Finnish Way Learning the

Picture this—a simple classroom with tables, chairs, and little, if anything, on the walls. There is a teacher and there are children in the room who are engaged and working independently. They wear socks, slippers, or Crocs. (Shoes are removed when entering the building.) Snowsuits are lined up neatly on the floor. It is quiet and calm.

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This was a classroom observed by three of our Lower School teachers, Mary Ellen Reese, Meghan Rinehart, and Mary Strawderman. As professional development, they recently traveled to Finland to attend the LIFE2023 conference in Helsinki and Rovaniemi, along with more than 150 participants, including 52 other educators from 26 countries.

Back in the classroom, four-year-olds move to their neatly arranged snowsuits to dress for the requisite outdoor time (Finnish students are required to go outside for 15 minutes every hour, regardless of the weather). Without adult assistance, students don their own cold-weather gear, zipping zippers and buttoning buttons. They talk amongst themselves quietly and move to the outside door, where they replace their indoor shoes with boots and tidily align their shoes before heading out for fresh air.

Every student in the school is outside playing. There are two teachers outside with the children. There is order, not chaos. Inside, the teachers use the 15 minutes to talk, collaborate, and prepare.

“What really struck me was the simplicity, the calm,” said Reese. The conference was modeled after the typical Finnish school day. “There were short lessons, a speaker or discussion, or an invited guest,” Rinehart explained. “Then we would go outside for a walk or a snowmobile ride. That is so much the Finnish way, being outside, out in the world, together. You can go to a conference in the U.S. and sit for four or five hours with your laptop. We never sat for longer than 45 minutes.”

The typical Finnish school day runs from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with a 15-minute break every hour. This varies by school, just as it does in the U.S., but it is, in fact, the shortest school day in the world. The youngest students go to school for 21 lessons each week. The school day increases slightly in the middle and upper schools.

Finnish students lead the world in math scores, yet they only have math three times a week. Finnish writing and reading are the only classes held every day. Woodworking and home economics are also required. The rest of the subjects typically meet three times a week. Education and athletics are separate. Formal education happens at school, while sports programs are hosted through private clubs.

So how do they fit it all in? Rinehart said the children were incredibly independent, including the youngest students. They’re focused on reading, writing, math, and being children. That’s where the simplicity of the Finnish system comes into play.

Students walk or bike to school by themselves in all weather. “We didn’t see a single parent in any of the schools we visited,” said Rinehart. “Children, including little ones, emerged from the woods or rode in on bikes, many wearing reflective vests. No parents walked their children to school.” When she asked an administrator what Finnish parent involvement was like, they answered that Finnish working life is very demanding and that the school would never expect their parents to be present during the work day. Children are trusted and given responsibility at a very early age.

The conference included numerous school and classroom visits, including hands-on learning activities. Reese took P.E. and snowshoed up a mountain. Rinehart made a blueberry pie in home economics. (Finnish students learn how to forage for the berries in the woods.) “We had the opportunity to be the student,” said Strawderman. “I took woodworking and learned to whittle. I made a butter spoon using a knife, a burning tool for decoration, and a saw. Woodworking is part of Finnish culture and is taught to all students. Even small students use these tools.” Strawderman commented about the learning, “You could see them use their problem-solving skills to figure things out. They were learning so much more than woodworking.”

What did they take back from the conference and into their classrooms? A lot. “Right away, I started looking at the very start of the classroom day,” said Strawderman. Before the conference, students came into my classroom and did paperwork first thing. I thought about the why. ‘Why am I doing it this way? Is there a better way to start the day?’ I thought about what students like to do when they first come to school: talk to each other. With that in mind, students now start the day exploring bins that stimulate thinking and spur exploration and conversation. I can apply what I teach in the classroom to the morning’s exploration. It’s little tweaks of trying things like that that are happening.”

Strawderman also commented about how attending the conference has made her think about how she asks her students questions. “I’m now asking questions to bring about deeper thinking, like ‘How will that solve your problem? What is the strategy?’” She added that while those are things she’d asked in the past, she now adds questions like, “What do you think is working? How can you fix it?” Then she lets students know to keep working on things and she’ll check back in with them. “Instead of saying, ‘Get your personal dictionary,’ I’m working now to say, ‘What tools do you have to solve this yourself?’ It’s more the mindset of making sure I’m making them be the thinker.” Rinehart added:

I think it’s important for teachers and families to understand that an experience like this allows us to immerse ourselves in the same ways that we ask of our students. We want our students out in the world experiencing everything and living. We keep talking about them having a global mindset and wanting them to be independent. When you have an opportunity to go out into the world and meet people who think differently and do things differently than you do, you are fostering those same qualities in yourself. I think there is tremendous value to that, especially for those of us who want to be catalysts for moving the school and the students forward.

“We laughed. We cried. We triumphed. We came back,” said Reese. “This was an amazing learning experience. We realize it was a gift and an opportunity—and we soaked up every second of it.”