It feels like every other day there’s a new clickbait or study or article about how Finland is the happiest country on earth. I mean, I think we all get it by now. Finland is doing something right. We can probably extrapolate that it has to do with universal healthcare, a certain equality of wealth, and a great work-life balance. But I was curious specifically about the constant comparisons of the US school system to the Finnish school system.
Luckily I have a friend who has lived and taught in Finland for over a decade. Meghan moved to Finland in 2005 and to her surprise, never left. I just had to ask her, what is it really like to teach in Finland, the good, the great, the ugly (hint: there’s not much ugly).
In the 1960s, Finland as a nation decided to prioritize public education as a means of economic recovery (imagine that). It put in place the very simple plan of incentivizing teaching, providing great public schools, and giving most power to teachers and principals. Meghan says that the reform meant more trust in teachers, less outside inspections, and more autonomy and freedom for schools, principals and municipalities.
Meghan has a unique perspective, as an American in a foreign country with a deep understanding of both American and Finnish school systems. She was even interviewed for Michael Moore’s documentary Where to Invade Next. She will also be featured in the upcoming book Time to Teach; Time to Reach by Nat Damon.
I’m not going to lie–after speaking with Meghan, I’m very tempted to move to Finland. I think all teachers in the US should be entitled to a “wellness holiday”! And her pictures, oh my, what a beautiful country.
Here’s Meghan on teaching in Finland:
I started working at a kindergarten in August 2006, and again, was blown away by a) how independent and autonomous so many kids were, and b) how little the focus on classic “academics” was. It felt like we were playing all day. When I would visit the “big school” that the kindergarten was attached to and fed into, it felt the same. Kids were often on teams and it felt like they were always playing some kind of game or doing some kind of scavenger hunt–they were rarely all sitting in their seats quietly all doing the exact same thing all at once. In the U.S. the emphasis is definitely on “manage and control” the students. In Finland it’s more about making them feel emotionally safe and autonomous. I noticed this even more after listening to a Qatari based Indian father last year, tell me about how he had his son in a British school before, which for him held many colonial values that would subdue the students and make them compliant, and obedient. Not to think for themselves. This reminded me slightly of American schools.
A Typical Day
As a first grade teacher: You may start with a half group (class is divided either randomly or how you like in half into A and B group) at 8 or 9 in the morning. You can use this time for something that works better with only a half group, like sewing (good for handwriting and fine motor skills) craft, mathematics, project work, etc. Then say at 8:45, there’s a recess break and everyone gets their shoes on and goes outside for 15 minutes. The whole group joins at 9. You can have English, Science, or math, or a transdisciplinary combination of Science and Math for example. You are designing the curriculum based on the National Curriculum, so you have the freedom to make sure the kids know what they need to know in the way you think is best. There is usually a double, 90 minute lesson from 9-10:30. Then there is lunch and recess until 11:15. Students come back, and you may have art, music, two hours of gym or an hour of English. Many kids may then go home at 12. Then you may have a religion or ethics class (1x per week, based on how the child is registered and parent wishes.) Religion is not about indoctrination or believing in something themselves, rather the academic study of the main religion in Finland (Lutheranism) and many different topics that include other religions and cultures, conflict resolution, charitable organizations, stages of life and human development etc. Ethics is the study of conflict resolution, deciding on your own moral code and values, ecological decisions and conserving our planet, other cultures, respecting other cultures and religions, U.N. human rights and the rights of the child, stages of life and human development, empathy, etc. You have a certain lesson allocation that you need to fulfill, but you can decide your basic time table of where to put what and what lessons go where within your frame. Students have a 15 minute break to go outside almost every 45 minutes.
On Student Success
Student success varies wildly. The biggest part of Finnish education has nothing to do with academics. It is the “raising and developing” of students and life skills so that they can be happy and healthy, productive citizens. They are the future of Finland. Finland invests a lot in its future, so the biggest success story is a student who contributes to society in a positive way–and that can come in all shapes and sizes whether they go to a polytechnic school and learn a trade or craft, become artists, athletes, musicians, join the service industry, or go to university and become an academic or work in the service industry, or public or private sector.
How Finnish Culture Creates Such Great Schools
Finland is not a super consumer culture. The natural resources are lumber, fish, water and expertise. So they had to decide in the post war years, when they owed enormous war reparations and were the only ones to pay them off–to really band together and take care of each other and make knowledge one of their natural resources. As it’s a welfare state, the state takes care of so many things and is laughingly called a nanny state by many a foreigner. They have a lot of strong propaganda and self-talk they use for themselves. “To be born in Finland is like winning the lottery.” They refer to their country as “the bird’s nest” as though everything outside of Finland in the big wide world is less safe, less trustworthy. They know that every person counts, so they try to make sure that everyone is equipped with enough knowledge and sense of duty to contribute something back to the country.
Economically, the state supports lower income students. The socioeconomic gaps have historically been non-existent. This makes a huge difference. A relaxed brain, in a body that has enough food to eat, has gotten enough sleep, feels secure and comfortable and safe is a brain that has enormous potential to achieve and learn. We don’t take care of these basic things in the U.S. Some of the things we do here wouldn’t go over well in the U.S.
