Maybe it isn’t just the teachers in Finland

[eridani]

http://washingtonpolicywatch.org/2013/06/11/maybe-it-isnt-just-the-teachers-in-finland/

Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, the esteemed Finnish educator, scholar and speaker who visited Seattle this past November to discuss the applicability of Finland’s education system to Washington state, recently proposed an interesting idea in a column for The Washington Post: what if, in a perfect world, we simply supplanted Finnish educators – who are considered among the best in the world – to Indiana schools? Would Indiana all of a sudden become the world’s bastion of academic success?

The answer – unsurprisingly – is no.

While Dr. Sahlberg is quick to note the importance of adequate training for teachers, he condemns the notion that “poverty is only an excuse not to insist that all schools should reach higher standards.” In his mind, children should be elevated out of poverty by public policy, and “teachers alone, regardless of how effective they are, will not be able to overcome the challenges that poor children bring with them to school everyday.”