This is amazing stuff.

Finland now has the best school system in the world, based on test scores.

No school until you are 7, no testing until 16, no private schools, everyone must attend the same quality public schools, work at their own pace, no pressure, allow the students to work on what subjects they enjoy, no competition, emphasis on cooperation.

I always knew Finland had to be pretty cool. I fully admit to becoming at one point, a slight Finniboo from some of the music I really enjoyed. I still want to learn Finnish. It wouldn't be the most useful language to learn, but I love the flow of it. It's on my list after brushing up on French, advancing my Japanese, and learning Spanish.

But yeah, go figure. Not throwing tests at kids in flipping 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 10th grade probably helps the learning process. And yeah, those grades are all the years I remember taking these stupid tests in Ohio. 4th Grade "Proficiency Test", 5th Grade "Iowa State Test"(I always wondered why in the heck we were taking a test named for Iowa in Ohio, but whatever)... and the Iowa Test actually helps to decide whether or not you get into accelerated classes(pre-AP pretty much) in middle school- which, I did get into English and History... then 6th grade is ANOTHER Proficiency test. Then I guess you just luck out in middle school with nothing in our district, then in 10th grade there was another Proficiency test. Though, they JUST got rid of that one(dunno if on the elementary level or not), and got the Ohio Graduate Test or something, I remember them being called OGTs. My class never had to take those officially, BUT we had to "simluate" taking the OGT(no negative recourse except for not attending). So we got to take standardized tests in 9th and 10th grade at my high school. I kid you not, a comprehensive reading analysis section of that OGT I tested was talking about a turtle with gems on its back. I felt like it was like... 3rd grade reading comp. And of course- so the school district could look like it was changing things up, they kept the OGT for kids in 9th grade as the standardized test. Then there was the English AP test I had to take upon entering high school. It's just too much for kids, I think.

In regards to choosing your own subjects- I think it's a wonderful idea. Every high school does this differently, but I felt like mine had a pretty good system. You already were thinking in terms of credits in high school, and there were multiple ways to reach the same goal. Some classes were pretty pigeon-holed, but I am thinking that those were state regulations. I was disappointed that taking art and band was an ordeal, and I only got to take two years of art near the end of high school. I skipped from Art I to Art IV. I was lucky in that drawing outside of class(who am I kidding, in-class as well doodling) my whole career in school ended up paying off somewhat.

The biggest thing I admire about Finland's state of affairs is that every school demands quality for everyone. Here, it's vastly controlled by the amount of tax dollars and how rich an area is most of the time. Schools not even a half hour away from hours had better books, better funding, and more activities. I think it is VERY important to how they attained the test scores, second only to letting students take what they want to. As my art teacher said(I realized later just how progressive she was for that school, they really didn't understand how much she had it down) if you take band or art... or any other creative endeavor, your mind improves in other subjects from it. I really do agree with that attitude. Now you see this emphasis on sports, and there was a huge drama which our high school band director had the gumption to defame our own school system, and good reason. The middle school counselors were telling kids in band to NOT take band, with less than honest reasons. The truth was they wanted more kids to not be in band so they could cut funding, and probably cut it out in total eventually. Not that there's anything wrong with sports, but you cannot simply cut what fits one child versus another, since everyone has their own preferred niche.

And they dont pay a penny for it either. Not even university. They just have a year's military service which they can do approximately whenever.

Actually, we had those here in Illinois, too.


I'd rather drop out of school.

And I would rather do three years than drop out. To each their own I suppose.

I try not to take everything TYT say too literally. But from what I can tell, most of what they said in the video is accurate enough to get the point across.

im particularly fond of innovative solutions that depart entirely from norms. i looked into amsterdams policies for their drug control and found it to be an impressive system that thinks outside of typical prosecute everything. if you change the underlying problems for a given situation then chances are you will change the entire outlook of the situation. though these strategies are excellent you will never see them in north america, not because they wont work because they more then likely would, but because our continent is too narrow minded to adopt to an approach like this. its a shame, so much could be improved.

also governments would need to recognize that they need to put money into education if they want their country to grow in the future. unfortunately idiots control the world while the smart people cant seam to get enough traction to convince them that their current goals are outright suicidal. the next 50 years is going to be incredibly interesting.