Pages: 232
Rating: G
Summary:
How do other countries create “smarter” kids? What is it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers? The Smartest Kids in the World “gets well beneath the glossy surfaces of these foreign cultures and manages to make our own culture look newly strange....The question is whether the startling perspective provided by this masterly book can also generate the will to make changes” (The New York Times Book Review).
In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they’ve never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy. Inspired to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year. Kim, fifteen, raises $10,000 so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, eighteen, trades his high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, seventeen, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for Poland.
Through these young informants, Ripley meets battle-scarred reformers, sleep-deprived zombie students, and a teacher who earns $4 million a year. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into learning in other cultures, reveal a pattern of startling transformation: none of these countries had many “smart” kids a few decades ago. Things had changed. Teaching had become more rigorous; parents had focused on things that mattered; and children had bought into the promise of education.
My Thoughts: This book was incredible. I can hold my own in a heated conversation about what is wrong with the education system in our country. I have a lot of opinions and thoughts on the subject, so this book was right up my alley. Interestingly enough, this book didn't affirm all the opinions I already have. In fact, it challenged some of my ideas, and maybe even changed some of them!
For example, academic achievement actually has LESS to do with socioeconomic status and parent involvement than we may have thought. Yes, those things matter, but the author found that children living in poverty in Poland are still performing better than children in the US who live in similar conditions. A teacher in Finland says he tries as much as possible to ignore the various challenges of each student, because he finds when he treats them all the same, they tend to perform much better.
Other questions this book brought to light - In America, are we actually spending TOO MUCH on technology and other classroom toys that don't seem to actually make any kind of difference? Do we allow our schools to spend too much money and time on sports, instead of academics? Do we churn out too many teachers who aren't really all that qualified? What would happen if we truly had a common standard across the US of what kids should know in each grade? What would happen if instead of dumbing everything down, we instead increased rigor and expected MORE of our students?
One quote I loved towards the end "High school in Finland, Korea, and Poland had a purpose, just like high school football practice in America. There was a big, important contest at the end, and the score counted."
A fascinating aspect of a Finnish education was that almost half of kids there have received special education services by the time they turn 17. Children in special ed are seen as having temporary problems, not permanent setbacks, and all kids can improve. This actually reminded me of the attitude we had at the school I worked at for years. I worked helping kids who didn't qualify for special ed, but still needed help. Our goal was to get them out of our program as soon as possible. And not in like a hooray we got rid of that kid type of way, no. We saw it as they graduated and no longer needed our help and that was always a huge victory.
Lest you think this is just a book to make you feel worse about our education system, there's a handy appendix in the back listing things to look for in a good school. I found that really helpful and interesting, as actually most of the ideas are ones that I would not have considered.
I feel like this book should be required of every teacher, parent, administrator, and lawmaker! You won't regret reading this one, and it's not full of technical scientific jargon. I found it easy to read and keep reading. I was finished with it in 2 days.
I reviewed this on Goodreads (I reserved it after I read your review)
ReplyDeleteThis book analyzed school systems around the world, partially through following American students who were foreign exchange students elsewhere.
One thing that I was pleasantly surprised with is that this is not a guide to helping parents help their kids get a leg up, or even helping teachers help their students achieve more and learn more problem solving and creativity. Instead, the book talks about overhauling the entire system so that the most kids -- even from families that do not read books like these -- will be able to learn.
She waited until the appendix at the end before she offered her opinions on anything, but showed what the students were thinking as well as PISA test results, and experts' opinions.
She showed that American schools do not have a clear nationwide curriculum and that students are following behind many other countries, especially in math.
Fixes she seems in favor of:
1) A rigorous nationwide test before High School graduation
2) Core curriculum (a test would make all schools focus on the same things). She cited that in many other countries teachers knew exactly what curriculum they were supposed to cover each year and also knew what the students should already have studied. I was amazed to hear that there is so much disagreement about what to teach in schools right now.
3) Less tech in the classrooms. We spend a lot more per student than other countries that teach them more.
4) Only let high achievers study to be teachers.
5) Pay teachers more. Take it out of the technology budget.
6) Give teachers more autonomy and allow for collaboration.
7) Somehow transform our culture so our students (and parents) work hard and care about school.
8) Eliminate tracking (putting kids in lower and advanced classes). Whenever you do this, the lower achievers learn less.
I can definitely get on board with a lot of her ideas. Right at the end she mentioned some schools called BASIS public charter schools in AZ and D.C. She told about how hard those schools make the students work, and how they outperformed average students in Finland, Korea, and Poland. She had nothing but great words for BASIS schools.
Interestingly for me, I actually know a student who attends a BASIS high school. He says that everyone studies really hard and that almost every student take illegal ADD drugs to help them focus better. That wasn't in the book at all.
Ripley also went over how the students in Korea often sleep through some of their classes because they are so exhausted. After a full, very long day of school, most go to after school tutoring until past 10 p.m. at night. The kids work ridiculously hard to prepare for their national test and sleep through classes because they know they will learn it again with their tutors that night and they are exhausted.
I was amazed that at the end she asserted that she thinks our students would be better off like Korea -- where even the Education chair says the system is broken but they are not sure how to take the pressure off -- than as we are right now.
I really liked how she had a section about how to identify a good classroom -- seeing if the kids are busy and interested in what they are doing. If a stranger comes in in a good classroom, the kids don't pay much attention.
Anyway, I do recommend the book.