Finland (a Nordic country, but arguably not a Scandinavian one), does a pretty good job at education. I was reminded of that when I found this article that provides a wonderful description of the educational philosophy in Finland. The article explains the Finn’s belief that less is more and how that manifests itself in terms of educational excellence. The whole culture seems to be permeated with the idea that less is more and in some cases I am sure that is true. The article suggests that philosophy is applied to everything. Whether that is good or bad is a point of contention, sometimes more really is more and better such as in faith, grace, love and Texas. Nevertheless, I certainly believe the less is more philosophy really is better when it comes to education–especially when compared to how government and other traditional schools do it here in the United States.

The funny deal is that with far and away the best educational system in the Nordic countries, Finland embraces and facilitates homeschooling while the other countries have much worse educational systems coupled with backward and draconian, bordering on barbaric, homeschool laws. The Asian/Tiger Mom model gets great test results but it has been argued that it drains the creativity out of its students after ten or so years of rote memorization and formulaic learning while the minimalistic, homeschooling Finnish model does not.

In reading this, I like to think, maybe, my Finnish roots animated some of our educational decisions. At least that is going to be my story.

Betty Blonde #307 – 09/21/2009
Betty Blonde #307
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