Shorter school days, less homework, more hands on classes, students being valued as human beings who can contribute and all while receiving one of the best educations in the world. This sounds pretty nice, but must be impossible. Or is it? If you travel 4,632 mi northeast from Clayton you will find yourself in such a place.

Believe it or not the at first unassuming country, Finland, fulfills these criteria. If this is all true, why has the U.S. not taken a few pages out of Finland’s book? Well, I do not know.

The U.S. is ranked consistently around 15th-18th place by a ranking done by education firm Pearson. Finland, however, spends about 30 percent less than the U.S. on education for each student, but is ranked 1st-5th.

A small scandinavian country sandwiched between Sweden and Russia, Finland is home to one of the best schooling systems in the world and it also has some of the reportedly happiest students as well. We spend much more on education, but our schooling system falls short. What is the U.S. doing wrong?

First of all, Finland much less emphasis is put on measuring students than in the U.S.

Students are not measured at all during their first 6 years of schooling and there is only one mandatory standardized test for Finns which they take when they are 16. They rarely take exams or do homework until well into their teens. This puts the emphasis of school less on grades and competition and more on actual learning.

At Clayton High School as well as across the country school is tightly bound with grades. Most students go through the motions of their education with the goal of getting a good GPA and getting into college even if it means mindlessly memorizing facts before a test just to forget them the next day.

Teachers need to stop shuffling their students through their rigidly planned curriculum and try to foster a love of knowledge in their pupils. Cultivating this appreciation will give students an advantage for the rest of their lives to become critical thinkers as opposed to walking encyclopedias.

Another merit of Finland’s educational system is that the job of being a teacher is valued on par with being a doctor or a lawyer and all teachers must obtain a masters degree in their subject. In the U.S., teaching is not the most lucrative or glamourous field. Teachers are underpaid and undervalued. This makes the crop of teachers in the U.S. less qualified than in Finland because the career attracts less great minds.

In Clayton we are fortunate to have very competent teachers, but other districts in the country are not so lucky. For example, the Normandy district is in critical need of experienced teachers for their classrooms. Teachers are integral to running a successful school. Putting more emphasis on their importance will surely boost American importance in the world arena.

A crucial component of the Finnish method is that all students are educated in the same classrooms regardless of perceived intelligence. In Clayton, children, at a very young age, are branded with a “gifted” or “non-gifted” stamp.

They are given a series of critical thinking and problem solving tests, evaluated and labeled. If you happen not to be good at arranging blocks, but you are an exquisite writer, artist, or musician, too bad, you are not “gifted.”

The 1-4 scale displays a very closed minded and one sided definition of intelligence. Just because one child is a whiz at math does not make him any more intelligent than her peer that struggles with long division, but has a passion for reading or another who loves to doodle.

The “gifted” stamp sets those who do not achieve the status up with the mindset that they are not smart. The “smart” kids get taken out of class to do more advanced work, so why should those left behind strive to be anything more than average when they are already classified as such.

They will not realize their full potential in an environment where only the math prodigies are valued.

On the other hand, the “gifted” status may not be doing any favors for those who do rank 3 or 4 either.

When a child is told that he is smart and is given special treatment, complacency sets in. They show a bit of potential at a very early age and this is recognized, but they never have to prove their intelligence or overcome anything. Without a constant motivation to continue to improve and grow, their potential will stagnate.

In Finland, all students are educated together which allows all students to be on a level playing field. Everyone has to work to stand out and everyone has the opportunity. No one is made to feel dumb or subordinate and nobody is set up to be cocky and satisfied.

Without a change in the American system of how intelligence is measured, the U.S. will continue to turn out generations of children who do not live up to their full potential because it is branded onto them and others who have never felt that they could succeed so they never tried.

The U.S. can never hope to catch up to other foreign nations if we keep treating kids like test scores, undervaluing teachers, and determining who will be successful and who will be mediocre based on a narrow view of “giftedness” at the age of 7.

Every child has the capability of being successful. It all depends on the environment they grow in whether or not this capacity is accessed or if it is left dormant.

We can certainly learn a thing or two from Finland’s happy students and teachers.