The Finnish Education System SUCKS (reaction)

[@AleksiHimself]

Hey Finntastics! If you want more reasons why Finland is the best country to live in, check out this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYuWhYCNdpiXnq8

[@ledwysdelgado7304]

I'm a 38 year old latin male thinking of moving to Finland. Any tips?

[@idonotmakevidsyet]

30 mins is not a lot of homework compared to all other schools around the world

[@pillow1557]

Damn only 30 mins?

[@freshbrewedasmr3378]

I had an hour to an hour and a half of homework here in America, and that didn’t include studying for tests and quizzes

[@powei5096]

Asia: hold my 3 hour homework

[@nikoflow_fm9541]

lmfao 30 minutes? that’s almost nothing… here at my USA public high school i typically have 1-2 hours a day of homework and maybe 30-60 more minutes of studying

[@pillow1557]

@nikoflow_FM Well I have 8-9 hours That's only homeworks btw :,)

[@Zuron]

Personally, I didn't have a good time in Finnish public school. I would skip as much as possible to play videogames and hang around with the other delinquents (lol) The positive thing was that the schools didn't become an obstacle for my life in spite of that. There wasn't continuous pressure on me or my family in order to make me attend more. I wasn't forced into counseling, and wasn't offered any psychoactive medication. They let me progress and graduate as long as I was able to pass the tests. I matured mentally a few years after high school and got a university degree. Nobody ever gave a shit about my school grades.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the honest story!

[@christiantripepi9909]

If that is a bad time then its all on you for skipping school and playing video games, I had a really bad time in school and im still having, even tho I know allot the finnish education system is just a big lie, I will sum it up for you. 1.Before first grade. Teachers or more like random people that decided to work as an pre elementary teacher, Leaving kids alone because their mother cant come pick them up all in the dark in the cold winter, then we have grade 1-2, in these grades they often test you in different things to see if you have a mental disorder and make you feel very unsafe. Then they punish you but not the bullie, if you are unable to learn something you are deemed as mentally disabled, or have some sort of learning disorder. They take plenty if tests, they divide the students up between the ones who are "normal" and the ones who are "abnormal", so as to not use any discriminatory word, the system is so corrupt and the teachers abuse of their money given by the state budget, this mostly happens in semi-private schools. All schools in the first grades are public for everyone but the system is just very beurocratic and corrupt. Then we get to grade 3-6. Here its the same thing as before, there are good things but they have nothing to do with the school work, in short, finlands education all the way here has bot solved problems like racial discrimination, and they promote lgbt propaganda in school even tho nobody likes it, they promote diversity but at the same time divude the classes, the smart kids feel lost as they dont know what to do so this leaves people to become average lazy human beings, I have nothing against it but its not competitive, anyways, it does not support critical thinking and logical thinking, the teachers are unprofessional. Very racist students. Now, 7-9 grade, 7th grade: you switch from elemntary to higher elementary, before highschool, now this shift is important, here some of the students who went in special kids classes are taken to the normal school with everyone else, after having been in a special environment for so many years they are not ready to shift back to normal as their brain has been full with drugs given by "doctors". I could keep on going from here, but you probably get it as your also from finland, btw, I live somewhere in the greater helsinki area to just give you a clue. To finnish😅 this I will just state the global school and general life things that are also true in finland. The school system is based on remembering information and for the scientific subjects like chemistry, fysics, and math its all about remembering information and developing the information and then using it in exercises, how is that any different from other countries, this system only promotes useless remembering and school toxicity bringning peoplr to cheat on exams. If you do not agree with my statement then dont reply.

[@意地悪ちゃん]

One of my life goals is to move to Finland, the main reason being that I’d much rather raise a family there than where I currently live. The Finnish school system may not be perfect but it doesn’t seem as mean-spirited

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff!

[@Rakkila]

@@achaladayarathne2500 I'm tired of all these asians here

[@Rakkila]

@@achaladayarathne2500 Idk

[@Rakkila]

@@achaladayarathne2500 Not all countries have "middle school". And in my school we can only use phones during breaks.

[@rafufalck4727]

Sounds great just steer far away from Helsinki and the cities around it, for your own safety.

[@veronicakivela1358]

Moi Aleksi: As a public school teacher in the USA who had chance to take course on the Finnish Education System during Helsinki Summer School (HSS) at University of Helsinki in 2018, I know Finland does it sooo much better and that EVERYTHING we are doing in American Schools is so very wrong. However, when I tried to share what I learned in Finland, US schools are very closed minded about it all, it was like they didn't want to hear it because they know it to be better but are still too proud to change it. Just like with everything else...I am seriously considering moving to Finland with my husband for good. But my parents and son (co-parent) are here...so I am staying a bit longer. However, I will pursue my Doctorate at the University of Helsinki sometime in the future and gladly quit my public school job and move away from this oppressive country.

[@huugosorsselsson4122]

“they didn't want to hear it because they know it to be better but are still too proud to change it” As a Finn, I admire many things about American culture, but one thing I dislike and that I’ve noticed is the sense of exceptionalism, the mistaken belief that the US is the freest and most democratic society in the world (when in reality there are still such problems as voter disenfranchisement), and that any criticism borders on unpatriotic, etc. The reluctance to learn from other countries, and to change societal structures in general, seems to reflect that. Good luck with your doctorate.

[@staropramen478]

It has to do with the fact that the US was one of the first modern democratic nations and had "equal opportunity" in the sense that the harder you worked the more you got paid. I just feel like Americans for the past decades hasn't noticed that many countries across the globe has caught up and even surpassed them in many categories. Today they cling on the fact that their country is a superpower but how much power does an average Joe really have in that country? Finland, along with the other Nordic countries, are basically the "American dream". Here you truly have equal opportunity since it doesn't matter how poor you are. It's safe here, education is free, salaries are high and the public services and living standards are great. I seriously don't understand why so many people on our planet in this day and age are so against change and evolution. Our governments should be striving for making life easier not only for their citizens, but for all.

[@alexandernoe1619]

That is about what I'd expect from a country that has 40% Trump supporters even today...

[@veronicakivela1358]

Huugo Sörsselssön Kiitos!!👍🏾

[@debbyspencer7047]

I wish you luck in your endeavors and wish it wasn't so difficult here in America.

[@RoadtoFinnish]

Aleksi i love the fact that you broke down this document piece. While i love our education system (and advocate for it), its good that we have some... ahem.. more transparent discussion about our school system. Its not that people are lied to, but there's a lot of misleading information about the education system floating around the web. I think a lot of it stems from click-baity headlines like "Finnish students have NO homework!" which are media sexy, but are not 100% transparent. I think that a similar statement that is floated around the web is about Finnish universities, which is that it is free to study in Finland for everyone. Yes, this is true in theory, but in reality non European union students do have to pay tuitions unless they get a full scholarship. A lot of people base this "fact" of free university education on the fact that Finnish taught university degrees have no tuition. However, what is NOT told is that it is almost impossible for a non-native Finnish speaker to be admitted to study _in Finnish_ at a Finnish university. So to summarise, i really appreciate that you break these videos down for your international audience 👊

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks Oliver! That's why I wanted to make this video because there's too much media sexy myths about our education system going on.

