Thom Hartmann: Can we steal the "Finland Phenomenon" for our schools?

A new study by the American Journal of Public Health takes a look at how certain social factors contribute to early deaths. Looking at just the year 2000 - the study found that 245,000 Americans died from causes directly related to low education. In comparison, according to FBI crime data - just over 15,000 Americans were murdered in the year 2000. That means nearly 15 times as many Americans died because they failed to achieve adequate levels of education than were killed in acts of homicide. And out of the 34 OECD nations - American high school students currently rank 14th for reading skills - 17th for science - and 25th for math skills. Yet - Republicans don't hesitate to gut public education with spending cuts and by waging war on teachers unions nationwide. But Finland's educations system has consistently ranked number one in world. So what are the Fins doing right - and what can we learn from them? Joining Thom to answer these questions is documentary filmmaker Bob Compton, whose new film "The Finland Phenomenon" offers a fascinating look into the world's best education system.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Thom Hartmann
• Big Picture
• theBigPictureRT
• RTAmerica
• RT America
• Bob Compton
• filmmaker
• The Finalnd Phenomenon
• schools
• public education
• teachers unions
• Finland
• homicide

[dendoiii]

@bewere007 Man, fuck you. YOU don't know anything about Finland... if you compare Finland to America, America is about 10 times more racist and facist and wild, than Finland in any way.

[susannapoysti]

I am proud to be a Finn! If you are from Finland check out my channel!

[TutTutOpenSesame]

@jonahl1 Yeah. I don't really care for sports and think sometimes a school could go too far w/ accepting students and giving scholarship money because of it, but in most cases there's a min GPA in order to play, so very athletic kids with bad grades aren't getting these scholarships. What I was saying before is that it's important to get involved. IDK about Finland, but US schools don't just want to see good grades on a college app, but also involvement in clubs, sports, community service, etc.

[jonahl1]

@TutTutOpenSesame We don't really have scholarships. It's propably because we have free education for everyone. Even our universities are free. And I have actually find it somehow funny that some athlete can get scholarship for university even if he doesn't care to study. School is for learning and after school you are free to do what ever you want.

[TutTutOpenSesame]

@jonahl1I always loved art. I wouldn't want my school to cut art, and I wouldn't like it if my school told me "You should just do art outside of school if you like it so much." I don't think it's any fairer to do the same to the athletes. As I said I DON'T think high schools should have $60 mil football stadiums, but I do think they should give students opportunities to play sports. Also, I don't know about Finland, but in the US you can't get a scholarship for playing sports outside of school.

[jonahl1]

@TutTutOpenSesame In Finland we don't spend $60 million on football stadiums because we have found better solution. We divide our sports. We play hockey, football (soccer), finnish baseball, ski, orienteering etc. And most of these sports doesn't cost much to do. And if we really like to play hockey for example we play it outside the school more. Most of the Finns plays hockey and soccer in teams after school. In my opinion school is school and you play sports after school.

[159tony]

no you cannot. the american teen population think too low of their education.

[SarahLee1]

@BobOwner It depends where you live in Canada (it's a huge land mass spanning 3 oceans). Where I live (Toronto), I imagine it's much warmer than in Scandinavia.

[BobOwner]

@SarahLee1 Canada is colder to do the Golf Stream warming Scandinavia up

[SarahLee1]

I would totally move to a Scandinavian country except it's too cold! I already live in Canada and it's too cold here lol

[TutTutOpenSesame]

While I definitely don't think that high schools should have $60 million football stadiums, I think it's important to give students ample opportunity in extra curricular activities. Yes, of course the primary concern should be academics, but school shouldn't just be a place where you go to class and then go home everyday. In fact, students that participate in extra curriculars do better in school than students who don't.