School in Finland is one of things that is just expected to be available and, the majority of it all the way up through university is free. The education system is generally good and teachers are highly qualified, even though they don't get paid enough. There are very few private schools in the country and those there are, tend to be centered around the language used, not the quality of the education. However, there are some issues with it and one of those arose recently.
The expectation on schools is that they deliver a decent level and relatively uniform education to children, in a safe environment. And it is the last point that has caused issues, where the parents of 20 primary level students pulled their kids from a school, because they deemed the environment unsafe. The challenge for the government here is, school is compulsory.
The reason however was not the environment created by the school that was causing problems, it was the actions of an individual child, who was not only disruptive, but also violent, and this has been happening for a year already. At times, it has been escalated to the point the police have been called to calm the situation.
The parents signed a petition saying that their children will not return to school until a safe environment can be guaranteed (within reason), and distributed it to the principle, the local council, children's ombudsman, and the minister of education. This got some attention in the media, because after a year, the child has been given a place in a school that has special support for these kinds of children.
The parents of the "problem child" are thankful for the actions of the other parents, because they have been trying for some years to get support and while the school has done what it could, they didn't have the resources to cope. And as far as I can tell from what I have read, try as they might, the parents were unable to significantly improve the behaviors of the child at home either.
And this is where I see some potential conflict, because the education direction is to provide an equal education, but provision has to also include environment, and when the disruption is pupil based, where does the responsibility lay?
My daughter has just started her first year of school, and it is already apparent that there is a very large disparity between child skillsets. Some can read, some write, and some like Smallsteps, are doing math problems. However, she goes into a class where they have spent a session learning how to write a particular letter number. Everyone is getting the same education, but is it valuable for everyone?
And this is the failure of centralized education, because even when it is providing value, it isn't going to be able to cater to the needs of every individual. Yet, we have created a world where we expect individual tailoring for individual needs, something that a school cannot offer, especially when underfunded and overworked.
From the information I could find, there are only around 250 homeschooling families in Finland, which is more testament to the trust and expectations in the school system here, than the unwillingness of the parents. The Finnish school model has been a point of pride for years and you will see it referenced globally, so it is natural that parents who have had a good experience with it, will be happy to have their children attend also.
But, diversity inclusion will also affect diversity of outcome, because the higher the variance of children skills and behaviors, the harder it is to get a uniform output. It is far easier to raise averages by catering to the lowest levels, than the highest levels, because there are more low and, they have further upward to move. This is why government schools will focus their efforts here, even though it is not going to support the ones who are most likely to be the highest performers post-school. And, post-school should be the point of schooling, not the increase in grades. Having high grades even is meaningless, if they do not translate into value-adding activities that generate the outputs required for a stronger community.
However, it is also inappropriate to leave those who are not fit for the normal school model behind, because it could be that they are just not suited to that set of actions, but might be brilliant in another. But again, whose responsibility is it? What is interesting to note though, is that if there is a child with behavioral challenges causing problems for others, there is support available. But, if there is a child who is excelling at a particular discipline and would benefit from having additional specialized support, it is pretty much up to the parent. If my daughter is excelling at math, there is no one qualified or responsible for helping her.
Is this fair?
Now, personally, I see it as my responsibility to support my daughter, and, I have the belief that the school system is largely a hinderance to excelling post-school, so it is up to me to offer supplementation where I can, or source it from somewhere if I can.
Tutors are expensive.
But, it also raises a question of what is considered a "safe environment" for children to learn in. Obviously, physical violence is a clear indication of an unsafe environment, however if we look at how the results of the education might impact on professional opportunity throughout life, is a class with a disruptive student that draws the majority of attention of teachers, considered a safe learning environment?
I don't think it does.
For instance, if we were to consider what a safe "sleeping environment" might be, we may imagine a nice bed, soft mattress and pillow, in a warm enough room with good ventilation. However, if there is constant death metal blaring during sleeping hours, is it safe? Physically yes, but the outcomes from the sleep are far from optimized.
Nothing against death metal.
The fact is, that while our genetics play a role, we are also products of our environment, influenced by our surroundings. If we are surrounded with disruptions, the lessons we learn are impacted, as are our own behaviors. And, at young ages, we are going to be even more influenced by our peer groups in ways that are going to affect our foundational behavior and mindset as adults.
