Book #13: The Smartest Kids in the World by Amanda Ripley

I actually really enjoyed this book--I didn't want to put it down, funny enough, even though it's not your standard un-put-down-able novel. Ripley is concerned about the state of the American education system (like everyone), and was interested in what differences there were between America and other countries that score higher on international tests. There are certain countries that regularly score at the top of the world on certain academic tests, including Finland and South Korea, and others that have made recent dramatic increases in students' test scores, such as Poland, and Ripley decided to try and delve into what these countries were doing right in their education systems. In order to do that, she did plenty of interviews with lots of people in those countries, but she also followed three American teenagers who were foreign exchange students in each of those three countries, and used their experiences to learn about what those countries were doing well. It was very interesting to hear about each of those countries and what they do in their education systems, particularly from an insider's view with the three exchange students, and I feel like there were some great insights into how things could be improved across the board. One thing that Ripley emphasized a lot was the amount of rigor that students and teachers put into school, the amount of work and effort that was expected in order to gain an education. In those other countries, education was simply taken more seriously, and parents and students expected to have to work hard and to fail when they didn't work hard enough. American students kind of expect to pass through school without all that much work, in comparison. Another thing was that in Finland, teachers had to be in the top ranks of their classes in order to get into the highly selective teacher education colleges, and went through six or seven years of training before they were allowed to work teaching students, and they were paid accordingly. The American system doesn't demand enough respect or training for teachers, and therefore doesn't get high quality teachers everywhere.

The good news is that everywhere that Ripley went around the world, everyone thought that their education system was flawed and could be improved. So it's not all bad news for America--even in Finland, with consistently the highest rankings in education, people complain about how their schools work. So there is definitely work to do, but hopefully it is doable and possible. I thought this was a really interesting read, and I'm glad that I found out about it.