Impressive school, to say the least. I wish US school systems were as advanced!
Valar Morghulis
Impressive school, to say the least. I wish US school systems were as advanced!
Regular Fretter
Took the words out of my mouth Tig.Originally Posted by Tig
Speaking as a former teacher (middle school) and teaching law student (taught legal writing in my second and third year of law school, to 1 L's) married to a current teacher (20+ years as adult ed, now on 2nd year teaching first grade).
The current "teaching is testing" climate in the US is atrocious, a thinly-failed union-busting attempt to penalize teachers stuck teaching poor kids and kids whose first language is not English, as well as the "charter-school" hoax, are nothing less than an outright attempt to kill public education and privatize it as a gift to large corporations.
Sickening, honestly.
Regular Fretter
The Finnish school system is often - and from what I hear, rightly - touted as the best in the world:Smithsonian Magazine did a great story on them a year or so ago. Teachers have authority to meet the needs of the kids in their classes instead of being dictated to do one-size-fits all. and they don't do the whole testing stuff until late high school when they do an all-Europe test (which the Finnish kids do great on...) As you can see from D's pics, lots of arts and hands-on experiences - and they still have recess, too! Oh, did I mention that teaching is a HIGHLY REGARDED and RESPECTED profession in Finland?
On another note; D, I am telling my class the Kalevala stories this fall (this is the Finnish cultural mythic epic; they largely inspired Tolkien in writing the Lord of the Ring ) Such wonderful stories, and the children love them!
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