[@Merseyrock]

Interesting. How do Finnish universities assess Foreign students' language proficiency prior to admission? That is, for the lucky few who happen to fall within the "nearly impossible" statistic... Do they have any sort of testing for Finnish language proficiency, such as the IELTS (in the UK, Australia, Canada, etc.) or the TOEFL (in the US, mainly)?

[@88jettaguy]

Thank you for clarifying the point about the free university confusion ... its free to finnish students not to just any global student.

[@orynx2835]

Is it possible for a not-native speaker to study in a Finnish university while being in the EU and can study for free? Are they any English lessons to finish university in Finland?

[@madychap267]

It's amazing that the teachers shown actually seem to care about their students' feelings. Going to school in the US, I've had so many horrible teachers, where it was pretty clear that they didn't like me, and I didn't like them. It honestly ruined a lot of my experience growing up, and caused me to seclude myself, and perform poorly, which is the exact opposite of what they seem to do in Finland for the most part.

[@odyseehasdislikesyoutubesu1892]

Same , but not in the US , im in an asian country.

[@samuelghansah1398]

Same story in Ghana here, only that apart from most of the teachers being toxic, many of the students were also toxic, willing to sabotage those they see to be excelling even in one subject taught. This has caused me serious depression and nearly caused me to become misanthropic.

[@christiantripepi9909]

They dont

[@SarahBuhrmanKalisara]

In the US, we have class 7 hrs/day, 5 days/wk, 42 wks/yr from 6 years old to 18 years old. We have shorter days before that with preschool & kindergarten, etc. This is primarily because the schools work as free childcare. Homework is theoretically limited to 5 min/grade, but it usually ends up being much much more. 10-12th grade can easily be 6-8 hrs of homework, but it isn't counted because it is special projects, research, or studying for tests. Standardized tests start in Kindergarten. I'm always in meetings because my kids (one with autism, one with dyslexia) aren't "keeping up." Now my kids are doing fine, they just test badly. I hate the US schools so much.

[@pythons206]

As an person with atusim they often don't acount for that people with autisim learn diffrently from the u.s school sytems "Ideal" student AKA the kid who puts education over everthing else.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

Yea I remember discussing with my sister's a long time ago that school should be shorter. I've always had that opinion. But they told me how they wouldn't have someone to watch the kids.

[@mryeast7950]

Damn im starting to feel lucky to be born in finland.

[@vavilalasriteja1244]

Now don't be too sad... We have 10 hours of schools weekly tests in which you need to get full marks to pass and... They are straight up given from college. And then they say "It is just a bridge course" being 9th standard I refer much from the college material itself. And if you don't pass, you receive punishment. What are notes? They are just words and sentences we need to copy from a book for which they charge seperately. And if you don't replicate the same words as in the book called "Workbook" they don't pass you. I can't even write my own notes. If you get any doubt, and ask it to the teacher, you are humiliated for "not listening" . And also I need to spend 7 hours on SUNDAY to complete my "notes". You don't even compare to the pressure in Indian schools. Btw hey are even trying to implement online classes on holidays.

[@kinjoko]

5:58 In Greece language learning in school it's terrible. Most kids learn English by going to specialized institutions or by having a teacher come to the kid's house to teach privately. I have a classmate who has gone to one of these institutions for only 1 year and later continued learning English just in school. He makes quite a few grammatical mistakes and also has poor vocabulary. We also learn a third language from 5th to 9th grade (11-15 years old). We can select to either learn German or French (I chose German). But the 3rd language we learn is even worse as after 5 years of studying German, I don't even have the skills to pass A1.

[@ΕιρήνηΖαννή]

Yeah you are right! I am from Greece and i have tree private teachers , one for my english , one for my French and one for my maths. That's unfortunately the greek educational system : (

[@annaigleduvehat7589]

France could certainly learn from Finland when it comes to the amount of hours pupils are at school. When I was in primary school (6-10 years), I was at school Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Friday the whole day and some Saturday mornings. School was from 8h30-11h30 in the morning (with a 30 min break) then lunch and play outside from 11:30-13:30 then study again from 13:30-16:30 with a 30 min break. And then there was a special after-school study for those whose parents could only pick them up later, from 17:00 until 18:00 (with 30 min break from 16:30 until 17:00). So no school on Wednesday (which for many kids was the day you would have your hobbies like sports or art) and many breaks during the day, but still being at school from 8:30-18:00 is quite heavy on the brain. And in my last year of primary school the teacher gave us a lot of homework so I would often come back at 18:00 and still have to finish my homework. Plus in French schools you don't have those cool classes like metal-work, wood-work, sewing, cooking like in Finland. You only have maybe 2 hours of sport education and 2 hours of singing or some drawing per week, but most of the learning is still paper, pen in front of the blackboard, which makes the day feel even longer. A few years ago, they tried to reform the school days by adding school on Wednesday so the other days could be shorter. But it caused such an approar among parents who could not get their jobs to let them leave at 15:00 instead of 16:30 so eventually, the reform was abandonned, which is a shame.

[@alexandernoe1619]

In France, learning how to read and write probably takes 10x more time than in Finnland.

[@zigaudrey]

Tell me about it. School taught me about jealousy after that drawing contest for a paper gift. School shouldn't be that. It will be a dream to learn sewing at school and maybe make plush on my own.

[@christiantripepi9909]

It should not learnn from finland, finlands education system sucks abd is nothibg special and is very racist and the government lets doctors snd schools take tests and they take children away from their parents

[@mimipastry]

Not having multiple choice tests in one specific of few college courses before I switched my major was so eye opening. My nutrition professor said, “when you’re talking to a client, you can’t just ask for them to give you four answer choices.” One of the best unconventional professors I had and respected immensely

[@vexnightmare8166]

this makes me want to move to Finland even more and wish I grow up there

[@AleksiHimself]

You can make it happen if you really want!

[@somerandomstrangeryoudecid8904]

Well It will feel like a freezer cuz I’m finnish and in summer is like an oven and we get like 5 homework’s

[@KC-Mitch]

@@AleksiHimself It'd be nice, but you'd have to have a high skill set desired for Finland (or any other European country). Finland wouldn't want an average American like me. I always joke that Europe treat Americans like Americans treat Mexicans. It'd be nice to live in a Nordic country, though. I'd be totally okay with paying 40% or so in taxes if it meant that I can see a doctor or attend university without going bankrupt. Here in the states, it's rough. You pay x amount in taxes to the Federal government to pay for benefits that the state gets to set the requirements for. Example: I pay Medicaid taxes next to income tax. I don't make a lot. In Massachusetts I would be eligible for Medicaid because I make less than $17k/year. In Florida, I can't because there are requirements that limit who can get it. For a single male, like myself, with no kids nor approved disability, I can't get it despite my income level meeting the requirements, and despite the fact I pay the same taxes as I would in Massachusetts. This country is broken. I'm jealous of European countries, because while they are leaning more conservative and capitalist nowadays, they still have a safety net that is unilateral throughout their respective countries. Meanwhile, the US is a broken version of the EU at this point.

