Book Review: The Smartest Kids in the World

For book club, I just finished "The Smartest Kids in the World" by Amanda Ripley. She surveys the education systems in Finland, South Korea, and Poland through the eyes of three exchange students, offering her observations on what makes these countries' education systems more successful than our own. Rigor is a concept they all emphasize, as opposed to the moon bounce of shifting standards found in the United States. This is a time when our federalist approach fails us, at times, as seen in the debate about Common Core. I don't know much about this, though I know that the debate extends to places like Indiana which has "rebranded" it, so to speak.

I've long known about the success of Finland, which has outperformed American children for decades. I think their culture of excellence is particularly when it comes to training teachers. We used to joke all of the time in college that "ElEd" was the easy major, particularly popular amongst Holy Cross exchange students who could not hack it in more difficult majors. I don't mean to suggest that so many of my teacher friends are not bright. Quite the contrary: many of them are very talented and great at what they do. But the profession is disserved that so many go into teaching without the proper training and vetting. I can't believe that someone can teach math in junior or senior high without a Math major, for example. Or specialties can be taught by someone without the proper training.

Ripley addresses canards like diversity that the left uses to demonstrate that poor, minority kids can't succeed. Schools with mixes of immigrant population do just fine in Finland, where kids are expected to learn. No excuses. You don't pass the tests, you don't succeed. End of story. I was also impressed that she didn't seem to bring her personal agenda, like squelching NCLB or testing or charters. The BASIS school, which has one in DC, is an example of a successful charter that probably doesn't have a lily white, middle class student body. But its PISA scores are off the charts. She contrasts that with the $30K private DC school that sucks in math and has a struggling football program. I do think she has a point about sports, but that is so ingrained in our culture now.

I wonder if any of the students she profiled will go into teaching? I'd be curious.