Schools in Finland are not compulsory after 9th grade. Today I visited Helsinge Gymnasium, a secondary school on the outskirts of Helsinki. The school building was nondescript, then teachers and principal were friendly and put up cheerfully with 15 of us trudging through their classrooms and cafeteria.
I talked with students who were relaxed and self confident. They liked school, and saw it as something that their parents thought was important. They were fluent in English, Swedish, Finnish and sometimes Spanish. Amazing!
Between classes a young man named Anton asked me about President Obama. He knew quite a bit about our country. Students here don’t have high stakes testing or unreasonable goals in schools. They are nurtured to be autonomous, respectful and thoughtful. The schools exude these expectations coming together to support the needs of children in many ways.
At lunch some students joked with me about the food: potatoes and cabbage. Bad! But I asked them to help me understand Finnish issues. They both said that alcohol, teenage drinking was a big problem. They felt compelled to drink and they felt as if that was true throughout the society. Animated and candid,their words carried a truth that I was grateful to hear and sad to acknowledge that our country shared similar problems.
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