“Insanity: Doing
the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
-- Albert
Einstein
By
Tommie Saylor
Kennedy
High School Principal
It
may be the scientist in me, but I have always believed that if you want to be
among the best in your field, you must first see what the best are doing,
analyze their success, break down what they are doing and follow their
lead.
If
you are not already on top, then you can’t continue to do what you are
currently doing and believe that your condition and/or situation will
change. Essentially, “you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over
again and expect different results.”
You
certainly do not want to follow the lead of those around you if they, like you,
have not reached the pinnacle of your profession.
To
this end, I just recently read an article by Mika Martikainen titled “Math
Teachers, Testing and Education.” This article is about the educational
system in Finland. Why Finland? Because educationally Finland
consistently scores near the top year after year on international tests. If
Finland isn’t No. 1 in the world, then it is number two. This has been true for
more than 30 years.
No
other nation in the world can make this claim. Only Finland consistently remains
at the top. So, the question begs: What are they doing, and why aren’t we
doing it?
Ten
things that Finland does that we are not doing:
1.
School starts later in life. Children are not subjected to
formal education until the age of 7, as opposed to the U.S., which starts at
the age of 5. In Finland they believe that children are not mentally,
physically, and emotionally ready for formal education until the age of
7. This makes their students two years more mature as they pass through high
School and prepare for international testing.
Imagine
what it would be like of freshman had the maturity of juniors. Finland does
offer preschool up to the age of 7, but its preschool concentrates mostly on
playing and socializing, knowing that these are important skills for students
to have before entering a formal educational environment.
2. Students are given more recess and/or break time. In the
United States students are given an average of 27 minutes a day of recess at
the elementary level. In Finland students are given an average of 75
minutes a day of recess at the same level. At the high school level
students are also given more time between classes to “mentally decompress” from
the last lesson just received, and to mentally prepare for the next lesson soon
to be experienced.
Break
time is as important to the educational process as class time.
3. Students are not subjected to constant testing, they are only tested
once at the end of high school. In the U.S., with few exceptions,
students are subjected to standardized testing every year from the third to the
11th grade, with the 11th-grade test being the “big test”
determining the effectiveness of the school system – and thus the value of all
efforts over the last 12 years of formal education.
The
problem is that by the time our students get to this 11th-grade test
they have been tested so many times that it is nothing special, it is just part
of doing business. It has no effect on their overall GPA, nor does it affect
their graduation status.
This
being said, to our 11th grade students, it is just another hurdle they must get
past. In Finland, because this is the only such test they must take, it is a
much bigger deal and thus students prepare much harder for this test. They end
up outperforming most of the world. Also in Finland very little homework
is given. Instructors would much rather have their students perform work and go
through the learning process in class where the student can receive expert help
from their teachers, than struggle at home and become frustrated.
4. Class sizes are kept to an average of 20 students per teacher, and
if a student is struggling, a certified teacher’s assistant is assigned. These
certified teacher assistants have undergone a year of college-style specialized
training on how to help the struggling students. In Finland, in a class
of 20 students, one will find a teacher and several assistants.
5. Language education begins on the first day of school where students
begin to learn another language. This continues throughout the entire
school career for all Finish students, and by the time a student graduates from
high school they have not just learned two sometimes three different languages,
they have mastered these languages.
6. Teachers are given guidelines as to what must be taught, but are not
given “prescriptions” of how to teach it, when to teach it, where to teach it and
under what conditions it must be taught. It is assumed that the
professional educator in the room knows their students better than the
politician in the capitol, and thus is better equipped to create a curriculum
to achieve their student’s educational goals.
7. Teachers never teach more than four hours a day, and are given two to
three hours a day to prepare lessons, correct papers, research curriculum and
confer with colleagues. They believe it is crazy to expect a teacher to
teach all day long, and then do other essential tasks at home. That is because these
essential tasks will suffer when they come into conflict with family obligations.
They
also believe that there is a “burn out” factor to teaching, and that after
about four hours a teacher’s effectiveness is greatly diminished.
Instead
most teachers teach half the day and have “office hours” the other half,
ensuring that when the teacher is in the classroom they are well prepared both
mentally, physically and educationally.
8.
Teachers are considered highly trained professionals, are revered by
the public and are paid comparable to their counterparts in the business
world. They do not believe you can pay minimum wages and expect maximum
results. To teach in Finland you must have a Master’s degree from one of
eight national colleges, but the cost of attending one of these colleges and
becoming a teacher is fully subsidized by the government.
Needless
to say, the competition to get into one of these colleges is very high,
ensuring that only the best become teachers.
9. U.S. students enter and leave a teachers life yearly, sometimes even
every few months. In Finland, students stay with an instructor for many years,
especially at the elementary level. It is not unusual for a student in the
early grades to stay with a teacher through several levels and/or grades, and
in high school a student may have the same Math, Science, and Language teacher the
entire time.
It
is believed that by having teachers and student’s stay together, relationships
are formed, and that the teacher is better able to evaluate individual student
needs and abilities and create specific learning opportunities for their
students.
10. In
Finland, when students have complete the American equivalent to middle school,
students are given the choice to either enter a college prep or to attend a vocational
prep high school. In the vocational prep students learn a skilled trade,
and upon graduation are better prepared to enter the work force.
In
the college prep, students are prepared to enter collegiate academia, ending
their high school career by taking the one and only standardized test given to
students.
On
average, only 54 percent of students go on to the college prep in Finland,
the other 46 percent attend the vocational prep. Students from the
vocational prep can attend college, but must take a college entrance exam and
score well enough to be considered.
Finland
does not expect every student to go through a college prep curriculum in high school
and they understand that not everyone will go to college. They understand that
skilled trades are very important in their society.
As
a result, not everyone takes the standardized test, only the top half of each
class (only those attending the college prep high school). That eliminates
those who would not do well and really have no interest in doing well because
they have no interest in attending college.
Now
armed with the above information, you want to improve the educational system in
our country?
Let’s
start by the following:
- Stop testing our students to death
- Stop telling our teachers how to teach
- Stop “beating up” our teachers, administrators and schools
- Stop believing that every student is college bound
- Start putting money where your mouth is
- And start following the lead of those nations that score consistently at the top of the global education scale.
Our
“failing school system” has nothing to do with teachers and administrators not
working hard. They are working harder today, for less pay, than ever before in
our history.
Our
“failing school system” has everything to do with failures of our political
leaders and our society’s perception of the primary missions of schools.
What
starts here, changes the world. Making Kennedy the school of choice. Excellence
by design.
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