If we want what is best for our kids in the future, we need to ensure that they are learning the lessons they need to learn in childhood. There are many subjects that might be useless, and there is value in learning to deal with disruptive and violent people, but that probably shouldn't be where the majority of energy goes in a young life. It should be about being able to explore the world and interest areas with relative safety, rather than having to constantly be forced to cater for the needs of someone, let alone someone who might not add that much value throughout their lifetime.
I think we all want what is best for our kids and most of us do recognize that we can't expect others to provide for our own, but then, where is the line, what can be expected to be provided through tax spending, and what am I as a parent expected to pick up? It is a harder question to answer than many believe, especially since most of us as parents, don't actually know that much about how to educate a child, even if we do know that there is a spectrum of failure in the educational systems.
The parental "strike" should raise conversations, but I suspect that like most centralized systems, it will be treated as an outlier problem, rather than something that indicates a deeper issue with the structure itself. For me though, it is a reminder that if I want to have additional support for Smallsteps, I am going to have to learn to provide it one way or another, because she is not going to get more than average from a school.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I live this stuff, so I know what you are talking about. Inclusion is the big word these days. It is not longer legal to send the special needs kids off to a different area or building. That doesn't mean that there aren't special programs for kids that need the help, but it takes a long road to finally get them placed (too long in my opinion). My wife had a student that was literally beating her every day a couple of years ago. She had all kinds of data about where he needed to be placed, but the people who offer those services said her data wasn't good enough (even though she has been doing this for 15 years). So they had to collect their own data, meanwhile she is continuing to get abused every day. I finally went to our boss and told him he needed to get it taken care of or I would be filing suit. I never blamed the kid, he needed help he wasn't getting. I blame the place that offers the special services for dragging their feet and allowing it to happen.
Can't even send them outside the class in most cases.
And I am guessing, there are an increasing number of parents who are ill-equipped to make any meaningful changes to help. And then, there are those who "free-range" raise their kids, as if this is leading them to a great result.
Schooling systems globally are largely failing, some more than others.
No, if you suspend a kid with an IEP too many times the district gets dinged. My wife has always said if she could fix the parents she wouldn't have a job. People blame the schools, but it's not entirely our fault. We are bound by state and federal regulations made by people who aren't in the trenches every day. That's where much of the problem lies.
For the most part, the people at the school are doing the best the can. It is similar to the difference between a government and the people in a country. People do their best, governments don't represent them.
For sure
Unfortunately it is as you mention. No matter how good a centralized education system is, there are always gonna be children who exceed the average in one or many classes and get bored, and, even worse, often bullied by the rest of the group.
The global education system follows a pattern 2 centuries old. It has started to change at college level, as some companies do not care about the "official" certifications and have their own "knowledge" selection processes. But it is also true, children learn many other things in school besides "education"". They learn habits, they socialize, they face situations they may not face home , especially if they have no brothers/sisters as ours.
We decided to move him from a public elementary school to a private middle school when he was at that age, It was a big effort, not only economically (public elementary, middle and high schools are also free in spain) but the logistics was a nightmare as the public one is in front of our house and the private one we choose is in Barcelona, 30' away excepts weekdays at rush hour which is 1hr.
Looking back, I am happy we made the effort as he had many more opportunities he would have had if we would have left him in the public one.
But every child, en environment, and country is different, I just believe we have to teach our kids there are many online education resources which can complement what they do at regular school.
I remember using Kahn Academy classes with him back then just to follow his curiosity. An amazing free online ressource among many.
This will happen more and more and widen the application, because school won't be providing the skills the company needs, so will either have to hunt differently or in-house train them, which they do anyway.
And perhaps, there is a different social set there too, which impacts on the future also.
The challenge is, will they use them without guidance and supervision when there are other things more interesting to do?
Will have a look!
In my country we run a mixed economy that means private system of education runs along side the public ones, but the private ones seems to be doing better in terms of facilities, quality teachers, great environment for learning off course you should know you'd pay higher for that...
