Friday, April 26, 2019

Book summary: The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way

1. The author compares US education system with that of Finland, South
Korea and Poland - 3 of the best performing countries on the PISA
test.

2. She doesn't spend much time on Poland.

3. South Korean education model comes across as too wasteful since
students pretty much spend their entire day in the school or private
classes afterwards. They don't have a life. But the schools, parents
and society in general stand out for their clear focus on academic
excellence as opposed to US where sports somehow seems to get much
more priority in schools.

4. On parents' involvement - their time is better spent with kids at
home than getting involved in school activities. Children show better
academic results if their parents have been reading to them from a
younger age. While Korean parents act like coaches, Americans act like
cheerleaders - cheering minute achievements and in general setting low
expectations.

5. She clearly picks out Finland as the role model of education
system. Primary reason seems to be tough selection criteria for
becoming a teacher. Since the teachers are damn good - it is easy to
grant them a lot of autonomy - which results in much brighter
students. Again, like South Korea, Finland schools have a very clear
focus on academics but unlike South Korea - the students do have a
life. That's because teacher quality is much superior to that of Korea
- so teachers can achieve much more with the students in much lesser
time.

6. Another feature of US schools/society seems to be that many schools don't have an end-of-year passing exam. That's opposite to Finland/Korea.

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