We often look to Asia when we're looking for the best education. Singapore and South Korea are consistently high scorers on international tests so we think they must have some good education ideas. It's pretty common knowledge that students there spend more time in school with longer days and more days each year so we automatically assume our students need more time in school. A deeper look, however, will reveal that parents in South Korea are not so happy about education in their country. Most send their children to public school by day and to special programs either online or in what we would call tutorial sessions at night and on week-ends. Those sessions are often longer hours and more rigorous than the public schools. In fact, South Korea now outlaws the tutorials after 10 P.M. for younger students as students will go late into the night every night day after day many times. Many still attempt to operate late illegally. Students often sleep during their public school classes.
Like is often the case here, these schools operate on a "teach to the test" basis. The students come out with little or no ability to do the critical thinking and problem solving needed in the real world but stocked with facts that will be on the test. Educators there are looking toward the U.S. to help them find ways to insure that their students are ready for careers and life skills.
This is why we need to look toward Europe, especially Finland, instead of Asia for solutions to our education problems. We need children who can think for themselves, not children who have been inundated with facts only. We need children who are prepared to enhance their democracy with their ideas, not those who can be easily indoctrinated with the thoughts of others. We need an education system that's fully funded and able to hire the best teachers who are given the freedom to guide their students in a variety of ways toward the goal of happy children with the ability to think.
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