Note: this post is part of the Skimbaco Legacy Series, posts from Skimbaco Lifestyle, an online magazine I founded in 2007. I wanted to keep this to reflect back.
I am an immigrant who has two lands, which means no lands when you speak up about the differences between the two. As my husband says, this is the post that could also be called “minus 2,000 Twitter followers”. There are always two sides, and like with everything else in life, I recommend trying to improve the bad ones, and enjoy the good ones.
Each year when the results of the PISA test implemented by OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) come out and Finland scores as the nation having the best education in the world, there is wonder how a small country tucked in the Northern corner of Europe can do it. The high level of education in Finland was also featured in the 2010 documentary film Waiting for “Superman” about America’s troubled public schools.
I wanted to add this time my personal opinion after reading the article “Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful?” in the Smithsonian magazine.
While I am profoundly proud of my country making the headlines on such an important issue as education, I have also been impressed with many things in the American school system. I have been in the privileged position to experience the now world-famous Finnish school system, while my own children are experiencing the school in the United States. I am not worried for my children's education, nor I wish my children went to school in Finland any more than I wish they could experience all other Finnish traditions. Of course I would love my children to experience it all, but I love where we are right now, and it is very unlikely we will ever move back to Finland - not even for schools. (Added note in 2025: we did in fact move to Finland for schools, for higher education. )
I have gathered a lot of information about Finnish school system, and possible reasons why the kids in Finland could be the "smartest in the world". Some of it might be shocking (children are taught sex education and religion), some of it might be unbelievable (children spend only 30 minutes a day making homework, and have shorter school days) .
As someone who has gone through Finnish school system for 15 years, I was stunned when I moved to America and entered a college here to continue my studies, and saw the (low) level of education first hand. The math class in college bored me to death, I had already taken that level of math during my first year of high school.
Many people who criticize the Finnish education point out the homogeneous class rooms and lack of diversity making it easier to teach and get the high results. Ironically, the “book smarts” I had learned in Finland were about world history, religion, geography and social studies etc. made it easy for me to have a conversation with many Americans with diverse cultural backgrounds when I moved here.
At the same time, the lack of understanding anything about life in Europe was obvious when many people here were approaching me with questions like “how civilized is Finland”, “do you have popcorn in Finland”, “have you ever heard we had this president called Kennedy” not to mention “where is Finland”, “where is Europe” and “what is Scandinavia”.
While I certainly didn’t expect people to have much knowledge of my home nation Finland, at least I sort of expected people to know the capital of France, or that Coca-Cola had made it to Europe. Remember – these were my first impressions, when I moved to the US arrogantly straight-from-school from the glorious “best schools in the world”.
While I believe the Finnish education is good for pouring information in from various subjects (many not taught in American schools), what makes it tremendously better is that the school days are short, and children won’t enter school until 7 years old, and play, crafts and skills like woodwork, sewing, crochet and knitting are also taught and the hand skills are considered as important as book smarts.
Also in PE I did horseback riding, ping pong, wall climbing, skiing (downhill and cross country), swimming, ice skating, gymnastics and several other types of sports because part of the education is to teach you a variety of ways to enjoy sports. We played team sports, but there is no team sports in schools like in the US. So the education was much more than “book smarts”, the education was preparing us for life.
One of the most important lessons I learned in college in Finland was that school was never going to be the place for me to learn everything I needed to know in life, in business and in workforce. My professors emphasized again and again that they wanted to teach us problem solving skills, not answers to problems, they wanted us to learn where and how to find information, not how to memorize it by heart.
I learned to learn from everything I did, saw or experienced. I learned the skills to absorb knowledge and how to apply the information I had learned.
I used to say “you can graduate from college in the US if you play football but you can’t graduate high school in Finland unless you speak three different languages” and my opinion of American education was not very high.
Now I have learned, there is no such thing as “American education”, every school in every district is different and the quality of education varies from one side of town to other one, not to mention from state to state. There are a lot of very bad schools, and many amazing schools, but the problem is that there is such a big difference in between.
