Finland

After reading an article by Claudio Sanchez What The U.S. Can Learn From Finland about education and the Facebook poster that suggests that Finland is great because they have free child care and education and score high on selective tests I was compelled to write the following.

The "Finnish way" means over 97 percent of 3- to 6-year-olds attend a program of one type or another. This means that every child in Finland under age 7 has the legal right to child care and preschool by law, regardless of family income. Another way of saying this is that everyone in Finland can force their neighbors to pay for the public benefit of not having to care for their own child through government funding which means taxation.

Because of selective testing of Finish children and their high scores people claim this socialist approach is successful and others should follow their example. Normally you can point out the national debt placed on each child born in a socialist country that they will spend a life time trying to pay off but Finland's debt is rather low. This is not because socialism works but because of the unique natural resources that contribute to the proclaimed success of the Finish Way.

Public child care and education are manifesting serious behavioral problems in young people all over the world that may not fix itself easily if at all. Children use to be raised by parents. In Finland the family unit and local communities were very strong units of society.

Finland's climate and soils make growing crops a challenge. The country lies between 60° and 70° north latitude and has severe winters with relatively short growing seasons. The harsh climate and rural economy bred a hardy and independent people with a strong work ethic. This naturally imposed competition against the difficulties of life was not competition between each other. The Finish community competed with the difficulties of their natural environment, not each other. This promoted cooperation within the community. That naturally practiced social virtue has carried over and is the actual secret of their success.

Until the 1930s, the Finnish economy was predominantly agrarian, and, relatively poor. As late as in the 1950s, more than half the population and 40 percent of output were agricultural based. Property rights were strong and Finland avoided nationalizations. Finland has only recently developed a highly industrialized, mixed economy equal to that of other western economies such as Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The largest sector of their economy is services at 65%, followed by manufacturing at about 31%.

These are all relatively new changes but with them are coming structural changes in society itself. Those changes are as much a part of the environment of society as the mountains and winter winds.

Socialism is changing the environment of Finland. It still gets cold there but families do not have to work so hard to care for their children. Members of communities do not have to make the choice to help their neighbor. There is a government bureaucrat or program that will do these things for them. The right to exercise of personal choice is a decrease in freedom.

Caring for the elderly in your community was an essential part of the health and longevity of society. The aging population will become an important factor when the workforce goes from 50% to 30% of their population they will need 67% growth per capita just to compensate. Finland's GDP growth has stagnated and is now teetering on the edge of slipping into its third recession in six years.

Finland has heavily depended upon its vast land, eighth largest country in Europe. Finland has timber and several mineral and freshwater resources with only 5.5 million people. There is no more important factor to society than the character and virtue of its youth. Scholastic tests do not give us a measure of these essential elements of society.

When your parents taught you and your neighbor came to your aid there was a natural bonding in families, communities and society as a whole. Honor, loyalty and charity flowed in society but no one bonds with a bureaucrat and if they do it will not be as deep because he is just doing his job.

Competition

There is an element in the philosophy of Finland that opposes competition. Samuli Paronen: "Real winners do not compete."

But there are several types of competitions. There is the competitive challenge presented by conditions and there is competing against one another. The latter can be merely competing against one another in a sportsman like way that that encourages achievement and personal development and there is the competition that is more dog eat dog and to the victor goes the prize. It is the latter that the Finish and many other people culturally shun because of the harshness which nature imposes upon them. Early settlers in America had learned that lesson.

Loving your neighbor was essential to survival of your community.

There is competition in Finland because admissions to academic upper schools are based on GPA, and in some cases academic tests and interviews. Competition and striving to get a better education is an education in itself. The continuation of so called free public education will likely continue trends that are being seen in Finish economy.

Finish education

In 2005 over 200 Finnish academics warned about that important knowledge had been sacrificed in the Finish approach.

Finland scores well on PISA tests which is not designed to test curriculum-based knowledge in mathematically intensive subjects, such as engineering, computer science, and economics. Finnish eighth-graders perform lower than seventh-graders did in 1999, lagging behind the top-scoring nations by a considerable margin.

Teachers have a wide range of latitude to teach and produce good students. They can even pick their own text books and design tests and curriculum. That independence and responsibility challenges each teacher which is a form of competition and that spirit of responsibility is passed onto the students.

But is this changing?

Are the changes to subtle to see?

And are we humble enough to see them if the evidence is there?

The socialist approach according to Jukka Huusko, a Finnish journalist writing in the Independent, says "that violence, both domestic and in the streets, is common in Finland. Partly it is a function of excessive drinking, says Huusko, but it is also related to family breakdown, isolation and loneliness. Roger Boyes who writes in the Times stated, "The Finns are letting down their younger generation, allowing them to slip into a kind of psychological isolation. In small-town Finland, traditional friendship is being replaced by social networking sites."

The Original Way

There is no more powerful stimulation than the arrival of your own children. Every child is a primal stimulus package inserted into the life of a family. Public Education and social welfare undermines both the natural family and the community. It takes time for a strong people to degenerate but we are seeing it in Finland and many other socialist nations around the world and have seen it and its effects throughout history from Nimrod to Rome.

On the other hand homeschooling which is being outlawed in many of these countries scores 30% higher even when accounting for educational back ground of the parents. If all these bureaucrat from counties around the world who are making pilgrimages to Finland and touting their educational system with adulation and praise really care about children they will consider encouraging more home education by parents and local communities supported by charity from the people.

Socialism and "free" benefits including "free" education is a completely different environment and should be expected to alter the nature of their society.

Homeschoolers are statistically far better adjusted to society manifesting few of these behavioral problems. From the early days of returning to home education the question has constantly been raised, "What about socialization?"

This has sparked numerous studies that show excellent results for young people educated at home. Dr. Raymond Moore, author of over 60 books and articles on human development states in his book, The Hurried Child, "The idea that children need to be around many other youngsters in order to be 'socialized,' is perhaps the most dangerous and extravagant myth in education and child rearing today."

"After analyzing over 8,000 early childhood studies, Dr. Moore concluded that, contrary to popular belief, children are best socialized by parents – not other children." Homeschooled children "demonstrated fewer behavioral problems." Dr. Patricia Lines of the Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think-tank, "describes several controlled studies comparing the social skills of homeschoolers and nonhomeschoolers." "There is no basis to question the social development of homeschooled children."

So with homeschooling showing 30% higher scores in academics, higher levels of moral and social adaptability and fewer behavioral problems, manifesting more independence and self motivation in later life we should ask why are you sending your children to public schools?

You can ask yourself who would not want more intelligent, moral, independent, self motivated people populating their society?

Public schools are not free.

Public Education is the product of Socialism which is the coveting of what your neighbor has or can produce for your own benefit. Such Covetous Practices will make you Merchandise and your curse your children because it is not The Way of God.

In fact the price you may pay may be far greater than what will show up on public expense ledgers and the national debt. Free education like the free Bread and circuses of Rome include the socialist idea that you can force your neighbor to pay for what you want and think you should have through the power of governments to exercise authority over your neighbor. All public education is a product of the ideals and philosophy of socialism.

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” Winston Churchill

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