ranks 21st in educational outcome among the 34 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) competing countries, while Finland comes in third.įor their part, the National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association support assigning 10 minutes of homework per grade. While progressive educators agree that testing is not the only, or even the best, marker of academic achievement, it is still startling that the U.S. Eighteen percent of students live in poverty and approximately 1.3 million of the nation’s 50.7 million public school students are homeless. Throughout the country, many elementary schools have completely eliminated recess. They also note that the Finnish government values teachers and encourages staff to prioritize collaboration, network building and the sharing of best practices.Ĭontrast this with the United States. Nonetheless, Finnish students consistently rank among the world’s highest achievers in reading, math and science.Įxperts attribute this to the country’s low ( 5.8 percent) poverty rate, extensive social welfare system, 12-to-1 student-teacher ratio, and classes that fully integrate special needs students into general education classrooms. What’s more, when school is dismissed, there’s rarely any work to be completed at home.

There are frequent breaks, plus a daily 20-minute recess. When Finnish students enroll in school at age seven, they can expect to take three or four classes a day.

We should have homework