[@coolioso808]

@@KC-Mitch Sorry to hear that. I'm in Canada and I'm glad I am in a country with healthcare for all and less expensive university, but I feel bad for my neighbour Americans who just want to live a good life but happen to be in such a backwards, anti-humanistic and environmental country run by the rich. I would say try coming to Canada, we do have lots of space, especially depending on where it is in the country. But we, like almost everywhere in the world, are experiencing the same sort of conservative/capitalistic tilt in many areas. It is just the way the world is going unless we get off this crazy rollercoaster of market economics and move beyond it to something much more humane.

[@christiantripepi9909]

Dont

[@ronnycrash9309]

In South African high schools, we basically get standardized tests/assessments every week. There were many occasions where we would be taught a topic for the first time in only one lesson and the we would write a test on it the very next day.

[@alicenogueira7166]

That's awful.

[@odyseehasdislikesyoutubesu1892]

" In South African high schools, we basically get standardized tests/assessments every week. There were many occasions where we would be taught a topic for the first time in only one lesson and the we would write a test on it the very next day. " Same , but its gotten worse during this pandemic.

[@petey5009]

Here in the US, we have to choose between spanish, french, or italian, however the course isn't really that good, so a large majority of students don't retain anything they learn after high school.

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff! 😃🙌

[@annikaukkonen]

Hey! I live in Russia and went to school for 11 years (now at university) In most regions of Russia there is a six-day school week (Mon-Sat) In junior school there are 3 to 6 classes a day, in high school 6 classes a day, in high school 6 to 8 classes a day (plus extra exam preparation courses 3-4 hours a week). As for homework, it is a pain in the ass for any Russian student and his parents. According to the "educational standards" the average student should spend 1-3 hours on it per day, in fact, it comes out to about 3.5 (if you do everything). The presence of homework is mandatory, and if you do not do it, you will have a scandal and get a "2" (The lowest grade, we have a five-point scale). You do not get to choose how many and what lessons to take, everything is decided for you. I do not know people who were happy to go to school, it was real torture, forced to wear a school uniform (black and white, something like an office dress code) , self-expression and discussion with the teacher were also punished. And I went to a prestigious lyceum, the best school in the city, but it was nowhere near as good as the ordinary Finnish one. How I wish I could be a little girl again and spend my childhood and adolescence in Finland. I hope my children will be more fortunate

[@Harry-hyl]

Moi Aleksi! I started learning about Finland from this documentary piece, then found your channel. Now I am a full-time master's student in Finland. I think a lot of people have seen this piece, so it's a great choice to share your reaction. Seems like almost all of it is true, except the homework part might be exaggerated a bit, as I thought. There is a lot of freedom of choice in the Finnish system! You have to be quite intrinsically motivated to succeed, just like in "real life". :D

[@AleksiHimself]

Welcome aboard!

[@Novak_Andrzej]

Terve Aleksi! Thanks for the video. Interesting as always! :) Well in Russia children spent a lot of time at school. At elementary school they usually have about 4-5 lessons, since 8:00 to 12:00-13:00, with 10-15 minutes breaks. After elementary school the number of lessons can be 6-7 lessons, so they finish at 14:00, more or less. The studying days are since Monday till Saturday. During elementary (1-4 grades) school the following subjects are included: maths, Russian, reading, spelling, drawing, English (since the second grade), physical education (actually just 40 minutes of sport, no theory), music/singing (which means just singing different Soviet songs) and a subject which can be translated as "the world around us" - a mix of basic geography, biology, physics, etc. In middle and senior school maths is divided into algebra and geometry, new subjects are literature (instead of reading), chemistry and physics (since the 7th grade), geography, biology, IT classes (we call it informatic), life safety fundamentals, labour training (not sure how to translate it properly), mechanical drawing, history and social science. Well also we have Russian, drawing, English, physical education and music (more Soviet songs). As I know, in some schools there can be two languages, but it's rarely now. I even know a school where was German instead of English. And there were some subjects which we probably had only at our school. These are geography of Irkutsk oblast (where I am from), some kind of psychology, some kind of astronomy. Quality of teaching is... different. Depends on a teacher who takes you. And, of course, a lot of homework. I could spend about 3-4 hours doing it. P. S. Just to know: the information above is about school education in a town from Irkutsk oblast 6-7 years ago, so there might be some changes. But not that much. The only change I know about is more control during Unified state exams to avoid cheating.

[@Harry-hyl]

One funny thing is that almost all of Finland's pedagogical practices stem from research done in the US, this is mentioned in some popular yt videos about the Finnish education system as well. Of course, Finland has a lot of their own educational research nowadays, which in the international community is significant, but a lot of the foundational ideas came out of the US, as with many fields. But Finland is actually able to implement these ideas well; it has to be said, it might be easier given the relative wealth per capita and low population. If Finland had UK's population density, China's population as a whole, or India's GDP per capita... I would imagine the results would be a lot harder to achieve. Yet! it seems the people who have power to guide policies in Finland have their hearts in the right place, mostly, and their heads on straight.

[@anacelleedulza5043]

Exactly! 👍👍👍👍

[@laku4452]

I don't know if this helps, but it's a different side to watch this kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqjWoGqXatN6nKM

[@patatacampesina8286]

8:18 "ART IS GONE" I laughed so hard hahaha

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff!

[@patatacampesina8286]

Damn i really wish i was born in Finland haha i would love to grow in schools like that, it seems so fun

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff!

[@somerandomstrangeryoudecid8904]

Nope not fun most of them are drunk and teachers act like Karen’s most of them are nice tho

[@lumiii...]

@@somerandomstrangeryoudecid8904 yeah, as a person who lives I Finland, there are only two teachers I actually like, and are good at their job. Everyone else are trash, I don't know if it's just from my experience, but all of my friends can agree that there is one teacher who is the worst teacher in our school.

[@hamsu9920]

@@lumiii... se on kyllä totta

[@keravavantaa2886]

nope u get 5 homework and studying for exams then all the schools are in mold like u will get health problems and shit so stay in ur country

[@Nicolas-kf6kt]

Here in Australia we are at school from 8.30 am to 3.15 pm, 5 days a week for 13 years (apart from Holidays), there is the opportunities to learn languages in school but if you do other activities such as music or sport it becomes more difficult, because there isn't enough time in the school timetable. I think the main difference between our countries is the difference between public and private schools. In Australia, there are good public schools and bad public schools, the private schools are generally better than all the public schools and the more expensive the private school, the better the education, unfortunately. I think this is a pity. The teachers attitude seems a lot more student focussed in Finland.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment Nicolas!

[@christiantripepi9909]

That is finlands school days

[@nordicsonofeurope5078]

Over in the United States if I remember correctly we go to school for about 7 hours, I didn't enjoy going to grade school in the U.S. it was very regimented and there wasn't much compassion, empathy or rationality involved, if there was compassion, empathy or rationality involved it was because you had a good teacher, however my last 2 years of high school were great and that was because I changed schools and it was slandered as being the bad kids school which it wasn't, it had a variety of people, some good, some bad but everybody had a unique sense of individuality and the school respected that. There is a reason why people in the United States glorify the Finnish education system because we want to be educated not indoctrinated and dictated, and I'm sure there are a lot of Americans that can relate to what I'm saying, however college over here is a lot different than grade school so I'm not gonna criticize the American community colleges and universities, just the grades schools I was forced to attend, but anyway to leave things on a more positive note thank you Aleksi for taking time out of your day to make videos about Finland, you give me a lot of hope and others as well and I hope that I get to visit your beautiful country some day and possibly study and live there.

