The Freedom to Teach, The Motivation to Learn

Richard Florida posted this story from the Wall Street Journal about the success of the education system in Finland...

High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don't start school until age 7.

Yet by one international measure, Finnish teenagers are among the smartest in the world. They earned some of the top scores by 15-year-old students who were tested in 57 countries. American teens finished among the world's C students even as U.S. educators piled on more homework, standards and rules. Finnish youth, like their U.S. counterparts, also waste hours online. They dye their hair, love sarcasm and listen to rap and heavy metal. But by ninth grade they're way ahead in math, science and reading -- on track to keeping Finns among the world's most productive ...

Visitors and teacher trainees can peek at how it's done from a viewing balcony perched over a classroom at the Norssi School in Jyväskylä, a city in central Finland. What they see is a relaxed, back-to-basics approach. The school, which is a model campus, has no sports teams, marching bands or prom ...

The Norssi School is run like a teaching hospital, with about 800 teacher trainees each year. Graduate students work with kids while instructors evaluate from the sidelines. Teachers must hold master's degrees, and the profession is highly competitive: More than 40 people may apply for a single job. Their salaries are similar to those of U.S. teachers, but they generally have more freedom. ...

Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards. "In most countries, education feels like a car factory. In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs," says Mr. Schleicher, of the Paris-based OECD, which began the international student test in 2000.

In Finland, teachers have the freedom to actually teach and are able to be creative when planning lessons. This freedom makes teaching a desirable profession. This flexibility and respect of the teaching profession creates a much more desirable classroom for students to grow and learn. Outside of the classroom, the students also seem to have the respect and freedom to pursue their own interests.

In the United States the emphasis is put on standardized tests and accountability. In actuality, students aren't able to learn one thing from a standardized test. The overbearing focus on testing infringes on a teacher's freedom to actually teach and zaps the enjoyment out of learning that each student must develop.

Our priority needs to be on the growth of each student. As a teacher, my students possess many talents. We will be better off, if our education system hones these talents. This encouragement will spark the fire in many more students than a bubble circle ever could. Once immersed into learning, students will develop the creativity and problem solving skills needed to succeed.

Unfortunately today, we don't give teachers the freedom to teach and student don't develop the motivation to learn. We think of students simply as raw materials. We view students as what they are instead of what they can become. And that is is un-American.