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To Really Learn, Our Children Need the Power of Play
The U.S. can learn a big lesson from Finlands education system: Instead of stress and standardized testing, schools should focus on well-being and joy
Pasi Sahlberg came to the U.S. as a visiting professor at Harvard University, and William Doyle moved to Finland to study its world-renowned school system as a Fulbright scholar. We brought our families with us. And we were stunned by what we experienced.
In Cambridge, Mass., Pasi took his young son to have a look at a potential preschool. The schools director asked for a detailed assessment of the boys vocabulary and numeracy skills.
Why do you need to know this? He is barely 3 years old! Pasi asked, looking at his son, for whom toilet training and breast-feeding were recent memories.
We need to be sure he is ready for our program, replied the director. We need to know if he can keep up with the rest of the group. We need to make sure all children are prepared to make the mark.
Pasi was flummoxed by the bizarre education concept of preschool readiness. Compounding the culture shock was the stunning price tag: $25,000 a year for preschool, compared with the basically free, government-funded daycare-through-university programs that the boy would have enjoyed back in Finland.
Pasi had entered an American school culture that is increasingly rooted in childhood stress and the elimination of the arts, physical activity and playall to make room for a tidal wave of test prep and standardized testing. This new culture was supposed to reduce achievement gaps, improve learning and raise Americas position in the international education rankings. Nearly two decades and tens of billions of dollars later, it isnt working. Yet the boondoggle continues, even as the incidence of childhood mental-health disorders such as anxiety and depression is increasing.
Meanwhile, in Finland, William Doyle entered the school system ranked as #1 in the world for childhood education by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum and Unicefa system built in large part on research pioneered (and increasingly ignored) in the U.S. Rather than pursuing standardized-test data as the Holy Grail of education, Finland focuses on equity, happiness, well-being and joy in learning as the foundations of education.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-really-learn-our-children-need-the-power-of-play-11565262002
Pasi Sahlberg came to the U.S. as a visiting professor at Harvard University, and William Doyle moved to Finland to study its world-renowned school system as a Fulbright scholar. We brought our families with us. And we were stunned by what we experienced.
In Cambridge, Mass., Pasi took his young son to have a look at a potential preschool. The schools director asked for a detailed assessment of the boys vocabulary and numeracy skills.
Why do you need to know this? He is barely 3 years old! Pasi asked, looking at his son, for whom toilet training and breast-feeding were recent memories.
We need to be sure he is ready for our program, replied the director. We need to know if he can keep up with the rest of the group. We need to make sure all children are prepared to make the mark.
Pasi was flummoxed by the bizarre education concept of preschool readiness. Compounding the culture shock was the stunning price tag: $25,000 a year for preschool, compared with the basically free, government-funded daycare-through-university programs that the boy would have enjoyed back in Finland.
Pasi had entered an American school culture that is increasingly rooted in childhood stress and the elimination of the arts, physical activity and playall to make room for a tidal wave of test prep and standardized testing. This new culture was supposed to reduce achievement gaps, improve learning and raise Americas position in the international education rankings. Nearly two decades and tens of billions of dollars later, it isnt working. Yet the boondoggle continues, even as the incidence of childhood mental-health disorders such as anxiety and depression is increasing.
Meanwhile, in Finland, William Doyle entered the school system ranked as #1 in the world for childhood education by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum and Unicefa system built in large part on research pioneered (and increasingly ignored) in the U.S. Rather than pursuing standardized-test data as the Holy Grail of education, Finland focuses on equity, happiness, well-being and joy in learning as the foundations of education.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/to-really-learn-our-children-need-the-power-of-play-11565262002
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To Really Learn, Our Children Need the Power of Play (Original Post)
demmiblue
Nov 2019
OP
appalachiablue
(41,052 posts)1. Finland's education system is the best in the world, for a reason.
And many other advanced nations have modeled their systems on Finland.
Play, exercise, the ARTS and well being are major. Lose the stress and excessive testing.
TRAILER, 'Race to Nowhere.'(2010). Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people across the country who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren't developing the skills they need, and parents who are trying to do what's best for their kids, Race to Nowhere points to the silent epidemic in our schools: cheating has become commonplace, students have become disengaged, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.
Race to Nowhere is a call to mobilize families, educators, and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens. In a grassroots sensation already feeding a groundswell for change, hundreds of theaters, schools and organizations nationwide are hosting community screenings during a six month campaign to screen the film nationwide. Tens of thousands of people are coming together, using the film as the centerpiece for raising awareness, radically changing the national dialogue on education and galvanizing change.
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PBS. Called a 'must-see movie' by The New York Times, Race to Nowhere exposes a silent epidemic plaguing America's schools. The one-hour documentary features the heartbreaking stories of students pushed to the brink by over-scheduling, over-testing and the relentless pressure to achieve, and shines a light on the price that achievement-obsessed kids pay for this 'race to nowhere.'
Mother-turned-filmmaker Vicki Abeles chronicles her own family's intense schedule, taking viewers on an intimate journey into the center of the daily struggle to balance academic commitments and cultural expectations with healthy personal needs. From nights doing homework at the dinner table, to the desks of education and child psychology experts, Race to Nowhere explores whether the current education system properly prepares students to think and work independently, creatively and collaboratively. https://schedule.wttw.com/episodes/303358/Race-to-Nowhere