Where to Invade Next Page #4

Usually I don't really

do homework that much.

The whole term "homework"

is kind of obsolete, I think.

- In that way--

- Moore:
Homework is obsolete?

Yeah, yeah.

In that way that these kids,

they have a lot of other things

to do after school.

- Like what?

- Like being together,

like being with family,

like doing sports,

like playing music,

like reading.

So they have no homework.

What if all they want to do

is climb a tree?

They could climb a tree, yeah.

They can climb a tree.

Then they learned how to climb a tree.

But they'll end up,

while climbing the tree,

probably finding out

about different insects,

and they can come

to school next day,

tell me about what they found.

Compared to the older kids,

how many hours a day

do the younger ones

go to school?

Mondays, three hours,

Tuesdays, four hours.

It varies.

It's 20 hours a week.

So they're-- oh, man.

Now, does this three or four hours

of school include the lunch hour?

Yes.

How are they learning anything?

How are you

getting anything done?

Your brain has to-- it has to relax

every now and then.

If you just constantly work, work, work,

then you stop learning.

And there's no use of doing that

for a longer period of time.

Finland's students

have the shortest school days

and the shortest school years

in the entire Western world.

They do better

by going to school less.

Yay!

How many languages

do you speak?

English, yeah, Swedish,

Spanish.

Finnish and Swedish.

Finnish, English, and German.

- French, German.

- Finnish and English.

- English.

- Swedish and French and Spanish.

So, you were

an exchange student in the U.S.?

- Yeah.

- When you got back here in school,

what did you notice

that you felt relieved about?

No more multiple choice exams.

They--

- No multiple choice exams here?

- Or very few of them, if any.

- Really?

- 'Cause all of my exams in the U.S.--

How do you answer the question right

if it isn't listed

as one of the four choices?

- You write your answer.

- You have to know it.

- You have to know it, actually.

- Yeah.

- You actually have to know it?

- Yeah.

If there was one thing I heard

over and over again from the Finns,

it was that America should stop

teaching to a standardized test.

- Get rid of those standardized tests.

- National testing.

- The standardized tests.

- The "standardizized testings."

If what you are teaching your students

is to do well on those tests,

then you're not really

teaching them anything.

No, we are teaching them.

We're teaching them

how to flunk a test

and then a bunch of schools

fail the test

and those schools

are turned into charter schools

and then somebody

makes a lot of money.

But school is about finding

your happiness, finding what--

you know, finding a way to learn

what makes you happy.

They figured out

about one-third of the school time--

the students are in school--

is spent preparing

for the standardized test.

And so they've eliminated

a lot of things that aren't on the test.

So, music is gone,

art is gone, poetry is gone.

- Art is gone?

- Yeah, in many schools.

Civics isn't even on the test,

so now schools are dropping civics.

- Really?

- Yes.

- Civics, American civics.

- Okay.

Unbelievable.

- We got rid of poetry.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Why?

It's a waste of time.

When are they ever gonna speak

as poets when they're adults?

How does that

help them get a job?

We try to teach them

everything that they need

so that they could actually use

their brain as well as they can,

including PE, including arts,

including music--

anything that can actually

make brain work better.

The children need to be baking,

they should be singing,

they should be doing art

and going on nature walks

and doing all these things

because there's this very short time

that they're allowed

to be children.

If you don't have standardized tests

here in Finland,

how do you know

which schools are the best?

You know, people need a list.

The neighborhood school

is the best school.

It is not different than the school

which can be, for example,

situated in the town center,

because all the schools in Finland,

they are all equal.

When we move to a new city,

we never ask

where the best school is.

It's never a question.

So nobody

has to shop for schools.

There's nothing different

in any of our schools.

They are the same.

It is illegal in Finland

to set up a school

and charge tuition.

That's why, for the most part,

private schools don't exist.

And what that means

is that the rich parents

have to make sure

that the public schools are great.

And by making the rich kids

go to school with everyone else,

they grow up

with those other kids as friends.

And when they become

wealthy adults,

they have to think twice

before they screw them over.

In the United States,

education is a business.

They're corporations making money.

Here, it's so student-centered

that when we had to redo our playground,

they had the architects

come in and talk to the kids.

- Were they listened to?

- Yes, yes.

There are things on our playground

that the students really wanted.

Being in school here

is more independent.

We are treated more like adults

than in the United States.

- Yeah.

- I mean, we don't need a hall pass

to go to the bathroom

during class.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

And we'll see students

commuting on the subway,

even as young as seven and eight,

going on their own to school.

When I started doing teacher training

practice back in the U.S.,

I was in these certain neighborhoods

teaching these kids

and telling them, "You can be anything

you want to be when you grow up."

This is kind of a lie.

And when I came to Finland,

a lot of my teaching is based

on what the kids want

and what they see for their future,

so it doesn't feel so false

to say, "You can really be

whatever you want to be

when you grow up,"

because they're making it

happen already.

They already have such power.

That's upsetting

to think about that.

That our kids don't have that.

That's really beautiful.

It's not that we have

figured out something

that nobody else has done

in education.

That's wrong.

Many of these things that have made

Finland perform well in education

are initially American ideas.

We try to teach them

to think for themselves

and to be critical

to what they're learning.

We try to teach them

to be happy person,

to be-- respect others

and respect yourself.

You're concerned

with their happiness.

- Oh, yeah.

- What the hell do you teach?

I teach math.

So the math teacher says--

the first thing out of your mouth

of what you wanted these students

to get out of school

was to be happy,

have a happy life.

Yep.

- And you're the math teacher?

- Yep.

When do they have

their time to play

and socialize

with their friends

and grow as human beings?

'Cause there's so much more life

around than just school.

You want them to play?

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