I have had an interest, nay – an obsession about Finnish education since watching this video on TeacherTV about 5 years ago…
I have read a few articles and watched just as many lectures, news programs and documentaries, yet what I really wanted was a resource that brought all these ideas together… thats when Pasi Sahlberg’s book Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? came into my sights. I was really excited, nay – too excited. As the ebook version is not available in Australia, the audiobook is free as an introduction to Audible, and I have just started driving two hours a day doing the round trip to drop my son at school, I got the audio book. Almost 8 hours! Hard core education theory! The narrator is clear and very well spoken, so much so I get confused about his nationality sometimes (American? Not English?). I will have to buy the printed version too at some point – book depository is the best for us Aussie’s as they have free postage – because I want to see the graphs and read it more thoroughly. Having the printed version would also be good for referring to in essays. I ‘d like to include a study of international education in my masters, when it happens, and a study of Finland would be great.
There are so many things that make this book brilliant and I’m sure I could talk about it for 20 posts but I won’t – I will just recommend VERY VERY strongly that you buy the book. For me it has elevated my opinion of being a teacher. The saying goes, “be the change you want to see” and this book articulates that change. The bar is set high but are our children worth any less?
NOTE: After publishing this post I noticed that the title sounds like a 50’s band like “Jerry and the pacemakers”.
Relevant Links:
