I recently read an outstanding book on education, “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got That Way,” by Amanda Ripley. My impression from other articles I have read was that the U.S. primary and secondary education systems were in decline. To some extent this book refutes that and points out the U.S. has stayed the same while other countries have improved; some of them dramatically and rapidly.

There is a standardized test for all countries called PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) which not only measures student knowledge, but how they are able to use that knowledge. The United States recently scored just below average (36th) out of 65 countries tested. The book provides substantial detail on the improvements made in Poland (14th on PISA), Finland (l2th on PISA) and Korea (5th on PISA).

All of the three countries mentioned increased national standards, increased expectations of students and increased teacher training. Finland now requires teachers to be professionals at the level of doctors and lawyers, with six years of college and a Masters degree. The Masters would be in your subject field while the 6th year would be to learn the teaching profession. The idea is you can’t teach what you don’t know. In all three countries, teachers are highly respected. In Finland only 20 percent of applicants to teacher colleges are admitted. In the U.S. anyone can become a teacher. There are no special standards for U.S. teachers. As long as you can complete any four year college you can become a teacher. In some cases you may need a credential which could take up to another year. A quote from the book is “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of it’s teachers.”

According to the book, “PISA revealed what should have been obvious but was not: That spending on education did not make kids smarter. Everything — everything depended on what teachers, parents, and students did with those investments. Taxpayers in the smartest countries in the world spent dramatically less per pupil on education than taxpayers did in the United States. In most cases, classes were also larger than they were in the United States, making the cost of salaries more manageable.”

In Poland, calculators weren’t allowed so kids had learned mental tricks to manipulate numbers quickly. In America, parents understand why coaches bench their sons and daughters when they missed practice, they don’t understand why they received an F on an academic subject. Over time American culture has emphasized athletics and conditioned teachers not to give F’s on academic subjects even if an F is earned. Academic resilience is pushed aside. Students are pushed forward even if they are not performing at grade level.

I can’t begin to cover the information and studies revealed in this book. It should be required reading for all educators and board members.

BRUCE HANSEN

Coeur d’Alene