What Homeschoolers Can Learn-From the Finns
Note: It's one of those years! A year with a high school senior in our family. Which means I'm up to my ears in college admissions paperwork for the next month. Since my writing time is taken up with other less fun documents, I'm going to run some different material here. This is an article I did for Practical Homeschooling magazine a bit over a year ago.
The genesis of this article was a conversation I had with someone at my great-aunt's funeral. This woman happened to be a newly retired judge and was there as friend of my cousin, also a judge. Learning that I had homeschooled my children for over two decades, the judge, who had been an elementary teacher before attending law school, began grilling me about our educational methods and results. It was one of the liveliest, most challenging conversations I have ever had about homeschooling. At the end she thanked me "for allowing me to cross-examine, er, I mean discuss this with you." Deeply interested in alternative educational models, the judge at one point brought up the Finns, which led to my later researching how they do what they do.
What Homeschoolers Can Learn From the Finns
The genesis of this article was a conversation I had with someone at my great-aunt's funeral. This woman happened to be a newly retired judge and was there as friend of my cousin, also a judge. Learning that I had homeschooled my children for over two decades, the judge, who had been an elementary teacher before attending law school, began grilling me about our educational methods and results. It was one of the liveliest, most challenging conversations I have ever had about homeschooling. At the end she thanked me "for allowing me to cross-examine, er, I mean discuss this with you." Deeply interested in alternative educational models, the judge at one point brought up the Finns, which led to my later researching how they do what they do.
What Homeschoolers Can Learn From the Finns
Does this sound familiar? Children
attend class in their stocking feet in a homey setting. The highly
motivated teacher has a great deal of freedom, choosing her own books
and instructional methods. With a classroom day of around four hours,
the children study language arts, math, science, music, art, sports,
and some practical skills. Little ones learn primarily through play.
Older ones have a minimal amount of homework, and tests are rare with
only one standardized test at the end of nine years. The teacher
takes very seriously her responsibility to not only teach but to also
nurture the young people under her care, and she knows her students
intimately as she teaches them from first to sixth grades. Oh, yes.
By the time they are 15 years old, students who have attended this
type of school whoop up on their peers in reading, science, and math.
Though much of that description may
hold true for many homeschools, it is actually a portrait of a
typical Finnish school. In the past decade or so, Finnish schools
have become the darling of many in the education world because of
their unique philosophy and stunning results. Since 2000, the first
year the study was performed, Finland has appeared in the top echelon
of the prestigious PISA (Programme For International Student
Assessment), a test given to 15 year olds around the world every
three years. Just last year Pearson Education named Finland and South
Korea as “education superpowers.” The unassuming Finns have found
this attention a bit disconcerting. After all, they had simply set
out to provide a quality education for every student, not set the
world on fire.
Finnish schools have not always been at
the head of the worldwide class. Back in the early 1970s when they
were behind most countries, they determined to revamp their entire
system. Now compulsory schooling begins at age 7 and continues
through 16. Having an egalitarian society, one of Finland's goals is
to educate all children equally well, so they do not separate out
gifted students or slow learners. They do provide extra help for any
who need it, something like 30% of younger children, but that help
comes in the regular classroom. Bright children aid their friends,
and from several measurements, remarkably it appears the Finns have
been able to raise the bar for everyone, rather than allow the slower
students to drag down the others. After primary school, students can
either move to a college prep secondary school or a vocational high
school. From there they may attend college or a polytechnic institute
or head out to work. So far that doesn't sound too radical. Just
wait.
According to Pasi Sahlberg, author of
Finnish Lessons and Director General of Finland's Ministry of
Education and Culture, “Less is more” in Finnish education.
Finnish children attend school for fewer hours, spend far less time
on homework, and take fewer tests than American children. By law,
Finnish children are not even allowed to be given grades before 5th
grade, according to Sahlberg.
Finnish teachers also have less
top-down control than many others, including ours. While Finland does
have a national “curriculum”, it acts as a guideline and not a
taskmaster. The math section, for example, consists of ten pages for
the first nine year. The math section of the Common Core, by
contrast, has seven pages for fourth grade alone. Official school
inspectors were done away with in the 1990s, and teachers and
principals work diligently because of internal responsibility rather
than some form of external accountability. Speaking at Vanderbilt
University, Sahlberg said that there is no word for accountability in
Finnish. Instead, "Accountability is something that is left
when responsibility is subtracted."
What Finns do have in abundance are
passionate, intelligent teachers. Pasi Sahlberg says only the best
and brightest high school students, about 10%, make it through the
competitive selection process for the 650-700 spots available at the
five-year teaching colleges. Prospective teachers must excel in all
academic areas, most particularly math and science. On top of that,
they need to sing and dance or be musical and should have some sports
experience. Finnish teachers appreciate the autonomy they are given
to creatively teach, and even though they are not paid as well as
their counterparts in the U.S., they are repaid with a high amount of
prestige.
As intriguing as the Finnish model is,
even if I lived in that country, I would still want to homeschool my
children. (Happily, according to the HSLDA, homeschooling is on the
rise in that country and is protected by the Finnish constitution.)
And while for a host of reasons the model likely wouldn't translate
well into school systems at large in the U.S., the greater
flexibility of homeschoolers puts us in a position to be able to
glean some valuable strategies from the clever Finns while discarding
other elements. Here are some take-away lessons that might be useful
to homeschooling parents:
- Build time in your schedule for “professional development.” Finnish teachers have about two hours each week. The time we spend reading about educational ideas, attending support groups, or listening to live or web-based seminars can all help sharpen our skills and refresh us when we are weary. Reading Practical Homeschooling is one great way to to this, too! Read widely. Keeping your mind active and piquing your curiosity will make you a better teacher.
- Play is important! The Finns have proven that you don't need to rush academics with preschoolers for them to be very successful in the long run. Let your little ones learn primarily through indoor and outdoor play, art experiences, and listening to good books.
- As your children grow, keep your school rich in play, arts, and hands-on activities. Handcrafts and music are integral parts of a Finnish child's day, along with learning two foreign languages. Teachers often employ creative instruction such as outdoor math where the children use sticks, pine cones, and other natural materials as manipulatives. Finnish children play outside and have about an hour or more of recess each day.
- Teach your children how to learn and don't focus on test-taking. If your children become self-learners who love to discover new things, they will do just fine on any tests that come their way.
- Do you have a gifted child? One who has special needs? Give each one what he or she needs, including extra tutoring or more advanced challenges. But don't make a big fuss about your child's abilities, either which way. Let the advanced child help the struggling one and both will gain. Maybe if we do this, our kids will have some of the Finnish humility as well.
If you want to spend some of your
“professional development” time learning more about how the Finns
educate their children, you might check out some of the resources
listed below. Anne Wegener
Resources:
2013.
"Homeschooling Gains Attention in Finland." HSLDA. 24 Sept. 2010. Web. 25 Jun 2013.
Sahlberg, Pasi. Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn From Educational Change in
Finland?. Youtube, 2011. Web. 22 Jun 2013.
©2013 Home Life, Inc. Originally published in Practical Homeschooling magazine. Used by permission.
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