http://www.oecd.org/document/60/0,3343,de_2649_201185_39700732_1_1_1_1,00.html

Post edited at 1:26 am on April 28, 2008 by mcdouga

Anyway, cheers to my Finnish brothers. Top notch education over there, no question about it. If I'm not mistaken they have a heavy emphasis on practical applications (especially within the realm of natural science). The whole "show don't tell" philosophy.

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Pragmatism is all.

In places like china and many other eur-asian countries, children get weeded out since elementary school. The intelligent ones go on, the less intelligent go on to learn a trade. In middle school, the very intelligent go on to better schools, the rest go on to learn more skilled trades. so that, even at 15, the kids in schools are generally only the very smart ones.

Also, america has that little "no child left behind" policy, which not only stunts the speed and depth of material covered in classes, but also ensures that even kids with no potential or drive for education HAVE to go to school.

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            ...life is good...
...mai ho oni i ka wai lana malie...

In Finland, I believe they have grades from sixth grade. Then they have learnt that too accomplish something, you have to LEARN it, not just remember it from the day before and then forgetting all about it, or cheating on tests to get a good grade.

However, Norway has grades from 8th grade, but our schools aren't doing too well...

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The future is renewable