Two Takes: The Smartest Kids in the World
by Gene Perry and John Thompson | August 28th, 2014 | Posted in Blog, Education | Comments (0) |
Early next month, the education advocacy group Stand for Children Oklahoma is hosting a lunch with keynote speaker Amanda Ripley, a journalist and author of the recent non-fiction book, “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way.” Ripley’s book looks at how the US education system compares to Finland, South Korea, and Poland — three countries where students excel on an international test of critical thinking skills. In this comparison, Oklahoma plays a prominent role.Today on the blog, we present two takes on the book. The first essay, by Oklahoma Policy Institute’s Policy Director Gene Perry, discusses how Ripley’s findings show that Oklahoma may be getting the schools we really want. The second essay, by education writer and former teacher John Thompson, argues that Ripley’s book leaves out a deeper understanding of school reform in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma may be getting the schools we really want
Gene Perry is Policy Director of Oklahoma Policy Institute
Getting an accurate picture of a nation’s education system from the outside is no easy task. In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way”, Amanda Ripley describes the challenge “A stranger who parachutes into a faraway country ends up, as the Koreans would say, ‘licking the outside of a watermelon,’ unable to get beneath the surface into what matters.” To get a deeper perspective on these foreign systems Ripley conducted numerous interviews of educators, parents, officials, and others connected to the school system. But her primary entry point was through the experiences of three American exchange students, who got to experience firsthand the differences in education.
From Oklahoma to Finland
Kim, a Sallisaw native whose year as an exchange student in Finland was chronicled in the book
One of those students was Kim, who traveled from Sallisaw, Oklahoma at age 15 to spend the 2010-2011 school year in Finland. Kim had long felt out of place in Sallisaw. She was a curious and intelligent girl who didn’t share most of her classmates’ and teachers’ enthusiasm for football. Her urge to experience something else was so strong that she funded her trip to Finland in part by selling beef jerky and Rice Krispies Treats door-to-door.
Finland is not exactly what she expects. Despite its reputation as being the best school system in the world, she finds simple no-frills classrooms. There were no high-tech whiteboards or other gadgets that have become common in American schools. Students also have plenty of free time and independence. There were no regularly scheduled parent-teacher conferences. A teacher would just meet with a student to resolve problems rather than bringing in the parents. And the students behave like normal teenagers in Oklahoma, with one big difference. They all, without very few exceptions, took school seriously.
Teachers in Finland were also given more independence and respect. They were paid better, had strong union protections, and they didn’t face the strict curriculum standards or test-based accountability that have swept through American schools in recent years. They also faced a much higher bar to Two Takes: The Smartest Kids in the World: