2) Now watch this video Why Education in Finland Works Write your response to this video and what you feel the U.S. should do to improve the Education system.
Blog Post #12
Here in the US many questions have been raised about our education system. Is it working for our students? Do we have a balance in the content our students learn? The answer is no. Finland has been increasing their statistics in how their students have been passing in math, science, and reading scores. Beginning with focusing on a child's preschool experience and small classes is where they first began to succeed. Their education system calls for all teachers to have a Master degree. The teachers are also treated as professionals just like other individual doctors or lawyers. They should be respected the same. The teachers feel appreciated and valued in their society. They mean something to those around them. The community supports them. They teachers teach 20 lessons a week. They are not in the classrooms as long so that they are able to prepare for their week a lot better. Also they have more to offer than just the focus on math and science. Music, drama, cooking, and industrialism are focus content areas.
Our country can do better. I believe changes need to begin at the top. We need to get the administrators and superintendents to see the big picture besides all the politics involved and take things seriously. Changing the curriculum required is the where another change can be made. We need to get out of just focusing on testing. Children can learn so much more besides what old testing requires. Making drama, dance, music, and even trades in school more important will improve the way in which our children learn and make them better citizens in the long run. All the over exaggerated testing discourages our youth from even wanting to attend school or learn at all. So they drop out and want nothing more to do with it. Then without a diploma let alone a college degree they do not find jobs putting another burden on the country as a whole. Things have to change. America needs to see the picture and not only just incorporate technology in the classrooms but learn to LEARN differently. When we are able to change the testing and find another way to make sure our students are getting the lesson needed maybe then we will succeed. Appreciating teachers and listening to their ideas will definitely help. They spend the most time with the students versus the presidents and superintendents, who do not and are eager to fire and rehire with the same thinking, teach to the test. When teachers receive appreciation and support their job performance will increase and the rate in which they give up and burn out will decrease. I also think that the offices in which the superintendents work should have teachers and students in there to help and give their opinions and thoughts on important matters they handle. They need to get views from those at the bottom in order to get a real understanding of what is happening, instead of focusing on test scores while the children, at the end of it all, learn nothing because they were engorged with "burp back" education. I will definitely do all I can to learn how to learn and what best practices work for my students so they leave with a real education instead of cramped hands from bubbling tests.
(Sources obtained to create blog: Dr. John Hadley, Why Education in Finland Works, and How the U.S. Education System Fails Kids)
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