine, entitled "Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?,"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thought Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-09T17:10:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/files\/2011\/09\/finland.jpg?w=300\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Owen Strachan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/\",\"name\":\"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-09-09T17:10:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-09-09T17:10:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\"},\"description\":\"If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian magazine, entitled \\\"Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?,\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/\",\"name\":\"Thought Life\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53\",\"name\":\"Owen Strachan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Owen Strachan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"brandygrenier\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education","description":"If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian magazine, entitled \"Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?,\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education","og_description":"If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian magazine, entitled \"Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?,\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/","og_site_name":"Thought Life","article_published_time":"2011-09-09T17:10:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/files\/2011\/09\/finland.jpg?w=300"}],"author":"Owen Strachan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Owen Strachan","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/","name":"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-09-09T17:10:34+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-09T17:10:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53"},"description":"If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian magazine, entitled \"Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?,\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/","name":"Thought Life","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/75c661f536302cda0daa8b7615fd8e53","name":"Owen Strachan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2dbab262f37be4cfe0660ee979173e8f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Owen Strachan"},"sameAs":["brandygrenier"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/author\/ostrachan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2959,"date":"2011-09-09T17:10:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T17:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/owenstrachan.com\/?p=2959"},"modified":"2011-09-09T17:10:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T17:10:34","slug":"the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thoughtlife\/2011\/09\/the-quirky-strengths-of-finnish-education\/","title":{"rendered":"The Quirky Strengths of Finnish Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>If you enjoy puzzling over what makes for effective education, this story from Smithsonian<\/em> magazine, entitled \u201cWhy Are Finland\u2019s Schools Successful?,\u201d<\/a> will strike your fancy.\u00a0 As past stories referenced on this blog have shown, there is a major debate in America over what makes for good teaching.\u00a0 Is it having bright minds teach children?\u00a0 Small classroom sizes?\u00a0 Individualized instruction?\u00a0 Not having standardized tests?\u00a0 Having standardized tests?\u00a0 Same-sex classrooms?<\/p>\n

This article by LynNell Hancock does not definitively answer all of these questions.\u00a0 It does, however, showcase the impressive accomplishments of Finnish schools:<\/p>\n

The transformation of the Finns\u2019 education system began some 40 years ago as the key propellent of the country\u2019s economic recovery plan. Educators had little idea it was so successful until 2000, when the first results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a standardized test given to 15-year-olds in more than 40 global venues, revealed Finnish youth to be the best young readers in the world. Three years later, they led in math. By 2006, Finland was first out of 57 countries (and a few cities) in science. In the 2009 PISA\u2008scores released last year, the nation came in second in science, third in reading and sixth in math among nearly half a million students worldwide. \u201cI\u2019m still surprised,\u201d said Arjariita Heikkinen, principal of a Helsinki comprehensive school. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize we were thatgood.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Those whose children spend long hours in American classrooms may find this interesting:<\/p>\n

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers. Teachers use the extra time to build curriculums and assess their students. Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. \u201cWe have no hurry,\u201d said Louhivuori. \u201cChildren learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Read the whole thing.<\/a>\u00a0 Much to chew on here.<\/p>\n

(Image: Stuart Conway)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"