Blogitecture in Helsinki
Kids — I’m off today for a week-long trip to Helsinki, Finland where I and some other DC-based policy thinkers and writers are going to be guests of the Finnish government to learn about their education system. Finland is a world leader in PISA scores and other measures of educational success, so as the United States tries to reverse the current disturbing trend toward declining educational attainment, it seems that perhaps we have something to learn not only from how Finnish schools function, but from the larger social and economic policy context in which children learn.
In general, I think the United States has a lot to learn from the social models prevailing in northern Europeans countries such as Finland. Finland’s per capita GDP is roughly the same as America’s, but Finland’s gini coefficient is far lower, suggesting that typical Finns enjoy higher material living standards than do Americans. Add to that longer life expectancy, lower crime rates, and lots of modernist design and architecture and it seems like a nice place. On the other hand, they have worse weather. I once spent an extremely long layover in Helsinki Airport where I was surprisingly well treated by Finnair rather than given the usual “we’ve stranded you here and it’s all our fault but we refuse to apologize or take responsibility” schtick one usually gets form airlines, so I’ve long felt a deep appreciation for the Finnish way and I’m very eager to see some non-airport portions of the country (the view from the terminal looked nice).
At any rate, you know the drill — blogging will continue, but on a reduced and somewhat sporadic schedule. Of course you should expect some commentary on Helsinki’s public transportation (metro, tram, and commuter rail — a veritable trainapolooza) system.
52 Responses to “Blogitecture in Helsinki”
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December 6th, 2008 at 10:42 am
I visited Helsinki over the summer. It was awesome. I was of the mind that if this is European socialism, sign me up. I liked Stockholm even better, but it was really expensive given the position of the US Dollar which somewhat colored my view.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:47 am
schtick one usually gets form airlines
===========================================================
Same ole sloppy MY
December 6th, 2008 at 10:48 am
> Kids — I’m off today for a week-long trip to Helsinki,
> Finland where I and some other DC-based policy thinkers
> and writers are going to be guests of the Finnish
> government to learn about their education system.
One or two blogs ago I asked Mr. Yglesias how many hours/week he spent volunteering in his local DC primary school and received a very nasty and snarky response. I understand the concept of abstract thinkers and critics, and I understand too well the fallacy that anyone younger than me is inexperienced and naive. But having grown up in a family of schoolteachers, having gone through the full young parent/volunteer/school employee cycle, and now recognizing the look of shock on the face of the new crop of young parent volunteers when they realize how hard teaching and managing a school is even compared to parenting (which itself if not easy) –
I have to say that I am getting increasingly annoyed by the 25-something bloggers (including Yglesias, E. Klein, and their peer group) with no children and no real experience in actual schools with real children and their complexities arrogating to themselves the authority to “fix” the US education system.
Cranky
By the way: the US eduction system is not for the most part “broken”: most US families are (a) very happy with their own school district (b) convinced that the school district two towns removed from theirs needs reform. But not their own…
December 6th, 2008 at 10:49 am
They are also the home of the Dudesons, the forefather of Jackass.
I’m not kidding – look them up on Youtube if you want to see a bunch of well mannered people speaking a funny language doing things like playing demolition derby bling-folder.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Cue Steve Sailer to blame America’s shitty educational achievement on black people in 3, 2, 1….
December 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Too bad you’re not going in the summer. Helsinki’s open air market has the most beautiful fruit I’ve ever seen. Red strawberries and even redder raspberries so intensely colored that you’d think you were eating a prop. Absolutely beautiful blueberries.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Re Matthew’s comment “Finland is a world leader in PISA scores”
————–
I suspect the nude co-ed saunas have something to do with it.
Why not try introducing them in the Bible Belt? Along with some books.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Of course, Tourist Matthew has an uncanny effect on foreign countries he visits.
For example, he visited Amsterdam a few months ago. Now this just came in:
“Amsterdam to close many brothels, marijuana cafes”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081206/ap_on_re_eu/eu_netherlands_amsterdam_cleanup
Try to remember, Matthew , that the Finns don’t think making bubbles in the hot tub is amusing.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:26 am
Re cranky’s comment “most US families are (a) very happy with their own school district ”
———–
that’s because the dumb fucks are products of that same school system. If you produce morons, you don’t have to worry about asute performance appraisals from your customers.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:28 am
“gini coefficient?” — Couldn’t you at least tag it so that we imbeciles can be edified?
I was in Finland over 20 years ago. What I remember most of Helsinki is the great smoked mackerel sold at a kiosk down by the wharf — and the pretty girl who sold it to me, speaking excellent, American-accented English!
