It was my first hands-on experience in the Finnish education system - that I had read about online for so many years while living here.
Prior to moving here - I hadn't heard about the Finnish education system that is admired all over the world.
Not that I chose to ignore it but perhaps I simply didn't know and it wasn't popping up on my Facebook news feed at the time because let's face it - I didn't know any Finns then!
So here's a list of things that simply AMAZED me while I was there for 1 week (and then I returned to complete my training after maternity leave for another 6 weeks):
- Children start school at the age of 7.
- The only school supplies they need are pencils and a backpack. There's no crazy list of things that parents need to find their kids!! Notebooks and paper, handicraft supplies etc are all provided.
- Students call their teachers and headmaster/principal by the first name.
- This created equal respect.
- The teachers create the schedule for the week - or to say, they have a great say in it. Sometimes classes started at 8, sometimes at 9 or 10. Sometimes it ended at 2 or 3pm depending!
- There aren't school buses here. Kids bike or walk to school - some were dropped off and picked up by parents and if they lived too far away, they took the city bus.
- Really young students don't have homework. Older students had some - but it wasn't a lot.
- Students could use their text books for tests but would then be docked points if so.
- Students don't wear footwear indoors with the exception of gym class, wood working and any other manual labour/technical labour courses.
- Some kids wore slippers - but most were in socked feet.
- Classes were only 45 minutes long and there was a 15-minutes break in between.
- The 15-minutes was used to go to the next class and exchange text books (older kids) or to go outside quickly and just dump their brains out for a bit.
- One teacher I worked with advised me that it decreased fighting, stress and bullying.
- Both males and females learn how to knit, sew, use a serger (overlock) machine, cook and crochet.
- They also both learned wood work or metal work (depends on what the school has).
- In the school I was practicing in - the bathrooms simply had "WC" (Water Closet) on the individual bathroom doors.
You walked in and there was a toilet, toilet paper and a sink with soap. There wasn't the possibility to be bullied in a large bathroom with multiple stalls. - Another thing I appreciate about this is that those that are part of the LGTBQ community (or aren't sure yet) - don't have that social pressure or an extra oppourtunity to be bullied for their bodies or choice of clothing etc.
- Lunch for students was completely FREE, HOT and HEALTHY. Dessert was rare and usually tied to an upcoming holiday.
- Things like burgers happened maybe once a year!! Never mind fries, greasy pizza etc!
- I was advised that Finland is one of the first countries in the world to introduce a hot and healthy lunch meal for all pre-university/college students.
- College/university students pay between 2,60€-4€ for their lunches.
- Lunch time means kids serve themselves their own portions and use real glasses, dishes and metal silverware.
- This reduces waste because there's great emphasis on taking what you can eat and if you need or want more - you can.
- A typical lunch meal is some sort of hot main course, salad and bread available along with milk or water for beverages.
- Kids also clean up after themselves, scraping their plates and putting away their dirty dishes in sorting boxes along a conveyor belt for the kitchen staff to wash up after.
- Some examples of lunch meals:
- Pea soup - typically served with mustard and for dessert an oven-baked pancake and jam.
- Spinach soup - typically served with hard boiled eggs.
- Various casseroles
- Soups or stews
- There weren't any water fountains in the hallways because every classroom had a sink and tap and kids had their own cups to drink from.
- When I wrote about this in my previous blog, a Finn commented it also prevents accidents from happening with slippery floors or kids getting their teeth knocked out from rough housing.
- Fitness was incredibly important for the students and the staff - so in the winter time when I was there - quite often, gym class was spent outside skiing on the lake or skating in the rink in the back yard!
- Private schools DO exist here - but not very many. The quality of education Finns receive publicly is excellent and top of the line.
It's been written about all over the net. - Here's some examples:
- Children with special needs have their own school typically. My oldest son has autism and he goes to a neurotypical school but there is a section of the building dedicated to the special needs/neuro-diverse children.
- I confessed to the teacher I was paired with that I'm disturbed by this form of segregation. However, she informed me that it's simply to avoid neurotypical kids being a distraction to the neurodiverse and vice verca.
- One thing I've noticed while living in Finland is that many children don't understand special needs (unless they were exposed to it regularly) because of this segregation. But then again, I was raised in a Canadian schooling system, where we were integrated with the neurodiverse regularly and I grew up accepting people of any disability and learned not to stare or poke fun quite early.
Not that all children or adults do this while I'm out with my oldest kiddo - but it does happen whenever he has meltdowns and I always had wondered why. Now I do.
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| This is an example of the lunch buffet at the college I'm doing my work practice in. |
That's all I can think of currently - it's been awhile since I've been there! :)
Yours truly,
A Domestic Goddess killing some time on a Sunday morning far too early thanks to children being awake...
