Finland's School Success By Anu Partanen

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The article “Finland's School Success” by the Finnish writer Anu Partanen who actually spilts her time between America and Finland. The emphasis on Finland's success and America looking for new ways to educate is strong. The first example that jumps out is Finnlands ranking of number one in 2010 according to Newsweek. The writer also says ”Finnish students have been turning in some of the highest test scores in the world.”(969) With America lagging behind the tactic of assigning less homework is brought to attention instead of “exhaustive cramming and rote memorization.”(970) The second example Partanen brings to the table is the creativity that Finnish schools acquire. Pasi Sahlberg, one of the leading Finnish authorities on education reform, pointed out that there are no tests only independent assessments of the students. …show more content…
“more equity at home might just be what america needs.”(975) Equity is important to the education in Finland, “real winners do not compete.”(972) Samuel Abrams, a scholar compares Finland to Norway to see if size matters, although Norway is small just like Finland, their education results were mediocre. The question of whether America could change its competitive ways is themed throughout the whole article but clearly brought forward towards the end. The article concluded with talk about the 2 countries and their differences. Seeing as “Finland's population of 5.4 million can be compared to many an American
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