There are many things I wish I had learned in Finnish schools. The confidence that Americans have, the public speaking and debating skills and the entrepreneurial spirit and support for such spirit. Maybe even the team spirit that American school sports have – I never witnessed anything like that in even nearly in the same scale in Finland as here in the US.
I like that American schools start early with the “show and tell” and teaching children to speak up and be in the front of people. Finnish children are taught to be quiet and they are not given an opportunity to speak up often. Obviously I had a big problem with that when growing up.
I love how Americans treat children with much more respect to their individual needs and skills. Of course that’s not all thanks to school, it’s cultural, but for example my children have their school art work displayed in local art galleries and coffee shops and the way their work is appreciated is something I didn’t see often in Finland. I can see how the American education is boosting my children’s confidence in a way I my confidence was never boosted in Finland. Which seems contradictory considering the high testing environment and the competition American schools have.
Also, while play is an important part, and children in Finland don’t get as much homework as the students here do, it is not uncommon that Finnish children walk to school alone from early age, carrying a home key in their necks, and a cell phone in their pockets. While all this “play is important” stuff is emphasized, the culture still expects many children to grow up faster than their American counterparts.
I am OK that my 11 year old is still more of “a child” than “mini adult” or “pre-teen” and that she learns about confidence by doing things she excels, instead of independence because nobody is there for her.
My children also go to a school where there is a vast variety of children from different cultural and racial backgrounds. I can count the students that were different racial or cultural background than me with my one hand’s fingers during the entire first 12 years of school in Finland. We were the sarahpalins of Europe; we read books about other cultures and other languages and religions without having any real experience of any of them.
While I agree, the education is needed, but so is the experience, and unfortunately as “book smart” as Finns are, many of them have very racist opinions and they are not as tolerant as “highly educated” people should be in my opinion.
The school system in Finland is homogenous, well-structured, and supported by a culture that is very pro-education. Finland holds the largest percentage of college-educated people in Europe — every third person has a tertiary degree.
There are still some very surprising things the Finns are doing differently.
Children in Finland start school at age 7, and the first two grades normally have days of only about 4 hours. Even in high school, only students who want to take extra classes have a 30-hour school week. Schools do not offer after-school activities — if children want to do sports, arts, or other activities, it all happens outside of school.
Even though high schools do not have football teams or cheerleaders, all students are required to attend PE classes 3–4 times a week. Even physical education is education: teaching children a variety of sports. I remember classes in horseback riding, spinning, ping pong, wall climbing, and golf in high school. Every student has to learn to ski, ice skate, swim, and play basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey, among many other sports. Knowing sports is considered part of the general education everyone should have.
School classes are 45–50 minutes long, followed by a short 5–10 minute recess. It is mandatory to go outside, except when it’s colder than –13°F. The outdoor air is believed to let your “brain air out” and make learning easier. Lunch recess offers an additional 20–30 minutes of outdoor play.
The kids finish their homework, which usually takes far less time than for children in the U.S. They don’t even have half the amount of homework American students do. Shorter days and less homework leave much more time for personal development — or for watching those subtitled TV shows.
Cable and satellite TV are not as common in Finland as they are in the U.S. Most families have only 4–5 TV channels, and the average screen time of a Finnish child is much shorter than that of an American child.
While TV offerings might be limited, technology is advanced. Most children have their own computers and cell phones from elementary school onward. Even foreign languages are taught in high-tech language studios, which can record and play back pronunciation exercises.
Students in Finland start studying English in 3rd grade, Swedish in 7th grade, and other languages such as German, Italian, Russian, or French in 8th grade.
American athletes can graduate from college just by playing football, but Finnish students have to master at least three languages by the time they finish high school.
Finnish people read a lot. Most families subscribe to a newspaper and regularly visit libraries. Libraries are well stocked, and even the smallest towns have one. Reading and learning more is something most Finns want to do, not just something they have to do.
