Dan Rather Reports: Finnish (schools) First - Sat. 1/21 @ noon ET - HDNet

[Bozita]

Sat, Jan 21st
12:00 PM
Dan Rather Reports: Finnish First

In just 30 years, Finland transformed its school system from one that was mediocre and inequitable, to one that consistently produces some of the world’s best students, while virtually eliminating an achievement gap. And they do it without standardized testing..

Click the videos below for a sneak peek:
http://www.hd.net/blogs/finnish-first-january-17-2012/

[exboyfil]

1. I always find these video snippets interesting

where you go into a classroom and always see an engaged teacher. We had a Gold Star teacher in our community. She was a dynamite fireball when the cameras were rolling on her award. When the cameras where off, she spent most of her time knitting.

As far I as can tell from the snippet, the school looked like my daughters' elementary school. I agree we emphasize too much standardized testing, but does a small relatively homogenous country like Finland have much to teach us about our own school systems? Would it be better to look at a country like Canada (still not exactly equivalent but closer).