[Pen-l] Education and the Welfare State

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am just finishing up at Yale.  I could not resist posting this.  For 
some reason, the quotation marks come ouut as periods.  Sorry.

Gamerman, Ellen. 2008.  .What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?. Wall Street 
Journal (29 February): p. W 1.
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB120425355065601997.html

The article seems to suggest a type of learning suggestive of the 
ideology of Mao.s China, where the best had the responsibility of 
helping the others.

.15-year-old Fanny Salo at Norssi gives a glimpse of the no-frills 
curriculum.  Fanny is a bubbly ninth-grader who loves "Gossip Girl" 
books, the TV show "Desperate Housewives" and digging through the 
clothing racks at H&M stores with her friends.  Fanny earns straight 
A's, and with no gifted classes she sometimes doodles in her journal 
while waiting for others to catch up.  She often helps lagging 
classmates. "It's fun to have time to relax a little in the middle of 
class," Fanny says. Finnish educators believe they get better overall 
results by concentrating on weaker students rather than by pushing 
gifted students ahead of everyone else. The idea is that bright 
students can help average ones without harming their own progress..

The article also suggests the value of a welfare state without a heavy 
hand, unlike the US where we get the heavy hand without the welfare -- 
at least in education.

The article also mentions the obvious fact that there are fewer 
disparities in education and income levels among Finns.  Also

.Each school year, the U.S. spends an average of $8,700 per student, 
while the Finns spend $7,500. Finland's high-tax government provides 
roughly equal per-pupil funding, unlike the disparities between Beverly 
Hills public schools, for example, and schools in poorer districts. The 
gap between Finland's best- and worst-performing schools was the 
smallest of any country in the PISA testing. The U.S. ranks about 
average."





-- 
Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
michaelperelman.wordpress.com
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