Shawn L. Bird

As you’ll know if you’re a long time reader of this blog, I was an exchange student in Finland.  As a result, I speak passable Finnish (even now) and I have a house full of Finnish decor items.  These become particularly noticeable at Christmas, as my host families have tended to send special ornaments over the years.

A few years ago, I was at a teachers’ workshop and the speaker showed a graph of the national ratings of educational systems.  He was pointing to Canada’s number three placement when he asked, “Why do we tend to look at the US for innovative educational ideas, when they’re 23 places below us in these rankings?  Why aren’t we looking to the countries above us?”  That made sense to all of us in the room.  When I looked at the ratings and saw that Finland was number one, I thought perhaps that was an area of potential master’s studies.

One of my Finnish friends drew my attention to the book Finnish Lessons by Pasi Sahlberg today, and I have just ordered it.  Stay tuned for a review.