The Finnish language is one of the most difficult to learn as an adult. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric language group, and there are not many languages in the world with a similar structure. However, Finnish is one of the easiest languages for native speakers to learn to read and write. It is phonetic — words are written exactly as they are said.
Think about it: no long or short vowels, no silent letters. This makes learning to write much easier for children, and it’s no wonder they don’t need to start school at age 5 — they catch up to American students in reading and writing within just one year.
High school isn’t even mandatory, even though most children attend it. Only nine years of education are compulsory in Finland. After those nine years, students can also choose to study trades such as hairdressing or car mechanics in a variety of vocational schools.
High school in Finland is like junior college in the U.S., and it’s required to enter universities and colleges.
The highlight of high school is the matriculation examination, where all the subjects taught during the entire duration of high school are tested. Students must take several tests, most of them lasting six hours, requiring logical thinking and knowledge across multiple subjects. Languages are also tested with listening components.
Only the foreign language tests include a few multiple-choice questions, but in general, multiple-choice tests are very rare in Finnish schools.
There are only a handful of private elementary or middle schools in the entire country, and children attend the school nearest to where they live. The same quality of education is guaranteed regardless of the student’s background.
After high school, students can apply to colleges or universities. Both overall grades and matriculation exam results are considered, and most schools have their own entrance tests focusing on their specific specialties.
While getting into top universities and colleges is not easy, higher education is still available to everyone regardless of wealth. Tuition is free, and the government even pays students a small monthly stipend. There’s no pressure to get scholarships — everyone has equal opportunities to pursue higher education.
I studied engineering in a technical college, and my entrance exams included higher math, physics, and English. Yes, you already had to know advanced math to get into the school.
My school was Swedish-speaking, and I majored in production management in an English-taught study group. If I wanted to take classes outside my curriculum, I had to take them in Swedish — for example, my Spanish classes were taught in Swedish. My native language is Finnish, and my school didn’t offer any classes taught in Finnish.
There are a few things many people think children shouldn’t be “exposed” at school. In Finland, they think children should learn about everything at school and have a wide knowledge of not just of their corner of the world, but the world in general.
The subject matters in this post are very controversial to many in the USA.
90% of Finnish people are Christian. The country’s national holidays are Christian Holidays.
The Christianity is taught in every school, starting from first grade, but most people do not go to church on a regular basis. The president doesn’t preach Christian issues in her speech, and never says “God bless Finland”.
The religious education is not mandatory, parents can also choose a “life studies” instead of religious studies for their children. The difference between the two is that Christian base values and the history of Christianity isn’t taught as deeply in the “life studies” as in religion classes – in both classes Finnish children are also taught about all the other main religions of the world.
In fact when I went to school in Finland, my religion teacher was an atheist – an atheist with a vast information of all religions. She was never trying to tell us, which one would be better than another.
It is civic knowledge to know about different cultures and religions of the world, and thus be part of everyone’s education. Even Christianity is never taught “this the way things go” and “this is the right answer to… ” – it’s more like “we Christians believe…, but many other people believe…”. Leaving it to the students to make their own assessments and decisions.
Hare Krishna is discussed the same way as Christianity, with the same respect. Maybe it is the respect the students get that makes them smarter – teachers are not just trying to teach them the one and only way things are, but they encourage individual thinking and problem solving.
According to a study made in Princeton University “more religious students are more satisfied with college, study more, and have higher collegeGPAs”, and maybe including religion in the school system in the US would make a difference too. Knowledge also increases tolerance towards different religions and races. The key issue here is that one religion should not be taught as the one and only answer.
The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly said, “[i]t might well be said that one’s education is not complete without a study of comparative religion, or the history of religion and its relationship to the advancement of civilization.”
Surprisingly for a Christian nation, Darwin’s Evolution Theory is taught at Finnish schools and given more time as for Adam and Eve.
Evolution, Creek philosophers, world history including Roman history to industrial history and history of China to memorizing American presidents – all taught in Finnish schools.
Finnish schools offer sex education and it shows in the teenage pregnancy rates.
