the smartest kids in the world - amanda ripley

[...]... officials in below-freezing December temperatures, their jackets flapping in the sea breezes off the Gulf of Finland They had spent their careers looking to others the Americans or the Germans—for advice on education No one had ever looked back at them The Germans, meanwhile, were devastated The chair of the education committee in the Bundestag called the results “a tragedy for German education.” The Germans... eighty-first in the world in math, or around the same level as Croatia and Turkey Kim had lived in Sallisaw all her life Each winter, she and her grandfather participated in the Christmas rodeo, steering antique tractors through the old downtown She liked the slow rumble of the Model H tractor, the jangle of the marching bands behind her, and the way children shrieked when she threw candy into their... whispered to the Canadian girl The adults ushered them away for a brief meeting with the principal They didn’t stay long; for the exchange students, classes would begin the next week Soon afterward, he and the Canadian left to catch the bus home Walking down the front steps and across the dirt field, they heard yelling behind them Eric looked back and saw kids hanging out of five or six classroom windows... wave goodbye They were smiling, high up in the air He smiled and waved back Strange as the experience had been, it felt good to be so warmly welcomed Before turning the corner to catch the bus a few minutes later, Eric glanced back one last time The kids were still there, lined up at the institutional windows with their arms dangling out—as if they wanted to get as far from the building as they could,... realities in their host countries But, in their stories, I found the life that was missing from the policy briefings Kim, Eric, and Tom kept me honest They didn’t want to talk about tenure policies or Tiger Moms; unburdened by the hang-ups of adults, they talked a lot about other kids, the most powerful influences in teenagers’ lives All day long, they contemplated the full arc of their new lives, from their... the hot rock pathway Susanne told her she was a journalist and a single mother of twin five-year-old girls They lived in an apartment in Pietarsaari, a small town on Finland’s west coast Kim would be going from one country town to another; from one single mother to another Susanne told her to bring her warmest clothes chapter 3 the pressure cooker From Minnesota to South Korea: Eric in Busan Nothing... microphone in one hand and a stick with a stuffed frog on the end of it in the other hand It looked like a backscratcher, something you might find in a gift shop at the mall Eric stopped talking and sat up straight at his desk, wondering what to make of the frog Strangely, no one else seemed to react The kids kept chatting with one another while the teacher stood there, waiting It was painful to watch Finally,... that went on and on, revealing nothing of Eric’s new city But then, suddenly, the Daewoo surged into the open air He looked back through the rear window and saw a steep, lush mountain behind them They had driven through the middle of the rock and now emerged into the heart of Busan, a pulsing city with nearly ten times the population of Minneapolis To Eric, Busan (pronounced PU-san) looked like a city... told, had always been valued in Finland, going back hundreds of years That explained it But, then, why did only 10 percent of children finish high school in Finland in the 1950s? Why were there huge gaps between what rural and urban kids knew and could do in Finland in the 1960s? Back then, Finland’s passion for education had seemed rather uneven What had happened? At the same time, President Barack... experience had convinced him that the world needed an even smarter test, one that could measure the kind of advanced thinking and communication skills that people needed to thrive in the modern world Other international tests had come before PISA, each with their own forgettable acronym, but they tended to assess what kids had memorized, or what their teachers had drilled into their heads in the classroom . looking for the ability to think creatively.” The reporters stirred, restless for a ranking. Eventually he gave them what they wanted. The number-one country in the world was . . . Finland. There. education officials in below-freezing December temperatures, their jackets flapping in the sea breezes off the Gulf of Finland. They had spent their careers looking to others the Americans or the Germans—for advice. eclectic nations, something incredible was happening. Virtually all kids were learning critical thinking skills in math, science, and reading. They weren’t just memorizing facts; they were learning to solve problems