December 6th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Matt,
make certain to ask the Finns whether they think eliminating teachers unions would fix the U.S. system.
Cranky,
While it may be true that many Americans are not outraged about their local public schools (and public transportation and health care) but they should be.
On what basis do you think they have made that evaluation? Most people have no idea what proportion of students are at grade level or what the graduation rate is at the local high school. At best, parents can compare their schools with the ones within the same state but have no idea how they compare with schools in Finland or Switzerland or China.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The 2006 PISA test:
“shows American students to be scoring slightly below the average for the group of 30 nations that sponsored the test, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development…. The United States posted an average score of 489 on a 1,000-point scale (with the mean set at 500), placing it just above the Slovak Republic and Spain, and just below France and Iceland [and 17th overall]. The top scorer was Finland, with an average score of 563, followed by Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.
A close examination of the results for the United States shows that racial and ethnic gaps in educational performance contributed to the nation’s mediocre showing. The average score for non-Hispanic white 15-year-olds in the United States was well above the international average, at 523, but black U.S. students posted a mean score of 409—below the averages for every other OECD nation and all but eight of the 27 non-OECD nations and jurisdictions. The average score for Asian-American students was a 499, while the average for Hispanic-American students was 439.”
http://future.iftf.org/2007/12/american-studen.html
December 6th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Isn’t Finland much more homogeneous racially? That is, you are comparing delicious pickled herring with Ring Dings.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Welcome. Weather here seems to be fine but a bit boring right now. I always wish for super cold weather for tourists, so that they would spread the word about heroic finns managing to survive in inhuman conditions.
If you’re interested in Helsinki public transportation issues, you may wish to meet with Osmo Soininvaara of Green Party, former minister and current city council member of Helsinki. He’s also most famous political blogger here, winning a record amount of votes in council member vote few months ago with barely any other campaigning but blogging.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Helsinki’s a great city, very international relative to rest of Finland. While you’ll be introduced to Finnish culture there, better places for experiencing culture exist: Tampere, Turku. make sure to try a shot of salmiakki-kossu, a fantastic (well, to some) Finnish drink. The best way to make Finnish friends (or even to get them to open up to you) is to get drunk with them. Oh, and if you’ve never had a real sauna (good ones in north America are hard to find unless you know a Finn), there’s no comparison
December 6th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Cue Steve Sailer to blame America’s shitty educational achievement on black people in 3, 2, 1….
Yeah, that Steve Sailer, always looking at statistical facts and drawing the obvious conclusion. What a nut.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Also, sauna and salmiakkikossu.
Btw, you might want to mention that you’ll be there during the time of lowest sunlight, and that sort of sends the Finns a bit bonkers. Hence all the SAD lighting.
Contrarian take: the US can emulate northern Europe best by turning into a lot of smaller countries.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I was once stuck in the Helsinki airport as well. The airport is quite nice, and along with other amenities, the bathroom soap smells great.
Matt you need to make a trip to Copenhagen at some point so we can get some high quality biking-related blogging.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
> While it may be true that many Americans are not outraged
> about their local public schools (and public transportation
> and health care) but they should be.
US school districts fall into a 3-hump distribution. On the far left are the 3 dozen or so utterly failed urban districts (and a few states that have chosen to isolate themselves in the early 1800s). On the right are the elite (mostly, but not all, wealthy) districts that churn out graduates competitive with anyone in the world in their peer group. In the middle is the big group of middle-of-the-road districts. We can argue about whether their performance is acceptable or not; their taxpayers and parents tend to think it is. You claim otherwise, but you don’t vote/pay taxes in those districts. We can discuss it, but note that I have a hard time believing in the “more eduction makes everyone better off” when we have a winner-take-all society controlled by the top 1%.
But most of the discussions on this topic proceed under the assumptions that simple averages, and comparisons of simple averages, can be used to make points and decisions. Simple averages don’t mean much when there are complex distributions governed in part by socioeconomic factors that aren’t going to be addressed under any education reform package.
> On what basis do you think they have made that
> evaluation? Most people have no idea what proportion
> of students are at grade level or what the graduation
> rate is at the local high school.
To ask that question is to admit that the last 5 years of intensive testing under NCLB have failed to produce meaningful/effective results, yet most of the proposals on the table call for more extreme versions of the NCLB philosophy. “The beatings will continue until morale improves”.
> At best, parents can compare their schools with the
> ones within the same state but have no idea how they
> compare with schools in Finland or Switzerland or China.