While people opposing sex education at schools might now think “I knew it! The teen pregnancies must be high when sex education is offered”, think again.
The whole point of sex education is to teach adolescent to make informed choices about their actions. Sex education also teaches teenagers to protect themselves against abuse, exploitation, unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS.
Wouldn’t you want your child to be protected from these?
Sex education helps to prevent unwanted pregnancies and infection with sexually transmitted diseases. The teen pregnancy rate in Finland is 20 teenager pregnancies per 1000 teenage girls (2%), while the same rate in the United States is four times more, close to 80/1000 (8%). The teen abortion rate in Finland is 9,5% compared to 29,2% in the United States. Abortion is legal in Finland with strict regulations.
While Finnish kids think it would be such a novelty to have french fries, pizza or even pb&j sandwiches for school lunch, that’s all those so-common American lunch foods are in Finland: rarely eaten novelties. These foods also have another name, commonly known here in the US too: junk.
The studies show nutritious diet will make children smarter. Starting from the baby food, when breast is the best: breast milk enhances brain development and improved cognitive development.Most mothers in Finland breastfeed their babies, and it is easier achieved even for working moms, the maternity leave is over 3 months and even after that parents can have 6 months of parent leave (either one, mother or father can take it), and legal childcare leave (meaning employees have to give the job back) until the child is three years old.
Schools in Finland have a free lunch from elementary school to high school. The school lunch might not be high gourmet, but it offers a well balanced diet with varieties of foods, including liver-based foods – hey I know what you’re thinking, but liver is a great source of vitamin A!
Fish is also a weekly treat at Finnish schools – coincidently fish contains omega-3 fatty acids and is brain food at its best*.
Sugar in children’s diets is a big no-no. Especially on school days, and a very common Finnish tradition is to have karkkipäivä, candy day, once a week on Saturdays. Kids get their sugar high once a week, and rest of the time they don’t eat candy or other sweets. Think candy day like getting drunk on the weekends and keeping the weekdays sober. (Oh, that reminds of another Finnish tradition, perjantaipullo, Friday bottle, which normally is vodka, and helps to de-stress. Maybe candy day is a way to get kids used to this other Finnish tradition. S not all well-meaning traditions endup being that great.)
No categorizing, no advanced student groups. The gaps between the weakest and strongest students are smaller than in the U.S. However, highly gifted students don’t receive special treatment either, and sometimes their full potential can’t blossom.
There aren’t as many competitions. There are annual sports or math competitions, but succeeding in them doesn’t seem to be a big deal. There isn’t much competition between students — at least not encouraged by the educational system.
No school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians.
And very little cultural diversity. The student population is quite homogenous — no major racial, religious, or socioeconomic differences. Even wealth gaps in Finland are small. There are hardly any extremely poor people, nor the ridiculously rich.
I much rather have my children to experience and get to know different people, cultures and religions first hand, than just read about them in books. And even though every school year I get disappointed in several things that I see in the schools my children enter here, and my children read more novels in school than books about history or science, they still impress me with their smarts on daily basis.
I like the communication between teacher and parents, the PTAs and the after school events and activities. Also, the science projects with so much free expression impress me. My children also watched chicks to hatch from eggs, had a pet and watched plants grow right in their class room. Sure, they may lack in the amount of books they read at school, but I like the hands on learning.
I know that I could do better as a mom, I could home school, or continue teaching children after they come home from school at 3:30 each day, but the words of my college professor are deeply imprinted in my brain and I rather teach children problem solving skills and where to find the information and how to apply it when needed than learning everything by heart.
I like that this culture is as much about entrepreneurial spirit, eagerness to find and live your passion, as about book smarts and degrees. I want my children to have the education, but education alone isn’t enough in today’s society, and I feel I need to teach my children first how to live.
When I told this to my kids and referred that we will try to travel and do other things this school year as much as we can, my daughter answered “you can’t miss days in middle school, because they teach something new like every week”.
I rest my case.
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