Interesting video on Finnish schools -- purportedly the best in the world.

[JDPriestly]

Makes me think Obama is definitely going in the wrong, wrong, wrong direction

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8601207.stm

There is a video, and it is fun to watch.

[jwirr]

1. Once more the answer is LOCAL control and the only way government

could help is make sure that schools have the equipment they need to teach - teachers, books, etc. That school reminded me of the small country schools that were around when I grew up. Everyone in one room and helping each other learn. I agree Duncan is leading us the wrong way.

[JDPriestly]

2. Thanks. It is important that the children do not start school

until they are six, that children of different levels of ability are in the same classroom, that cooperation and teamwork, not competition are the motivating force, that TEACHERS STICK WITH THEIR CHILDREN THROUGH THEIR EARLY SCHOOL YEARS. That last one is absolutely major, especially for shy children and for kids with problems at home. Our teachers waste a lot of time at the beginning of each school year trying to get to know their kids.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

3. I enjoyed the videos, especially the first one.

But I disagree with the conclusions on here. It's a national system, not a local one. Municipalities are responsible for keeping the schools in order.

And as the minister in charge says, they are now separating out the children so that those with specific talents get ahead.

Finland is a very homogenized cohesive place, so the minister says this method won't work everywhere.

[happyslug]

4. Sounds like Finland follows the W Edwards Deming school of HOW to improve Quality.

W Edwards Deming was a statistician who statistical work lead him to several observations as to how to improve quality. He started out improving weapons making during WWII, and then used those same observation to expand such quality improvements to over areas. In the 1950s he gave a speech on how to improve quality to Japanese manufacturing, while at the same time his ideas were being rejected in the US. The Japanese credit much of their subsequent improvement in Quality (Japanese products in the 1950s were viewed as junk) to following what Deming told them to do.

W Edwards Deming first concept and the heart of his policy on improving quality in anything is to accept a fact MOST American manufacturers reject, i.e. THAT YOUR BEST QUALITY CAN BE NO BETTER THEN THE WORSE INPUT. Deming basically taught the best way to improve quality is to address the lowest input NOT the Best and the Brightest. In simple terms, if you have 100 A students and 1 D student, your best quality is D, no matter how much you spend on the 100 A students. The key to improving quality is spending money on the D Student.

This concept seems to have been adopted by the Finns, notice the complaint is NOT enough support for high achievers NOT that low achievers are keeping people back. Why are low Achievers NOT keeping other students back? Because the problems of low achievers are being addressed. Thus Finns are addressing their lowest inputs and thus slowly improving quality in their schools.

For more on Deming:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

Deming's 14 points to improve quality:
1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for massive inspection by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership (see Point 12 and Ch. 8 of "Out of the Crisis"). The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company. (See Ch. 3 of "Out of the Crisis")
9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
11. a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
12. a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia," abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective (See Ch. 3 of "Out of the Crisis").
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job.


Deming's Seven Deadly sins:

1. Lack of constancy of purpose
2. Emphasis on short-term profits
3. Evaluation by performance, merit rating, or annual review of performance
4. Mobility of management
5. Running a company on visible figures alone
6. Excessive medical costs
7. Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers who work for contingency fees

And Deming's "A Lesser Category of Obstacles":

1. Neglecting long-range planning
2. Relying on technology to solve problems
3. Seeking examples to follow rather than developing solutions
4. Excuses, such as "Our problems are different"
5. Obsolescence in school that management skill can be taught in classes<24>
6. Reliance on quality control department rather than management, supervisors, managers of purchasing, and production workers
7. Placing blames on workforces who only responsible for 15% of mistake where the system desired by management is responsible for 85% of the unintended consequences
8. Relying on quality inspection rather than improve product quality