Why Finland Excels

Doc Manhattan · Dec 6, 2012

Kyle Weiss · Dec 7, 2012

Yak":hntfph74 said:
TV = Steeler Games.

Crap, and Giants baseball. *sigh* Sports doesn't count, though. I never get creepy vibes and regret being alive while watching sports.

8)

KevinM · Dec 7, 2012

>>one of the reasons why the Finnish school system seems to do such a good job is that due to still a pretty strong ethnic homogenity, most kids have the chance to learn on their own language<<

Told ya so. Not a big mystery.

Homogenity is one of the reasons American private schools can do better than public schools, even with smaller budgets. American public schools are obliged to take all comers, dysfunctional or not, but private schools just toss out those who don't want to be there. Guess where they end up? (I have a relative who's a HS principal who goes stark raving mad at comparisons of American school public/private test scores.)

Re: Scale. Many American institutions are determined by scale. In a national institution (like public ed) much strategic direction is centralized in Washington. Local direction often deteriorates to rubber stamping the wishes of public employee unions. This creates a certain amount of turmoil at the local level over what is taught and who gets to say so. It's also seen in medical care. Americans ask, "Why can't we have a medical system like France?" "Because," comes the reply, "France is about the size of Ohio."

I think the real reason Finland is a land of peace-loving people is that the females are such stunners that the men are perpetually kinda tired, even the homely ones that an American stunner wouldn't even put on her alternative list. It's Darwinism at work.

beetlejazz · Dec 7, 2012

Kevin, I think the point I was citing wasn't so much about "dysfunctionality" in general when it comes to students but the language question. Like I said before, I've taught some really ingelligent and motivated immigrants kids, who not only were really struggling with the language, but their needs were also catered shamefully poorly to. So obviously when most students learn on their first language (either Finnish or in some cases Swedish - which is a minority language group here that gets special treatment), they are likely to perform well compared to those who are learning on their second language.

It's not long ago I heard a lecture that cited a study on how kids who learn on their mother tongue first are more likely to learn also other languages well later in life. This had to do with Tibetan kids learning Chinese - claiming that they are more likely to learn good chinese if they're taught in the mother tongue first and then learn Chinese, than to be thrown into a Chinese school right away. I don't have the source(s) at hand here but perhaps I should dig a bit around.

And yes, it must be way easier to build a comprehensive system in a small country. I think there's something deeply cultural about it too - Finnish people seem to be pretty eager to obey rules and authorities.

I think the real reason Finland is a land of peace-loving people is that the females are such stunners that the men are perpetually kinda tired, even the homely ones that an American stunner wouldn't even put on her alternative list. It's Darwinism at work.

Actually the topic that gets continously speculation in the media here is how Finnish women are ugly, fat, and dress badly compared to women from other countries. This might be either because of 1) it's true 2) this is a fundamentally self-deprecation driven culture 3) being surrounded by Swedish babes in the West, Estonian stunners in the South, and the Russian goddesses in the East, the comparisons are likely to be unfavourable to us mundanes. :lol!:

monbla256 · Dec 7, 2012

I think the real reason Finland is a land of peace-loving people is that the females are such stunners that the men are perpetually kinda tired, even the homely ones that an American stunner wouldn't even put on her alternative list. It's Darwinism at work.

Actually the topic that gets continously speculation in the media here is how Finnish women are ugly, fat, and dress badly compared to women from other countries. This might be either because of 1) it's true 2) this is a fundamentally self-deprecation driven culture 3) being surrounded by Swedish babes in the West, Estonian stunners in the South, and the Russian goddesses in the East, the comparisons are likely to be unfavourable to us mundanes. :lol!: [/quote]

I think this may be the proverbial case of "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" . If I were to judge Finnish women by the three I have met personally over the years, I'd have to say they were (are still) extremely beautiful, stunning examples of the female gender

JMHE

KevinM · Dec 7, 2012

Actually the topic that gets continously speculation in the media here is how Finnish women are ugly, fat, and dress badly compared to women from other countries.\

Good lord. Send those guys over here just to spend a few hours observing the visitors to an American shopping mall! When they return to Finland they will treasure their Finnish female acquaintances!