Sure. Then again, Airbus, BAE (British Aerospace), Toyota, the European pharmas all have research, design, engineering, and manufacturing operations in the US as well as elsewhere. Lenovo has kept most of its engineering in the US for the moment. Where are they getting qualified employees?
Cranky
December 6th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Since you are looking at education, note that Finnish spelling is supposed to be much more consistent with pronunciation than English spelling is–so presumably less effort goes into learning to read. Hope to hear if this is so.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
What a nut.
Ah, gotta love the Sailer boys, ensuring that he’ll never need a bidet.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I’m prepared to believe that Finland is more egalitarian than the US, but the Gini coefficient doesn’t prove it because the Gini tends to increase with larger populations. The Gini of Western Europe is larger than the Ginis of the countries that make it up, and the Gini of individual states is smaller than that of the U.S. So it isn’t surprising that Finland, with a much smaller population, has a smaller Gini coefficient.
December 6th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Matt you need to make a trip to Copenhagen at some point so we can get some high quality biking-related blogging.
I really do! This trip to Helsinki will involve some quality time in Copenhagen Airport, but that’s not the same.
December 6th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Finland’s per capita GDP is roughly the same as America’s,
I suppose it depends what you mean by ‘roughly’. Nominally yes, in fact Finland comes out slightly ahead (about 2%) 46,713 to 45,824[1] But using PPP, which compares Finland apples to USA apples, Finland is 35,253 (USA of course still 45,824) or 23% less.[2]
Yes, GDP doesn’t measure everything. And maybe the tradeoff between GDP and gini is worth it. But, imo, there is a tradeoff.
[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
(figures obtained by arithmetic average of the IMF, World Bank and CIA figures
Source……Finland GDP………USA GDP ……% dif
………….per capita……..per capita…..
IMF…………35,349 ……… 45,725
World Bank…..34,411 ………. 45,790
CIA…………36,000 ………. 45,800
December 6th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
“By the way: the US eduction system is not for the most part “broken”: most US families are (a) very happy with their own school district (b) convinced that the school district two towns removed from theirs needs reform. But not their own…”
Another version of this: “Congress is totally screwed up, but my congressman is just fine.”
December 6th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Well, as long it’s only the urban school districts that are failing, everything should be fine! Good thing there’s no long-term socioeconomic effects that arise from failing to educate inner-city youth!
Oh, and by the way, CO, I also come from a family of schoolteachers, and was raised in a nice middle-class school district that passed every override, so I take great pleasure in telling you, sir, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, and that the American educational system is dysfunctional on every level, regardless of how the local real-estate salesmen and bank tellers who probably couldn’t locate Canada on a fucking map feel.
But specifically, the fact that school funding is tied to the relative wealth of the individual districts is a national disgrace, and needs to be overhauled before any substantive changes can be made.
December 6th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
So, are you going to announce your traveling schedule so that your Finnish fans & readers finally have a chance to meet you in person?!
BTW, if you want to do some pros-and-cons-of-Finland blogging, this American expatriate would make a good opponent — http://www.finlandforthought.net/
MARCU$
December 6th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I’m prepared to believe that Finland is more egalitarian than the US, but the Gini coefficient doesn’t prove it because the Gini tends to increase with larger populations.
Allan: It seems to me that Gini coefficient comparison does prove (or get as close as is possible to genuine “proof”) that Finland has built a more equitable society than the US. The correlation you mention merely suggests it’s more difficult for larger polities to achieve egalitarian results.
December 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
A common theme of Sailer’s is that African Americans are fellow citizens that have been a part of America from the beginning, so we are in this boat with them together, but how big the Hispanic population gets is largely dependent on future immigration policy. Americans have control over that, so Sailer (rightly) focuses on them and their low average educational performance. We can mitigate this factor dragging down our aggregate educational performance ever lower by cutting down on hispanic immigration.
December 6th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
^^ that was in response to: “Cue Steve Sailer to blame America’s shitty educational achievement on black people in 3, 2, 1….”
December 6th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
> you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,
> and that the American educational system is
> dysfunctional on every level, regardless of how
> the local real-estate salesmen and bank tellers who probably
> couldn’t locate Canada on a fucking map feel.
Every level, eh? There isn’t a single “functional” public school district anywhere in the United States from the tip of Maine to the south neighborhoods of San Diego, from the South Carolina coast to the Aleutian Islands. Not a single USian child receives a decent public education anywhere, nor is a single one ever accepted at a non-US university for either undergraduate or graduate studies. Not a one.
(you may guess that I know quite a few people who violate scythia’s unbreakable principle, so I am not much impressed by his use of profanity).
