Imagine an educational system where children do not start school until they are 7, where spending is a paltry $5,000 a year per student, where there are no gifted programs and class sizes often approach 30. A prescription for failure, no doubt, in the eyes of many experts, but in this case a description of Finnish schools, which were recently ranked the world's best.
Finland's Schools: Yahoo | Google | Teoma | Alltheweb
Posted by Jim at April 9, 2004 10:21 PM | TrackBackVery interesting idea. But, before jumping at this "idea" don't forget to consider other significant contextual issues. In particular, it is common in scandinavian countries to have up to a year in paid leave for BOTH parents when a child is born. With that kind of support for parents, it may be the case that parents have more direct ability to do early childhood education than many parents of dual income families in the US do. (I admit I don't know if Finland as the more or less generous parental leave policies vis Sweden/Norway but this fact can't be overlooked in any discussion of this nature.)
Posted by: Mary at April 10, 2004 08:29 PM