[@maisieliberty1319]

We also didn't have much multiple choice tests in Scotland. We had a lot of short answer and essay questions. I'm now in US style university, a lot of multiple choice. We do learn things, but definitely revise less for tests than people did for tests without multiple choice options.

[@anacelleedulza5043]

Finland's educational system is like a dream. And school isn't a nightmare both for teachers and learners! And i really appreciate the foreign languages taught.👍👍👍👍 Thanks for this Aleksi😃

[@keravavantaa2886]

dream? not for a 5th grader: u need to actually study for exams, 5 homework per day.

[@christiantripepi9909]

Propaganda, failed school system like in every country, they are extremely opressive, I went in school in finland in the center of helsinki, in really good schools, on the outside they might look great but the finnish school system as a whole is a joke

[@katydid5088]

​@@keravavantaa2886 5 homework? Or 5 hours? Or 5 different subjects to study for 5 hours each?

[@keravavantaa2886]

@@katydid5088 homework from 5 diferent subjects like bruh

[@Onnijaakkola]

​​@@keravavantaa2886voi kamalaa...

[@MyDavidPutnam]

Active learning is key. Fill in the blank makes more sense than multiple choice to really know a subject.

[@AleksiHimself]

I agree!

[@hrqueen1herrera906]

I had the privilege of attending the latter part of primary school in the Dominican Republic and the rest of my schooling in the U.S. In the D.R., all exams were essay form and sometimes we would present chapters to the rest of the class. I am grateful for the skills I developed as a result of that system, as well as having the knowledge and appreciation for world history and geography.

[@jorismortelmans9987]

About language learning in the Flemish education system (Belgium) where we first of all focus on our mother tongue, Dutch. Our first compulsory foreign language is French from 5th grade, from 7th grade (the first grade of secondary schools) you can pick Latin if you want to (but only if you choose to go to general secondary education), from 8th grade we have English. From 10th grade, you get German, but not all students continue with it through 11th and 12th grade. I picked the language-oriented specialisation in 11th and 12th grade so I still had German and ended my secondary school with a decent luggage of French, English, German and Latin and after that, I went on to study translation at university. The sad thing is that we have observed a significant drop in language students and an overall decrease in languages offered at our universities. Finnish never had its own university curriculum in Belgium, but I really wish there was a university offering the language.

[@mojovr5003]

Sounds about right! You forgot to mention though that ancient Greek is an option in some schools too! Unfortunately the number of pupils choosing to study that language is also declining :(

[@thejohanvalli]

I am upper secondery pupil at the moment, and I don't have homework at all really. Sometimes there is, but just a little bit. In Basic education (lower classes) there was pretty much homework.

[@z_lila]

When I have kids in the future, I've always imagined them going to school in Finland. I don't want them to have the same amount of stress as I have, I want them to be happy and not worry as much about school.

[@AleksiHimself]

Sounds like a plan!

[@wenyang5916]

Great video! I’d love to know how language is taught in Finish school? I’m from China, here students start learning English at third grade and continue all the all to college, but many of them still can’t speak English. If you can make a video about the language education, that would be awesome!🤩

[@thedativecase9733]

This reminds me of how we in England are taught languages. I spent years learning French got a good grade in my exams and still can't hold a decent conversation in the language.

[@artemis-mingyue9592]

seconded. I've spent time in both the chinese and american education systems, and can confirm that neither are good at teaching languages.

[@remaks3929]

The reason why Finnish people can speak English better, is because they have the same alphabet as the English speakers

[@artemis-mingyue9592]

@@remaks3929 That's definitley not it. The latin alphabet isn't exactly hard. there are only 26 letters, and only 44 phonemes in English. Not to mention that Chinese babies learn the latin alphabet before they're able to read Chinese, because the Pinyin pronunciation guide uses it too. And if you're thinking of pronunciation, that's trivial anyway after a certain point. it's the important stuff--grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, rhetorical figures, etc. that are not taught well. It's not just a problem in China either.....

[@it-girl2203]

In our school english from 3 grade france if you want at 4 grade and swedish from 6 grade but recently Its really trending in schools to teach first graders CHINESE and many kids are learning it

[@timmy7201]

Where I live (hours in classes, breaks not included!): School hours a week: - 6 to 12 year old's: 31 hours - 13 to 18 year old's: 36 hours - College & University: 0 - 40 hours (most classes are not mandatory, if you're to lazy to show up and fail that's your problem). Mandatory homework hours a week: - 6 to 12 year old's: 10 - 15 hours - 13 to 18 year old's: 5 to 20 hours - College & University: None (Nobody cares, it is your future!) The total work hours average: - 6 to 12 year old's: 41 to 46 hours - 13 to 18 year old's: 41 to 56 hours - College & University: 0 to 80 hours (depends from student to student, some are to lazy to join any class and will most likely fail) The whole education system here is focused on regurgitating knowledge from textbooks, without any form of critical thinking. This was highly noticeable during my years at uni, those with the best score where exceptionally good at memorizing things without understanding it. Most of them would start the memorization process one week before their exam, then forget all of it less than a month later. They also received a bachelors or masters degree, yet they don't remember 90% of their 'training'...

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks Timmy!

[@jonathanlin7874]

From my experience in Canada, school is usually 6.5 hours per day for both elementary (ages 6-13) and secondary (ages 14-18) schools. In my secondary school, we usually get 2-3 hours of homework per day, although that can easily jump to 4 or 5 hours if you include studying for tests. Elementary schools usually have much less homework than that.

[@Slindi81]

Great video once again. I also was wondering why they claim there is no homework, I remember doing homework in primary school. I mean how can you learn math or foreign languages if you don't do anything at home? Or to write essays. But I guess it's true that it didn't take that much time to do the homework.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks Slindi! That's what I thought too.

[@patatacampesina8286]

Where i live, school is 6 hours, highschool is 9 hours everyday and lots of tests, it sucks

[@AleksiHimself]

Wow 9 hours is extreme.

[@Harry-hyl]

There is always somewhere worse ^^

[@sirseigan]

Finland's schoolsystem sounds like the Swedish was when I was growing up. I recognize a lot of what was said from my own time at school. Nowadays though it is a completely different story and Sweden do have quite a lot of problem with segregation due to private schools. I personally think private schools can be good in some cases but not as a pure business model (at least not as long as it is founded by tax money).

[@MDobri-sy1ce]

In Canada I think in elementary school it’s 6-8 hours a day so roughly 35-40 hours a week. High school is about the same. In college the norm is 5-7 courses people usually take (max) if they are in a full program.I think generally overall 6 hours in class lectures and studying depending if you take the maximum amount of courses is between 8- 14 hours of study. It could be more depending on how much you get done and grasp things.

[@AleksiHimself]

I think we have around the same numbers except in the very early grades.

