[Otto] Please note that, according to the article, Finnish schools accomplish their great success without the practices you mentioned.
[Arlo] I'm trying to recall what practices I mentioned, other than family-community integration and a cohesive valuing of education that is inclusive of support from families and the larger community. Here is an article that talks about that: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4033593.stm And here is another one, titled "Success of Finnish schoolchildren indicates society's values" (http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=68070).. very MOQish title (and subject), no? From that second article. ""A school is not a separate island of excellence — and there is a lot of room for improvement in schools too. In my opinion, the results of the survey are rather an indication of the values and potential of society. Children and adolescents grow up in an environment where education is highly valued across the board and where there is a high level of preparedness to do work. The value base is never questioned, there is generally a good, non-disruptive atmosphere in which to work, and there is a practical approach in all things," says Holopainen, listing factors behind the success of Finnish schools." [Otto] I wonder if the segregation of students in the United States is to the country's detriment. [Arlo] Fundamentally, I think we as a society need to ask (reaffirm?) what it is we educate for. Dewey comes into play strongly here. Do we education to prepare people for careers? For an informed citizenry regarding voting and democratic duties? For a "liberal" enlightenment going back to the Platonic Academy? All of the above? I've said for years that the root turmoil in the American system is that it can't answer this question, and so it flounders around not really knowing why it is doing what its doing. Moreover, our approach has been Fordist, to turn out good workers to supply the labor needs of our capistocracy. In this model, segregation of interests is not so problematic. Bricklayers-in-training would not need the biology classes would-be-veterinarians would need. (Who wound need poetry? Why do we teach it? Should we teach it just to aspiring poets? Is that a career?) Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
