Well, what do you know?!

Many people, around the world, including a good portion of American citizens, acknowledge that the country of Finland has an oustanding education system. The scores of the children indicate high levels of achievement and success. The students certainly stack up favorably with their counterparts in other parts of the world.

What you might find interesting are some inner working about the Finnish system of education. The book "Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland," contains some points that all of us would do well to consider.

Other than one test to assess learning used by the rest of the countries in the world, Finland does not give other standardized tests. In addition, teacher evaluations are not based on test scores. Want more? Finland has no charter schools, no vouchers and they don't have charter schools.

I believe some of the so called 'reformers' in the U.S. would do well to read the book and glean some lessons.

Dick