re: #13 Obdicut

[Link: www.openeducation.net…]

Interesting:

It is interesting to note that one of the most notable attributes of Finnish children is their level of personal responsibility. The early focus on self-reflection is seen as a key component for developing that level of responsibility towards learning.

And here is where the difference lies, IMO, between most students in the public school system, and students whose parents do whatever they can to send them to a private school. The “private school parents” have an incentive to require their kids to be personally responsible, because the parents are sacrificing much, in many cases, to pay that tuition.

The second item goes along with what Bob Levin was saying:

While there is little grading and in essence no tracking in Finland, ninth grade does become a divider for Finnish students. Students are separated for the last three years of high school based on grades. Under the current structure, 53% will go to academic high school and the rest enter vocational school.

Using that format, Finland has an overall high-school dropout rate of about 4%. Even at the vocational schools the rate of 10% pummels America’s 25% high school drop out rate.

There is no silly “college for all” mantra and there certainly isn’t a push to have all students sit through a trigonometry class if that is not relevant to the student.

Another interesting thing my daughter’s private school did was have 3 “tracks” - the honors/advanced placement; the regular college prep; and then a track for those who were not planning to attend college but planned to go to vocational school or whatever after HS.

The third item:

Whereas higher education in Finland levels the socioeconomic playing field, higher education in America currently exacerbates existing social disparities and inequalities. In America, a parent’s income becomes a key component of the higher education process.

This is halfway true. For folks in a state like Louisiana, college tuition at a state university is affordable. I gave you LSU’s per-semester tuition above (about $3200 per semester). That is for LSU in Baton Rouge, which is the MOST expensive of the colleges in the LSU system. Students with acceptable grade-point averages (not sure what the low end is on that - 2.8 or 3.0) can get their tuition covered through the State’s “TOPS” program, where the state pays the student’s tuition as long as they maintain their GPA. So the students here who want to go to college, who make the grades needed to imply serious study and who can maintain those study habits, can go to college for nothing but a few non-covered fees and their book costs.