[@doo1819]

French school system here ✋🏽in high school we can easily have 2/3 hours of homework after school, each teacher tends to give us something to do and 20 minutes for 5 subjects end up being a lot sadly. in primary school, our schedule is: 8:00 to 11:40 then 13:40 to 16:00 (some school had their lunch start at 12:00), and with recent reform primary schooler work on Wednesday morning :/ middle schooler's schedule is usually 8:00 to 12:00 and 13:40 to 16:40 (they sometimes start or finish earlier or later depending on how their schedule was made obviously). high schooler schedule is usually 8:05 to 12:00 and 12:45 to 17:35. students have music and art class in middle school (it's an optional class in some hs) but we don't really learn music or art we just sing some song that we're taught and draw something based on a theme given. As for poetry we just learn it and recite it in front of the class so it's not really enriching either. during our last year of high school, we must register on something called parcoursup and it's the only way to get in contact with a university (or any type of schooling after the baccalauréat) and we're chosen by an algorithm that will reject or accept us (parcoursup is hated by a 100% of students)

[@christos42me82]

All that I hear is great and very friendly actually compared to the style of my country. You begin to learn every possible subject through 6-7 hours daily ( not weekend ofc). At age 9-10 many kids are forced to do private lessons at home like math, English which takes up even more time and money. Moving on at gymnasium (age 12-15), most of the kids begin now (like I did) and the rest just continues. At high school ( age 15-18), students who think seriously about their future and their parents can support them, start private lessons and at that time almost every student does private lessons. This means that school every day is about 6-7 hours while private lessons (3-5) times a week take up to 4 hours. That program is mostly for 2 last years before university. All that means a super stressed student who has to go to school for 6 hours and only learn the subjects he wants for 3 hours and the rest JUST STAYS THERE. Meanwhile he goes home at 1:15 or 2:00 , eats and at 3:00-4-5 depending on program, leaves for an other 3-5 hours while having to do homework after that ... NO LIFE WHATSOEVER .

[@milsh4ke]

3:41 32,5 hours a week in the Quebecois school system (primairy and secondairy) + a couple hours of mandatory homework per week 6:00 French is the first language and we start learning English the moment we enter school. You have to wait for college (17 years old) to start learning a third language. In my city's college, it's either Spanish or German.

[@babywearsmart]

Here in the Philippines, first graders have to be in school at 7:15 coz class starts at 7:30am..go to lunch at 11:30,sometimes the class extends so my kid have his lunch my 11:45-12nn, the back to school at 1pm, off by 3:30-3:40

[@sandarahangalay]

Wait, 30 minutes for homework? My god, that won't be considered a homework here in the Philippines, that would be a seatwork! Also, here in the Philippines as a student, I spent more than 60 hours a week for school (6 AM to 5 PM, the time allotted for extracurricular activities are not yet included) back when we are still on face to face class, I really envy your system😭😭😭

[@jokutyyppi4226]

I usually do it right before the class starts in >10 minutes, interesting

[@konyvnyelv.]

In Italy I had 40 hours a week in primary school. 8 hours a day, 2 of which are for lunch and free time

[@Kayla-ok2rz]

Yes it's similar here in America! We got around a 37 hour week, and then we got around 45 minutes of recess and lunch in total

[@kwilatek]

One thing that is worth elaborating: what do these kids mean when they say - I speak language X? What is the level of proficiency? Asking because it does take a while to reach reasonable proficiency. Research shows that depending on how different the new language is from your mother tongue, it could be 500-2000 hours needed. This means that you'd need 5 hours per school week for several years to reach this. This a significant time spent on one subject. Is this really how much is invested in learning each of these languages in school?

[@evastrgar]

Croatia🇭🇷: In the first three classes of primary school you go to school 18 hours per week if you don't choose any of optional school subjects (religion education/computer science). You go to school 20 hours per week if you choose one optional subject and if you choose both optional subjects then you go to school 22 hours per week. In the first three classes of primary school you have croatian language (mother tongue) - of course - and one foreign language (German/French/English - it depends on school). In 4th class you choose another foreign language od you want it. It is optional. You go to primary school 8 years.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks Eva!

[@julianarchietobiasng9239]

Indonesia, 40 Hours a week for student to learning in School + homework

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks Julian!

[@andreas.9175]

As far as standardized testing in the US, we are in a difficult position that Finland is not in. We have some students who graduate high school who literally can not read. They're just moved up from grade level to grade level based on their age and graduate. Part of the function of standardized tests so that from the outside we can check on the progress of students and teachers so that we don't find out when someone is 18 that they spent all that time in school and learned very little or nothing.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

Buddy that doesn't make sense to me. A teacher would know if someone could not read. Or their parents. Like why wouldn't their(Finnish) system have such a problem. Because it's addressed. I don't know the exact reason but it's not for that as that doesn't help the school. If a school didn't do well because of that student, they wouldn't get more funding and it wouldn't be addressed anyway. At best the school would be punished. Or the student would be sent to special Ed or something. It's basically job performance for the school though. Think Michael Moore called it competition. Like that very thing you mentioned sounds like an issue with the system that uses standardized tests.

[@abeliever7029]

Northern Ireland, primary school till age 8 0850-2, then older primary school finishes at 3pm. High school finishes at 3.30pm.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the insights!

[@justskip4595]

Finnish schools are far from perfect. Didn't enjoy my time on any level of education and reading the news even now it sounds like many others aren't enjoying their time either. It makes me wonder how bad it can be elsewhere then.

[@justskip4595]

@eteppo I do not know a single person who has had good experience with schools here and I personally have experience from 7 different schools.

[@LOKI77able]

@@justskip4595 "Here" where? In which country?

[@padmashrishelar4275]

In India from the age of 6, we go to school for almost 7 hours and we have over 1 hour homework, so practically we don't get any time to play.

[@asimanayak304]

Actually you do have time to play. What prevents you from extra curriculars and playtime is sheer discouragement from parents. I mean they arent wrong though considering how difficult it is to get a job and how an averager struggles to make ends meet in bigger cities. You are made to compete in this rat race against million others. Our only problem is we havent widened our careers. Most people keep running after medical and engineering year after year. I wish other fields were as much encouraged as the other two.

[@padmashrishelar4275]

@@asimanayak304 You are right, but ultimately going after engineering or medical is the safest option in India, as our parents put some real stress on the word 'scope'. I myself have known architects to have commit suicide because their projects were rejected. Our nation is simple a country with a rush hour where people don't care about efficiency, art or design, we don't value artists or architects anymore and then we keep bitching about how European cities have a better city planning and better designed buildings than us. Then there are several more hindrances like the politics, corruption and reservations, which prevent worthier people from achieving their dreams. Look at the government built redevelopment buildings for an example, those pile of bricks fall in less than 3 years, because the engineers and architects building them do it just for the sake of doing it, these building don't have proper facilities like a proper ventilation, sewage disposal and fire exit. There are several cases were people have died in these buildings collapsing. Upon that there's corruption at every instant from the government money supplied for buying superior construction material which is laundered by officers and contractors and replaced by inferior building material to the engineers and architects who take bribes and have no respect for their position which they have secured only due to their quotas. Finland is a literal heaven compared to India, yes they have a hell lotta taxes, but every dime paid by the citizens is worth it. This godforsaken place is killing our dreams!! I wanted to be a chef, but my parents forced me to study for JEE and here I am with no fruitful results, an useless product of the Indian education system which was just ,made by the Brits to produce clerks for their imperial interests.