Cranky
December 6th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
This is ridiculous:
We can discuss it, but note that I have a hard time believing in the “more eduction makes everyone better off” when we have a winner-take-all society controlled by the top 1%.
Also, what Hedley said about racial heterogeneity (which is not what Steve Sailer would or does say).
December 6th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
> This is ridiculous:
>> We can discuss it, but note that I have a hard time
>> believing in the “more eduction makes everyone better off”
>> when we have a winner-take-all society controlled by the top
>> 1%.
We seem to have a surfeit of posters today who make declarative statements with no backup or even argument. “This is ridiculous” – um, sure. Whatever you say: your word is The Law. Not sure what will happen when you cross paths with scythia though.
Cranky
December 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
In winter?
But lots of birdlife to eye up. Scandinavian Scandinavian.
December 6th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I’m just pointing out your ridiculousness to the rest of the commenters, Cranky.
It’s self-evident. But given your earlier statement, you think The System makes all argument pointless anyway, right?
December 6th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
As long as we’re on the subject…
Happy Finnish Independence Day!
(Which was actually yesterday in Finland’s hemisphere.)
December 6th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I recently spent a couple years in a newly-admitted EU country in Eastern Europe. While there, I was impressed with the level of education the high school kids I was working with were attaining: fluency in two languages with proficiency in another, calculus level math in junior and senior years in high school, intimate familiarity with national and regional history. This was in a town of less than 100,000 and no university and no real opportunities for self-advancement. The high schools all had competitive admissions, largely dependent on a general test score. From a town where the average monthly income was about $300 a month, the top 2-3 schools in town produced graduates competitive with 90% of US students. The other 3-4 schools were mediocre, but certainly no worse than most US schools in urban setting.
Truthfully, I think a lot of the success was the result of competition. Nonetheless, I doubt similar HS-level competition is attainable in the United States. The reason? Lack of urbanization. In my Eastern European town, a student could walk or take mass transit to any school in town. In the United States, due to excessive suburbanization, it’s really only feasible for a great portion of students to go to the closest school.
Ultimately, I think the major problem in the United States isn’t anything that policy can solve. The problem is contentedness. When you’ve been comfortable at the top for so long, it’s hard to maintain that drive to succeed. Eventually, you come to the point of feeling entitled. The students in my eastern european town have never had that feeling, the know they need to work, and work hard to get ahead. When US parents wake up and see that most of their children are no longer competitive with their European and Asian counterparts in the sciences and math, they’ll finally start accepting personal responsibility for their childrens’ educations and stop shifting the blame to policy makers. You might have noticed that when Obama talks of education here in the United States, he never begins with education policy, but always with the relationship between the parent and child.
Regardless of the quality of the education system, it’s not going to produce prepared students until those students are ready to exploit their opportunities. Sure, create a better education system–but the real challenge, and thus the most opportunity for improvement, lies in changing attitudes.
December 6th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
The musical education system in Finland is outstanding, if you have any opportunities to be exposed in a “choose the music seminar or the XXX panel” I highly recommend checking out the music choice.
Enjoy your trip!
December 6th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Finns don’t talk much and they drink a lot. That’s the secret of their success. (And coed nude saunas).
They’re actually one of the most murderous of the European nations, though still weenies by American standards.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
I hope the Finnish government gets sacked over this one.
December 6th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
> I’m just pointing out your ridiculousness
> to the rest of the commenters, Cranky.
>
> It’s self-evident.
Your eloquence, depth of thought, and strength of argument are truly without peer.
Cranky
December 6th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Matt: “as the United States tries to reverse the current disturbing trend toward declining educational attainment,”
Of which Matt is the poster boy…
December 6th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
All I’ve heard is, they’re depressed, but love to Tango.
December 7th, 2008 at 4:09 am
Among the reasons that Finland’s education system is so good: 1. The devastating effects of the idiotic, destructive pop culture poisoning American children are less pronounced in Finland; 2. Finland’s population is very homogeneous, i.e., it isn’t blighted by “salad bowl” racial/ethnic/religious fragmentation as is America’s (Finland does have some immigration and it has a long-standing Swedish-speaking minority but that is nothing compared to the huge numbers of diverse groups in the US that are for all intents and purposes unwilling and unable to be educated—if you dispute that view, just take a look at the stats for most any big-city school system in the US).
Among Finland’s cruical lessons for America: 1. More democratic socialism; 2. Less pop culture; 3. More snow, less winter light; 4. More homogeneity, less diversity.
December 7th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
What we really could learn from Finland:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/27/7330
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