Opinion: First across the 'Finnish' line

America should learn from Finland's education system

found a way to provide a meaningful education to its thousands of students and allow them to have a life outside of school.

Finnish Core Curriculum.

It's time for American schools to catch up to the finish line — or rather, the Finnish line. Finland's education system is miles ahead of America's because it was constructed to have a genuinely positive impact on its students and teachers, not just to make a profit.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over one-third of high school students living in the U.S. reported feelings of continuous sadness or hopelessness. Unfortunately, this is not a surprising fact considering the pressure that many teenagers experience due to high expectations to get into college and the lack of resources for mental health. Modern school systems are too similar to corporations for comfort; many try to create fictitious success stories, which can be seen through the 2019 college admissions scandal, and maximize income rather than equal opportunity.

On the contrary, Finland has

One of the main reasons for the overall satisfaction with Finnish schools is the positive environment that is created for students of all skill levels. According to the World Economic Forum, an international organization, there is no standardized testing in Finland, so unlike in other countries, the anxiety of being judged solely based on a single exam is little to nonexistent. In addition, Finnish students are graded on an individual standard upon which the teachers decide whether they have made progress or not.

Their policies such as the fair grading system, or even just the later start time, can make all the difference in a student's educational experience.

Another factor to consider are the teachers, who have an immense impact on students' attitudes toward school. Many schools in America suffer from understaffed classrooms, which causes kids to be taught by underqualified teachers or substitutes.

The standard is very different in Finland, where becoming a teacher is a rigorous journey because they only want the best of the best to be influencing the younger generations.

Sari Muhonen is a teacher for all grades and helped write the 2014

"It was harder to gain entry to the University of Helsinki's teacher education program (6.8% acceptance rate) than the law program (8.3% acceptance rate) or the medical program (7.3% acceptance rate) in 2016," Muhonen said during an interview with The Hechinger Report.

According to the Illinois News Bureau, of the 663 school districts in America that responded to their survey, 88% stated that they were having teacher shortages. The lack of teacher employment in America often correlates with the low pay and societal respect for this specific career.

"The massive shortages we are seeing are the result of many factors," said Sharita Forrest, an education editor from the University of Illinois. "Years of deprofessionalizing the field through inadequate pay; unstable long-term retirement benefits; stressed, overtaxed expectations on educators and schools; and unsafe, under-resourced work environments weakened the profession."

On the other hand, in Nordic countries, teachers are seen on the same elite platform as doctors and lawyers, which is something that should be normalized in all countries across the world.

Finland is living proof that in terms of education for young children and adolescents, the endless cycle of long school days and a stacked Advanced Placement (AP) class schedules is not the solution. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the American high school graduation rate had reached its peak of 86% in 2019. In contrast, the Finnish high school graduation rate has remained consistently above 93% since.

Not only do students in Finland find success in school, but beyond that as well. Due to the flexible education system, teenagers are more likely to pursue something of their interest rather than following the one-way street that is paved for many kids in the U.S. Finnish students are only required to have nine years of education. What this means is that rather than the government continuing to profit from keeping high schoolers through unnecessary years of mentally-grueling work, students can choose to move forward with university plans, go straight to work, or do something they are passionate about.

If students continue on the path of attending college, it gets even better. Finnish universities are free. In contrast, America thrives in a world where only the most privileged are handed opportunities, whereas Finland values a fair and personalized education experience, as it should be.

"If you only measure the statistics, you miss the human aspect," said Timo Heikkinen, a Helsinki principal, during an interview with the Smithsonian Magazine.

Over one-third of high schoolers in the United States reported feelings of long-term hopelessness, which most often correlates with the lack of support provided by their school system. Many find it difficult to stay motivated in school, especially when it feels as if they are a speck among thousands of students being taught through the same methods with no regards to their personal preferences. Furthermore, one test or grade should not be stressed as the defining factor in the trajectory of someone's life.

If anything, Finnish schools teach America that success is not about fitting into a certain box with predetermined standards. Children should be able to have equal opportunities with teachers and peers whom they look up to. By setting Finland's education policies as a guideline, the U.S. will greatly improve student wellbeing. After all, although no schools are perfect, the ones in Finland come pretty close.

Austin Li

It's the year 2030, and you're at your local grocery store. Clerks and lines are no longer there. Items chosen by customers are instantly placed into an online cart and paid for through mobile apps, rendering human employees useless. New technologies, motion cameras, and advanced forms of artificial intelligence have replaced them.

Don't believe me? Just look at AmazonGo, a grocery store in Seattle that has already implemented all of these things. As crazy as it is, automation is taking over the world. According to recent studies, the U.S. is home to over 300,000 industrial robots, increasing by 40,000 each year. Technology is creating new jobs and innovation opportunities. However, they are also eliminating old ones. According to Forbes, automation can potentially eliminate 73 million U.S. jobs by 2030, equating to a staggering 46% of the current jobs.

The McKinsey Global Institute recently created models predicting jobs that will disappear and develop. Automated jobs like mechanics, machine operators, finance, and accounting will all decline, while professional, managerial, and creative positions will remain.

This then places pressure on our educational system to effectively prepare future generations for an ever-evolving world, something it has failed to do. No matter the profession, the basic competencies will always be needed - language skills, computation, analysis, and civic education. Yet even today, the U.S. is not effectively fostering these skills within young minds.

Recent research by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation found that only one-third of native-born Americans could correctly answer the basic civics questions required to achieve U.S. citizenship. Other standardized tests revealed that U.S. students are outperformed in math, science, and reading by their counterparts in numerous other nations.

Additionally, as our job market evolves, soft skills such as critical thinking, creativity, adaptability, and collaborative problem-solving are more important than ever. High schools should prioritize finding ways to ensure students master both soft and hard skills, yet they aren't. Sorry to break it to you, but tedious lectures and taking notes on the industrial revolution or poetry-analysis are not necessarily the skills of the "future." Instead, schools should encourage students to embark on passion projects where creativity and curiosity run wild.

Consider Quest to Learn (Q2L), a high school in New York where students engage in quests and tackle real-world problems together. At Q2L, biotech-centered students spend the majority of their time working for fiction biotech companies. Similarly, students in the business pathway create startup business plans or learn to trade stocks. By inhabiting the role of biotech scientists or entrepreneurs, they learn hard skills related to their fields while developing soft skills for the future.

Even beyond high school, higher education is becoming less necessary. The nature of college has become flooded. According to studies, when 2% of the population had degrees, graduates enjoyed many opportunities. This percentage has risen to 48%, but the presumption that graduates automatically earn more is no longer true. This is mainly because traditional degrees no longer align with the modern job market making higher education less impactful than before.

At large companies like Google and Apple, some high-level jobs don't require a college degree. This is because soft skills gained from college can be found through cheaper online alternatives such as Coursera, Khan Academy, and Edx. The hard skills necessary today aren't always fostered through a college education.

In no way do I advocate that the traditional domains of education be eliminated. Instead, I encourage the traditional disciplines of math, science, history, and literature to be integrated into real-world practice. This innovative educational philosophy needs to be applied to schools around the nation. At the end of the day, with continuous technological advancements, traditional ways of identifying and cultivating talent and leadership will not be enough. We must find new, radically personalized practices to help every student realize their untapped potential, ideas, and problem-solving capacities. We must prioritize cultivating individual passions, talents, and potential in ways that prepare students for an automizing industry. l