I have been out of the teaching world for eleven years after a 33 year career. I saw many new administrators come into the district with new ideas of how we were going to invent a better mousetrap. It never happened. Oops I feel one foot up on the soapbox - back to the book. This is a very readable book - even if you don't generally care for non-fiction. Reporter Amanda Ripley introduces us to three American students who went abroad as exchange students in high school. In case you don't know, when foreigners come to our high schools they take actual classes, they take tests and they write papers. Like every one in the class they received a grade (even though it had no effect on their school record back home). Our students basically go for the cultural experience and don't really experience what it is like for the natives.
Ripley gives us the background information on these students - all three came from different parts of the country and different socio-economic backgrounds. They went to Finland, South Korea and Poland. The reason that Ripley was interested in these three countries is that they all had something in common. Years ago they were at the bottom of the barrel when it came to schools - and then it changed. How did they do it? Read the book and find out. You may - no, I guarantee you
will, be shocked at some of things these countries do. And you will probably be shocked by what is said about the students' home schools. This is a fascinating book. If you are at all interested in education you should check out this book!
No comments:
Post a Comment