Politicians, and school administrators like to wipe away a tear, and, with lips trembling say "it's for the children," especially during election years. But as every good investigator knows, to see where ones priorities really lie, just follow the money and not their words.
It seems every year a group of Americans, and it's probably even the same group, flies over to the same school in Finland and asks, "So what are you guys doing that we are not?"
I especially enjoy the "oh-not-these-guys-again" look on the faces of the Finns. Yeah, ummm...didn't we already tell you for the last three years (1) pay teachers well, treat them like and trust them to be professionals, (2) stop testing every other week, and (3) attract the top, not bottom, 10% of your college graduates and give them top notch training to be successful in the classroom (see step 1 above...again)?
And so, the American education ambassadors gleefully catch their flight, excited about the news with which they shall usher in a golden age, a renaissance, of education in America. And then, suddenly, perhaps they travel through some Bermuda Triangle-like memory eraser. Their planes land, they disembark, and run to Washington to cut all education spending and introduce marketplace competition into public schools. Vouchers, "research" driven curriculum, charter schools, the use of tests to measure teachers; all a philosophy that the Finns watch from overseas and promptly shake their heads in disbelief. What's the Finnish word for, *facepalm*?
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