Amanda Ripley followed the lives of 3 people throughout the book. Each student of which decided to study abroad before going to college. Each student of which was interested in seeing why there was such huge difference education between their country and the one they would be travelling to. They had their own hypothesis on why there would be such a distinction, but none of them expected the actual experience that they got.
Kim’s journey was one that Ripley followed. She was a 11 year old girl that was very curious about how education impacted her family’s life. Her mother was a elementary school teacher, so Kim was always around schoolwork and PTA meetings. She got exposed to the education system a little more than other kids. Growing up in a place like Sallisaw, Oklahoma, Kim saw that education played a minor role in everyone’s lives. But she discovered in high school that that was not the case, she was living in city where educating children was a very high struggle.
She decided to do some research on the most educated countries around the world. Within a few clicks and some more surfing of the web, Kim found that Finland was the smartest country in the world. This seemed very bizarre to her, Finland? Why would a country which was known so little have the best brains in the world? The only that she could figure out the answer to this question was to go to the country and study there. Quite the difficult feat to perform, but Kim wasn’t a little girl, she had the ambition which sparked the plug to do what she wanted. With the help of her mother and family, she managed raise a total of 10 grand to study in Finland for a year. Kim was very excited to see a high tech classroom with brilliant teachers.
Only about 50% of her expectations were correct. There were brilliant teachers, but they were not teaching in a 21st century classroom. Kim could believe her eyes, the standards of the school looked far worse than her poorly run high school back in Oklahoma. Is this really the place where the smartest kids get their education? There was so much confusion. Kim was in the same state until she experienced a class and what their curriculum was. Then she understood why Finland was number one. There was actually a common core at Finland. Teachers practically had a doctorate in the subject they were teaching. Students received a high quality education from the content that they were learning.
The contrast between the American and Finnish education systems, as you discussed, is significant. It is rather sad that the United States is unable to remain at the top of the world in education rankings despite having facilities that are clearly superior to many countries that rank above it, such as Finland. This goes to show the tremendous importance that education can have on the sciences, as (not surprisingly) high quality education no doubt breeds more positive attitudes regarding all subjects, sharper brains, and more competitive students overall. This goes to show that in order for Americans to improve their cultural attitude towards the sciences and the quality of their education overall, it is not necessarily significant money that must be invested, but rather standards that must be increased. At the same time, that may have the consequence of discouraging people from pursuing teaching as a profession, so there is certainly a delicate balance that must be struck, and it certainly appears that Finland has done so.
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