**** Elections thread *****

[BananaStand]

What in your mind is then the purpose of education, if it's not educating kids?

Define "educate". Are we trying to pass tests, or are we trying to create citizens who can excel in a competitive economy?

Finland has the lowest income inequality in Europe. Is that good, or bad? Personally, I wouldn't be thrilled about it. It's income mobility that matters much more in my opinion. And Finland sucks at that.

The education performance is measured currently with the performance of the students in standardized tests such as PISA. Should Finland start maybe making the system harder for kids, would that make it more great?

Probably. Meritocracy is awesome. I don't think anyone thinks that Chinese schools are easy. Did you notice who actually scores best on those PISA tests?

In education there are standardized tests. In rape, as we've talked about, those do not exist. So yes, I'd say it's much easier to compare the schools. Not in a perfect manner, of course, but at least in a much a much more objective way.

GTFO with that man. If a woman says "yes" it's not rape. If She says "no" it is. The PISA test has alot more moving parts. I'm doing a little digging right now myself. Did you know in 2006 the US's results were disqualified because of a misprint in the test? So what are we even comparing here?

I've never pulled up to a red light next to a car from Wyoming either, nor been to a restaurant from there. I'm not convinced the measuring stick of the performance of an educational system is engineering innovations exported,

Wyoming's not a country, and I'm sure you've pulled up to many American cars. So I'm not seeing your point. Did Finland put a man on the moon?

but yeah we got Nokia,

Huh? Who cares? They were relevant for less than a decade and have since been overwhelmed by Asian companies. You know....from countries that PISA says have better schools

Angry Birds,

zzzzzz

sauna,

C'mon. Finland wasn't independent until 1917. I'm sure someone before that figured out that sweating feels awesome.

linux

Windows for the win!

and molotov cocktails.

Projectile incendiaries were invented before 1917.

And while we're bragging, guess which country has the all-time most olympic medals per capita?

If they're in winter olympic events, I'm not that impressed. Unless it's hockey. They got silver in 1980 (America got gold!) and they haven't been relevant again since.

Well, I would. If someone is bright and motivated, they're likely to excel in almost any environment. I wouldn't say America has so many more innovations and successful businesses than Finland because of your educational system, but because there's 320 million of you and 5 million of us.

I agree with the bolded. Now what's in Finland to motivate a bright kid? This goes back to Finlands lack of income inequality. That kills meritocracy.

If Finland's goal is to make as many slightly above average kids as possible and have them grow up to lead pedestrian, unimpressive careers, fine, they win.