What if Finland’s great teachers taught in U.S. schools?
They’d likely quit in disgust.
The US education crisis is not going to be solved by bringing in great teachers.
- A great many American systems are based on competition and measuring things that are easy to measure.
- The American love affair with capitalism pretty much precludes any genuine standardization
- private interests are profit-driven and do not – by definition – care about serving the needs of the population or the citizens (only customers and share-holders).
- success is measured in dollars, which has little to do with what makes the Finnish system successful
- teacher prep programs in Finland accept only the best and the brightest, not those most able to pay
- teaching in Finland is a respected profession, not the consolation prize
- The tremendous gap between the haves and the have-nots in the US makes the Finnish system impossible
- the rich will expect to be treated better than the poor
- the rich will expect to be able to buy their way into whatever they want
- the rich do not want to share their riches
- The US preoccupation with competition and being able to think of themselves as the “best” also makes the Finnish system all but impossible.
I think it is incredibly telling that the Finnish system came about because they were trying to provide a solid education to ALL (regardless of economic status), and NOT because they were trying to beat anyone at anything.
In the United States, for example, there are more than 1,500 different teacher-preparation programs. The range in quality is wide. In Singapore and Finland only one academically rigorous teacher education program is available for those who desire to become teachers.
Teacher quality in high-performing countries is a result of careful quality control at entry into teaching rather than measuring teacher effectiveness in service.
Some commonly held American fallacies
- “the quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”
False. People tend to live up (or down) to expectations. - “the most important single factor in improving quality of education is teachers.”
False. There are a number of influences, but poverty is a biggie. - “If any children had three or four great teachers in a row, they would soar academically, regardless of their racial or economic background, while those who have a sequence of weak teachers will fall further and further behind”.
OK. This one is just goofy. Do people really think this?
I think one of the big barriers to improving the education system in the US is the almost fanatical belief that they are already the best there is at everything. Rather than take a good hard look at how their systems may have contributed to the problem, they seem to think that all they have to do is create more competition (through more testing and grading of teachers).