Glad to know your daughter her first year, congratulations to her, same her in my country the new academic year just started and all kids are back to school, talking about those skillset that's why knowing your child's teacher in person is really good, cause you need to be aware of the quality of knowledge she's transfering is it worth your money, even tho they are ahead your daughter can caught and the teacher should be able to distinguish each child's ability and help groom them.
The private schools get more funding, plus raise a lot more money in most countries. In Finland, it doesn't matter much, it is largely the same.
Yah that's true
So called it is free here too. However, the school administrators demand money as well as cleaning materials, photocopy papers etc from the parents.
I think the only cost we pay is for the afternoon care. The rest is free. Of course, once going to university, there are other costs like accommodation and what not, but the schooling itself is covered.
School attendance is not compulsory in Finland. Homeschooling is legal and possible.
The municipality is responsible for supervising home-schooled pupils to make sure they are following the national curriculum. Study materials, remedial teaching or meals are not provided but healthcare is.
It would be advantageous to home-school your child in a group. If that is not possible to do locally, there exists a non-chartered online school that arranges meetups: https://feeniks-koulu.fi/wp_feeniks/
I don't think I said attendance at a school is compulsory and I did mention this:
I don't know how many are actually homeschooling, but I also wonder how distributed they are around Finland.
Sorry about missing that part.
I'm guessing they are quite evenly distributed.
No worries, just in case someone was reading, I didn't want it to seem like I misrepresented the situation :)
I wonder if there are more in the cities and then there could be group classes still. I know in Australia it is common to share some responsibilities.
In the biggest cities maybe.
Unfortunately, I don't think you have much of a choice if your child is smarter than others. As you have said, tutors are expensive. The regular school system is cheap because they are standardized, and everyone is treated the same. If they can cater to each student individually, then they would be expensive as well. The next best thing is to have your child skip grades. That might be good for her studies, but not for her childhood.
This topic also reminded me of my elementary school system. They had a honors section, where the smartest students in the grade are placed. They learn more advanced topics, and are usually together with other smart pupils. There is usually healthy competition between them, and they push each other to be better. It was later abolished, because of discrimination on students [there was also a last section, where students who are lagging go].
From a curriculum standpoint yes, but not from an attention view. Teachers spend most of their time with the trouble students.
I don't think I would want this for her. I would rather her have a steady group of friends her age for now. Plus, she will excel in some areas, but be deficient in others, so if she goes up, she will struggle where she is weaker.
It is funny that being smart is a bad thing. Shouldn't we want the smartest to excel and improve our broken world?
I'm actually glad that the educational factor of your country is cool and something that you can be proud of. Here in Nigeria, the educational sector is very poor and that is why you see a lot of kids who have turned dropouts because of unnecessary delay due to strike in the educational factors and it does not make sense to me.
Imagine that someone is spending six to seven years in the university and normally, he is supposed to spend just four years. That is not nice
If a country wants to excel in the global market for generations, it means ensuring enough people have the education required to do so.
I see many mothers teaching their children home lessons. Every parent wants their child to be the best.
This also occurs in my country. The salary scale or structure is nothing to write home about. Teachers are barely surviving.
Having students being disruptive could be liking to the level of indiscipline. Like in my country, government makes it a crime to discipline students firmly. Though, there's room for light punishment, but this is not enough for the level of students we are having nowadays.
This might be as a results of your input in your daughter's self education. Many of the pupils of her age might not be that resources or exposure might differ.
Parents have a lot to do in shaping their kids futures. Their input is important for kids to do well later in life.
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As you have said, the educational sector needs attention from the underpaid teachers which has dissuaded many good potential teachers from embarking on that line of work.
The overworked teachers not being able to deliver on imparting knowledge and the pricey tutors.
If teachers are paid better, the method of teaching renewed and refurbished to better suit intellectual growth hence reducing the need for special tutoring- things will truly be better.
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Exactly why I left my teaching role. It was an impossible task, trying to treat everyone equally in a 30 student class when there are so many different types and levels of learners.
This is the main reason the educational system in the US is falling apart. All the public school principals are concerned with raising their students' standardized test scores. Education has become less about preparing the individual for life, and more about teaching to the test and getting high scores. This is an assanine way to go about an educational model.