[@freddubin9826]

@@padmashrishelar4275 Good luck.

[@padmashrishelar4275]

@@freddubin9826 I badly need that.

[@berkadsiz2905]

What an awesome video. In my country, Turkey, high school education hours per week are around 40 hours. I know that sounds too much, unfortunately. I have a question for you. After my university graduation, I've been thinking to do my MBA in Finland and maintain my rest of life in Finland. Which university would you offer for MBA degree? In advance, Kiitos!!!

[@letizia2730]

Hangi üniversitede hangi bölümü okuyorsun?

[@berkadsiz2905]

@@letizia2730 Bilkent Üniversitesi Ekonomi

[@letizia2730]

@@berkadsiz2905 Avrupa'daki üniversiteler Türkiye'deki gibi gösteriş için açılmaz.Bizim uzun adam her şehire üniversite açtık diye övünmek için açtırdı.Bu yüzden önemli olan senin bütçen bence üniversiteler 10.000-15.000£ oluyor genelde ama Lut üniversitesi gibi bazı üniversiteler daha ucuz oluyor.Bu arada çok güzel bir üniversitede okuyorsun.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment. Personally I don't know much about MBA's. You can start by checking Aalto University.

[@berkadsiz2905]

@@letizia2730 Kesinlikle öyle. Teşekkürler

[@lauraferrer5021]

I don't see much difference with the educational system in Spain. We have homework, no standardized tests, no multiple answers exams, we have arts, music, ethics... But I still think there must be something different in Finland educational system 🤔 I think is more the way the teacher do class (they are like Lectures here) or the exams questions, because to be able to answer them you have to memorize the material and then just write it down on the exam. Also depending where you live in Spain, we have other languages (Gallego, Catalan and Vasco) that we also learn at school, for example I know Catalan, Spanish and English . We start learning English in school (9 years old I think). But really interesting video!! Thank you ☺️☺️

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment Laura Ferrer!

[@laku4452]

I don't know if this helps, but it's different kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqjWoGqXatN6nKM

[@danielmalinen6337]

The reason why Krista Kiuru said that Finnish schools no longer have homework was because Kiuru believed so. It was some kind of ideal model outlined on papers only, which she imagined to be true, but which doesn't correspond to reality. If I remember, there was an interview where Kiuru apologized for this statement after it was noticed in Finland, but I can also remember wrong because I can't find it on Google anymore.

[@lucabonisoli]

Aleksi I am an italian public school teacher and I am very curious about the finnish school system. I watched many videos on KZbin but there are still several things that I don't understand. For example: 1) Are finnish students allowed to choose some of the subjects they learn, or are all school subjects mandatory? 2) Are there "minimum passing grades" or minimum levels of some kind that primary or middle school students should reach at the end of a school year? 3) If so, what happens to the students who fall behind and don't reach the minimum level at the end of a school year?

[@AleksiHimself]

1) Yes they are 2) Yes there is 3) Those students have to retake the school year but I believe it's very rare.

[@lucabonisoli]

@@AleksiHimself Thanks for answering!

[@santymery3264]

Half is similar to education system applied in my country, Indonesia. Home work is given for those who can't complete their task at school. Coz they take many time to chit chat or doing their task. Now, we are no longer use standardized test, the test is just to measure how effective was the teaching method applied. For kindergarten up to elementary level, they just take 3 hours long for study, exception for islamic school, it is added 1 more hour for holy book learning. After that they are free to do everything at home. The different is the methods and media provided by the school.. Since we have high number of students in all school, we are difficult to equip the pupils with the teaching aids, it costs a lot, and limited by the space and materials. For Vocational high school level, it is exceptional, they must spend much time to practice technical work at school.. Because they must prepare themselves to working life

[@CaroxElMundo]

Hi Aleksi, thanks for this video, I am about to be interviewed about this topics and I have watched this video some years ago. I unveiled some myths about this with my co workers here in Finland. One of them has her kids in private school as international schools are actually private. Also kinder is private (the fee depends on how much the parents make). So, there are private schools, but the program and contents are the same as there us only one regulation entity.

[@AleksiHimself]

The early education (kindergarden) isn't really "a school" (or depends how you look at it). International schools definitely are private.

[@CaroxElMundo]

@@AleksiHimselfah, perhaps that's why it is confusing for my country as preschool is compulsory. Thanks for your answer!

[@reddeer1758]

In New Zealand, at the school I teach at the kids go to school for 6 hours, 45 minutes of this is spent outside playing, another 30 minutes is spent eating food. My young students spend most of their day playing in class too, on top of this. I give my 5-8 year olds about 15 minutes of homework a day (I ask them to read their reading book to an adult and do 5 minutes of math and literacy homework). It's not compulsory, although I encourage parents to do it with their kids. I teach my students Te Reo Maori, and this is becoming more and more common in nz with recent changes in what nz teachers need to teach to their students. We do not have exams until year 9 (13-14 year olds), but of course I think all teachers worldwide are (or should be) constantly assessing what their students know or don't know, formally or informally. In our school this assessment is used to help us decide what to teach them next, not so much 'rank' the students. At our school our playground, etc was designed with the students. We had our students from age 5-12 work together with a landscape designer, draw what they wanted, make a model of it and participate in helping put the playground together. I think it depends on the school, but that kind of thing is definitely encouraged in nz.

[@vapaus831]

3:43 HongKong(Before the Covid-19): 35hrs/over35hrs HongKong(During the Covid-19): 25hrs/ over25hrs United Kingdom(ks3): 30hrs United Kingdom(gcse):35hrs

[@CNWPlayer]

In the States, KINDERGARTEN (basically 4-5 year olds first grade of elementary school) is in for roughly 7 hours per day. About 49 hours for 4 year olds in school per week. Compare that to 7 year olds in Finland. I really want to move there but language barriers want me to go to Norway more.

[@sNivetha8]

Hi I am from south India. The schooling system here so very different I was born in 90s those time Normal School timing was between 8.30am to 4pm, even for primary sch We had 8 periods on a day and two breaks, each periods lasts for 40 mins....... that really sucks Every subject teacher gives home work it almost took min 3 hours a day We had been through very boring schooliiing system You can't even imagine how hard it is unless u personally experience it Finnish kids are very vvery lucky

[@thedativecase9733]

Similar in England when I was at school - 9am to 4.30pm

[@Adelicows]

In the US, I was in school from 7am to 2:45pm, and I usually had anywhere from four to eight hours of homework. I am not exaggerating. My school stopped offering physical education and recess/play time, music, sewing, woodworking, and cooking. We still had art, but I could not take it because it cost too much money. It is truly mind boggling that the US government literally REFUSES to improve our educational system. Same thing with our healthcare and prison systems. With the internet being what it is, we now know what works and what doesn't work. So why won't we change???