One of the most important things about Finnish education to me doesn’t actually happen in school. It is more in the society. Finland as a society has decided to be so child friendly, so secure, so trusting, that students must be able to go to and from school alone, either walking or using public transport. Young children walk in the city alone and go home by themselves and may spend several hours unattended and unsupervised until their parents come home. Even babies are unattended and parked in their strollers outside in the cold, sleeping, while their mothers may meet friends for lunch or coffee inside. The emphasis here is learning by doing. In school they don’t just listen to music and do music theory or just music and movement. They learn to read music and play instruments, they compose songs, and create things from a young age. In woodwork, 9 year olds may make clocks, desk lamps, fidget spinners, etc., using dangerous equipment. So it isn’t just busy work or memorizing or learning because it’s on a test. It’s learning something useful that may enrich your life and be fun that you also learn life skills in the process. Everything is very pragmatic.
A relaxed brain, in a body that has enough food to eat, has gotten enough sleep, feels secure and comfortable and safe is a brain that has enormous potential to achieve and learn.
Poverty in Finland
There is very little poverty in Finland and it’s been designed that way, by the state and the voters who are willing to pay taxes because they know the cost of things and also, get a direct tangible benefit back by paying them. So for example, in Helsinki, there are many refugee children, many immigrants, and even in our school, an assimilation class for war refugees–Syrians, Afghanis, Iraqis, Kurds. If they are literate in their mother tongue, after they have been assimilated for a few years, the schools in the east side of town that typically have a higher percentage of these students still perform within a similar range of schools without these kinds of students–and that is hopeful and impressive to me. Immigration is fairly new to Finland, starting in the 70s from Sweden or Estonia, Russia. I would say it has only really taken off in the past decades and the Finnish state is dealing with it overall in a pretty good way, but there are some horror stories, and occasional surges in nationalism or right wing rhetoric.
The Best Part of Teaching
My favorite thing as a professional is that I am encouraged to try new things, fail, and take risks. I won’t be fired if I try something new with my students and it’s a complete disaster lesson. The teacher’s role is also as a researcher and lifelong learner: my job is to literally test things out with students so that I can find different ways to be effective with my students.
When you are tenured, you are entitled to have a “wellness” holiday, paid for by your municipality every 4 years or so–to prevent burnout. You get to stay in a spa/activity center and attend different activity classes, nutrition courses, eat good food, do different kinds of activities to relax and empower yourself, take stress management/mindfulness courses and basically connect with other people who are there with you for the week.
Are there any downsides to this amazing system?
To me the biggest downsides to Finnish schools that I see is that the kids haven’t seen what it is like in the rest of the world and may not appreciate what they’ve got. They may take it for granted, they may not have the drive, the urge, or the ambition to really change the world the way that students from a different system may feel is so important as they don’t have a safety net and are exposed to these big issues and problems from a young age. There isn’t a lot of social mobility, as there isn’t as much wealth disparity, so everyone is mostly comfortable–which doesn’t promote taking risks or progressive thinking always. The only way the Finns know they are progressive is because the rest of the world is telling them they are–but to them, this is their traditional approach to education for a long time now.
The teacher’s role is also as a researcher and lifelong learner: my job is to literally test things out with students so that I can find different ways to be effective with my students.
There is a meme about teachers in Finland getting paid like doctors. That isn’t exactly true. Doctors here get paid much less than in the U.S., but it is still more than teachers. Perhaps after 20 years of teaching, a teacher’s salary might be like that of beginner doctors here, about 5k per month before taxes. Teachers are better respected here than in the U.S., but that is changing slowly. Everyone thinks they know about school because they have been through it as a student, and think their unique personal perspective entitles them to strong opinions. 10 years ago, very rarely would a parent question a teacher on their judgement regarding their child’s grades, etc. But now that is becoming more common, especially with the 9th grade students applying to different high schools. (I have been working for City of Helsinki officially for 10 years since last December 2016.) There is still dramatically less interference and demanding here than in the U.S. or other places (U.K., Middle East, Spain) so I think teachers still enjoy a high level of respect, and it is a highly competitive profession to get in and become, with only the best students getting into teacher training programs. The issue that might need to be revisited at some point, is that then when they get a permanent place, there are no further licensing renewals or further mandatory, outside of school professional development courses like in the U.S. This means that there is great variation between motivated and relevant teachers who keep themselves abreast of new technology and ways of teaching, and those that stick to what is tried and true for them, even if they’ve been doing the same for the past 25 years.
A big, abstract question about re-imagining the American education system: what does it look like?
We have so many issues with poverty and racism, this persistent idea of competition, or winners and losers, and taxpayers and “freeloaders” or “welfare queens.” So I find it really sad, but we don’t believe as a nation in everyone, especially our most vulnerable and precious citizens, our children, having an equal chance.
Until we respect everyone equally and believe that everyone deserves an equal opportunity–with equal resources and until we prioritize that, I am not sure how we can even talk about dream schools. Whether I have been in a rich district or a poor, inner city one, campus police and metal detectors are part of American schools. Does this feel like a place for children to grow, learn, ask questions, and take risks? I would love for there to be a school system in the U.S. like in Finland. But we have to decide as a people that we want it and it’s a priority–and many other things would have to change first. The biggest thing I think we are missing in schools, is basic values, character development, and ethics programs, where kids can learn to think for themselves, respect and empathize with those that are different to them, and begin to grow and define their own value system.
Thank you, Meghan! This insight is invaluable. I agree with so much of what you say about needing to prioritize our most valuable resources –our children–and building systems that allow them to thrive. I only hope one day we as a culture decide it’s worth investing in.
P.S. Are you a public school teacher in the United States? Want to talk to me? Get in touch, please!!
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