[@thetrainhopper8992]

As a teacher in the US (California specifically) there is a reason why a lot of non core programs got eliminated. It has to do with our school system being incredibly wasteful to administer. Instead of school districts being organized around a county like they are in Nevada where I went to high school, schools are organized in a random pattern. Meaning what proportion of their budget they need to spend on basic administration varies a lot. In Nevada, they have county wide school systems and even with only 2/3 the funding per student, our high schools still had more class options that schools here do now. We have this weird love affair with schools being small and community oriented, but don't realize that they waste funding on administration for no decernable benefit for the students. My high school had more class options including art, PE, Career education and 10 science classes. Which is more than equivalent schools here have even with more money. So when it comes to cuts, we chose this. And the Nevadan in me says it's the segregated system most states have that wastes money which causes non core programs to be eliminated. On the languages thing, most Europeans don't realize how big the US is. We can go to different states and everyone still speaks English. It's not like California and Nevada speak different languages. And if you live in the Western US, you only really need a basic understanding of Spanish to get by. So it's not that we don't want to learn other languages, it's either we don't need to or our wasteful bureaucracy elimated the programs to preserve their jobs.

[@x.5364]

i feel like here in Ukraine there's not very much differences in schooling proccess, but for some reason the result is WAY different. we also have like 20 hours of classes in elementary school and standartized exams take place only twice - in 9th grade and in 11th. we also had PE lessons during all the school and some classes that either were art classes or replaced them but in fact were art classes. we had informatics till the end of school also and were actually studying geography, literature & history, both ukrainian and foreign. we also usually study several languages - in most of schools only english, but there's plenty of schools that teach french, german or polish language as well. in my grammar school they even taught latin earlier, but now this good tradition is gone, unfortunately. anyway, when i hear random stuff about US schools i tend to believe that ours are way better despite the stress they brought. at least we were not paying for it! but we had a lot of homework. like really a lot. obviously it may vary from school to school (eventhough they all are quite equal), but usually there was a lot of it. for example, there could be 8 lessons in a day and you had to do homework for 7 of them. so majority of people i knew just didn't gave a shit about these homeworks or cheated a lot. personally i did almost nothing and somehow managed to get away with it :) but due to this amount of homework and *usually* not very good relations between students & teachers, final exams stress, and overall depressed atmoshere it's kinda traumatic experience to finish our schools. like most of my friends hated it, me included. luckily the system is improving and the nowadays kids attend schools of new type - 12 years of school, improved teaching system, more implications from western schools and less from soviet system, so i hope it will get better soon and kids in ten years won't complain about doing homework at night :))

[@anushya2112]

In India even a 4 year old kid doing 1 to 2 hrs of home work. How frustrating it is.😔

[@sebastianwrites]

I was just reading Veronica Kivela comment below, and she summed up the problem 'entirely!' It's a paradox, but true... "Too proud to change." And we have the same problem in Britain; if I gave you a list of supermarkets, and pubs I've "banned" from for simply saying something is not right or something can be better?" It is disheartening.

[@maisieliberty1319]

I'm from Uk, I now live in Europe. We don't have good language education in UK. It's not needed as much as a lot of the world speaks our first language. So the motivation and funding for it is lower. I am amazed by people I meet and work with in Europe who speak 2 or 3 languages fluently. I wish I had been taught languages with more importance given to them.

[@toota1052]

I am a teacher in Australia, I work from 8 am to 4 pm😭😭😭😭I would love to have a year of exchange in Finland to observe schools there.

[@coolioso808]

Can I just ask a clarifying question: Is the official school hours from 8 am to 4 pm or are you saying those are the hours you choose to work before and after the school day? Just wondering because in my country, typical school hours are 9 am to 3:30 pm with 1 hour lunch break and two 15-min recess breaks. But many teachers are at school at least by 8 am and stay until 4 or 4:30 to prep/mark and sometimes more hours just to get everything done for some weeks.

[@musicislife6250]

Here in Brazil we spend too much time in school, but I think the explanation for that is that both parents have to work and then have no time to take care of the children or money to pay someone to do it, so it is safer to let kids in school. There are some full-time schools cause of that I believe. Considering that, I think that has no need to have too much homework, but we do

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment Music is Life!

[@dancefandom6574]

In italy we do like at least 4 hours of home work a day

[@yassirkhay]

It was an Italian teacher, who invented the idea of homework back in history 😅

[@Cikeb]

The point of the Finnish education system is not to create amazing amounts of top students. It's to lift the weakest students, which also lifts the results overall, and this places the Finnish students high in comparison with other countries. The numbers come from the average result of all students. Michael Moore exaggerates a lot to make his points, but I too was baffled by the comment Kiuru made in his movie. Though, it's not the first time she makes a blunder. When it comes to languages, bilingualism, trilingualism and so on, it's much more common i Europe overall than it is in the US. Over 50% of people within the EU consider themselves at least bilingual.

[@ishrendon6435]

Thats why finland has terrible students overall

[@Cikeb]

@@ishrendon6435 Compared to?

[@tombstone2254]

Does Finland grade the homework?? In America, a lot of the time, the work you bring home you have to bring back for a grade. 😭 Not doing it can bring your grade down a good chunk…cause usually it counted as like, 15% of our grade.

[@AleksiHimself]

Not that I know of.

[@RGNRK-ms8rk]

Here in Australia we have 35 hours of school a week lmao

[@jennifergiuffre1432]

As a U.S. educator, sometimes I feel as if I'm in the wrong country. I always tell my students that I am there to teach them how to critically think, not WHAT to think, regardless of what the curriculum is. If that means I don't get to each long, so be it. Children should embrace their natural curiosity for as long as they possibly can. We cannot create a lifelong love of learning without embracing and nurturing that natural desire to learn from the very beginning. The US education system is too regimented. And that's not a surprise, considering it was created to assimilate non-European white cultures and to create a nation of workers, not a nation of thinkers, per major early US education system funder Rockefeller. If we understand the history, we can learn from it and CHANGE our present and our future so as to not rhyme with it. But it's impossible when people are to stuck in the "when I was your age" days. We US Americans are too obsessed with data.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment Jennifer!

[@momofromatla2318]

Before pandemic I was in 11th grade in turkey, 8 classes a day at school/40 classes on weekdays 3 classes after school for 3 days a week (extra course)/9 more classes on weekdays 6 classes a day on weekends (extra course)/ 12 weekend classes In total: 61 hours of classes a week and I would have to study at least 3 hours every day to keep my grades up so I would spend my 85 hours on schoolwork. But a normal 11th grade only has to take 40 classes in the beginning but almost everyone who wants a good university takes extra courses or private tutors. I speak turkish english and german, I learned at school. You have to learn english and one of german, french or arabic as third language.

[@RosieJesselyn]

In America, at least from my own personal experience, it really depends on where you live and what’s the population of your town. If you have a small number of people then your education will be lacking. However, from what I understand in hearing other people, I guess that’s not necessarily the case? I don’t really know how it works, then, to be honest with you. I hear horror stories of how nasty public school buildings are in Detroit, and yet it’s big city 🤷‍♀️. I’m from a relatively small town in comparison to other towns in the USA but it’s also the largest population in comparison to surrounding towns (surrounding towns can be under 1,000 people). My school did have art, we had Spanish and French offered. Spanish was required for 1 semester in 7th grade (idk what that would be in Finland-it’s just under high school). I hated it so I tried French in 8th grade (which 9th grade is when high school actually starts). It wasn’t required in 8th grade, but my school was cool/needed students to fill the seats so when I took French it counted for my high school requirement (even though I wasn’t in high school). I LOVED it, and I took 5 years of French. It’s only required to take a foreign language for 2 years in high school. My teacher had to come up with a curriculum for a 5th year French since it’s unheard of because high school is only 4 years🤷‍♀️. Our class sizes were so small once we got to 3rd year French since it wasn’t required to take anymore after 2. My teacher would have 3 French classes going on in the same classroom, so she jumped from classes constantly in there. The largest portion was 3rd year, which took up half of the classroom, while 4th year would take about a quarter of the classroom, (maybe 5 kids?). And then 5th year was usually 2 students. .... she was the only French teacher so she had a lot going on and this is how it worked out. Our art classes aren’t that good, but they did their purpose. There was also a cooking/baking class but I don’t really know anything about it. I was required to take a semester of it at one point, but then I just took French and Art classes as my electives from then on out. The teachers is the most important thing in our schools and their dedication is everything. I’m so saddened by the lack of resources we have for our teachers. I’m so grateful to the few that really gave it their all the best they could. It made the other teachers bearable. I never used my brain in other classes. It was always memorization. I got lucky with Chemistry and that teacher made me think, but it was plenty of memorization as well. But at least it was applied learning. Math classes in general was “learn how to do this equation, do the homework, don’t do it again until the test, and then you’re done to forget it.”

[@levianas1677]

My homework usually takes aroynd 2-3 hours or more. We have assignments, researches, homework and quizes.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment Leviana's!

[@RalKrish]

In India meanwhile We have classwork, homework and assignments as well for each subjects every week. 3notebooks and a lot of external tuitions special classes etc etc etc......

[@MarchionessDarby62]

If we expect the school system to change in the US, the universities have to lead the way by eliminating the need for the SAT and ACT. Eliminating that requirement would help high schools to focus elsewhere. As it is now, if we don’t give students the skill practice of taking tests, then they are at a disadvantage for the SAT, which could jeopardize their university admission. We need to expect more from the universities, especially with how expensive they are.

[@babywearsmart]

For languages here in the Philippines, recently children are taught with the mother tongue language (depends on the language being spoken in the island you are in), then as mucb as the Filipino Language is being taught, English is much given emphasis for us to learn, prolly because it is really needed in the jobs that most Filipinos work

[@RedScareClair]

The States definitely has strict homework. It's graded and mandatory. If you're in honors classes forget it. On top of all of your other classes and extra curricular activity, you might have to read a book a month or so. School in the US really is terrible.

[@sebastianwrites]

Think you misunderstood what Moore said, he said Finland does "not" have multiple choices in exams?

[@enriquegarcia9004]

In the states, particularly in California, we have between 37-40hr/week school in all grade levels. Some of them like T-K is less but still about double.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks Enrique!

[@education3511]

What is Finland education administration system

[@skysab96]

i was going to Lithuanian secondary school, my school had music or art and normal studies, and i had from 9 to 12 lessons a day, every school in Lithuania start at 8 am and i used to finish at 5 or 6 pm. -.

[@isharahettiarachchi2513]

My goodness...Im from Sri Lanka..we have 6 hours a day school time and 36 hours a week

[@clemusjohnson7858]

As a former educator..... Finland worse schools are far greater than American schools. Puts the U.S to shame.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for the comment!

[@today_iforgotimsad8179]

In my country we also have to learn 3 languages, but we start learning 2 languages from 1. grade and then learn 3. Language in 4. Grade but we can chose 4 grade too

[@ezeechords3578]

In my country, 8 hours straight classes daily. Plus evening study 1 hr, morning study 1 hour and night study 1 hour. I have wasted my 15 years going to school.

[@AleksiHimself]

Thanks for sharing!

[@takedasamurai238]

I did not get homework in England, guess it depends on schools, but we did like 8 hours a day Monday to Friday

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff! 😃👌

[@thedativecase9733]

Different schools probably different generation too. I went to school in England and we got regular homework in secondary school. I didn't object to it - you have to do unsupervised work when you go to college so you may as well get used to it.

[@eravulgaris211]

Hey Aleksi, Is there aby interest in learning languages like Russian or Norwegian? Or is the education focused around languages of economic importance like English, German, and Swedish? By the way, I love your channel, great content as always.

[@mehmetkoyuncuoglu1624]

I have an Associate Degree and want to complete my bachelor degree in Finland education system. Can anyone tell me how the university system is in finland?

[@AleksiHimself]

Check this out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2PGdYZmraahoc0

[@rackin9594]

hi, were you able to transfer your credits? im curious. thanks.

[@tasilua1051]

Here in america school funding is dependent on neighborhoods property value, poorer communities get poor quality schools.... i grew up un maui and the schools here varied greatly in curriculum. God i hated school....

[@NIKOJEFE]

In America they don't teach other languages till 9th grade in Highschool during age 14-15

[@gastonhitw720]

but what does people mean by a lot of homework?

[@Valeria-wb5cy]

so i'm from romania and here we usually start learning english in kindergarden, then in middle school you can choose between french and german and continue to learn it in highschool as well :D

[@mohammedshehada5373]

Here we have this is the number of hours weekly in schools. G1 to G4 - 32 Hours/Week G5 to G8 - 36 Hours/Week G9 to G12 - 38 Hours/Week

[@jonyisinthehouse]

I love your videos. Probably not 100% related, but in other countries (Estonia XD) if you want your kid to go to the kindergarten you have to apply two or three years in advance. Is it similar in Finland?

[@AleksiHimself]

I don't think so. There are plenty of kindergartens.

[@MyDavidPutnam]

How do we know Finland has the top education if there are no standardized tests?

[@AleksiHimself]

For example by Pisa Rankings.

[@MrAndor-qm7zf]

My impressions about Finnish when I was working at a company there was a guy - who got only a job to tell us that do your work. He definietly came from Finnland only to occupy this job. I remember when a collegaue and this guy was talking to each other, speaking you know about everyday stuffs not work related, simple took a shit that there were work and even laugh at me that I was not working, wawing with their hands.

[@jillhovi5345]

I really believe I would have valued education and overall life better if I grew up in Finland. Don't ever take it for granted. They are 100% right saying US schools are a business!! It's all about $$$$$. It's a shame.

[@strugglingcollegestudent]

American schools are free lol. But they suck that’s why lots of families who can afford it send their kids to private schools.

[@maisieliberty1319]

Finnish education, especially early years, makes more sense developmentally speaking. It is very interesting. I really appreciate what they do. It is interesting to hear the opinion on it from an actual Finnish person too. Totally agree that thinking skills and mental health ( happiness ) is more important, because you don't have a kid learning when the kid's emotional and physical needs aren't met first.

[@AleksiHimself]

Good stuff! 😃🙌

[@mr.generico386]

I've spend my whole morning in school, from 7:00 to 11:30 plus a hell of a lot of homework. Now I'm dumb.