Mike McGrath

4/26/2014
Ripley's The Smartest Kids in the World
This books is about three American kids and their experiences as foreign exchange students.
Kim, from a small town in Oklahoma went to a school in Finland. Eric from Minnesota did a year of
schooling in Korean, and Tom from Pennsylvania attended school in to Poland. The author Ripley used
these three exchange students to illustrate how these other countries educate their kids and how kids in
these other countries respond to their education. The overall results were very informative and I felt
the book did a good job of illuminating the differences between American educational systems and the
systems of the other better scoring countries.
Kim, from the small Oklahoma town, felt she was trapped in her rural setting. She enjoyed
learning but she felt that most of the other kids in her class did not want to learn. She wanted to leave
her hometown and experience the world from some places other than Oklahoma. After convincing her
mother to allow her to travel abroad to study, and after she was able to gather the required money she
was finally able to go. She loved Finland's rigorous school systems and freedom the Finnish parents
gave their kids. The students wanted to learn and felt it important this included even the kids that
people would group as stoners and slackers. The book never captures where this rigor came from just
that it was needed to instill the drive in kids to succeed in this new changing world.
Ripley's book talks about what the Finnish society did to improve their schools. First, they
required that to become a teacher be very rigorous. Any of the Finnish teacher's the Ripley talked had to
take the entrance exam several times just to get into the teacher's schools. With more rigor placed on
actually becoming a teacher Finland has advanced their teachers and improved their schools. They also
placed their tracking later in a child's life then America does. Tracking is where children take
fundamental classes for a career like basic mechanics. So that when they enter a vocational college or a
tech college they are better prepared. America starts there tracking in elementary school where the
Finish start there's at 16. With tracking starting later kid are taught the basics as they move through
school and are at the same expectation as all other kids. They are not separated into different groups at
an early age like America dose that over time drop kids drive to learn because they know they are being
placed into lower expectations.
Eric was decided to do another year of high school in Korea after finishing his American high
school work. Eric found at that most of the kids would often fall asleep during class. This was not out of
the norm because the kids go to after school tutoring at a school called "Hagwon". In this afterhours
tutoring the kids would study essentially what they studied in that day's classes until ten o'clock at
night. This made for sleepy students during the day
The high school enviroment in Korea was a pressure cooker. The kids spent their senior year of
high school studying to pass a test at the end of the year that determines what they will do for the rest
of their lives. The test places the kids in either vocational schools or into good colleges. After the results
of the test are known and the students fate is sealed, most of their initial drive is gone and they treat
college much more casually. Most teachers and parents complain about the hagwons and that end of
the year test but they are unable to do anything about it because these educational elements are so
strongly ingrained into their society. Korean high school is a grueling cycle of working late into the night
to study for a test at the end of the year that will force the kids into a higher education at the end of the
year.
Eric was not expected to attend the hagwons like the other Korean kids; instead he left school at
the end of the regular day and then was separated from his peers for the rest of the day. He then quit
high school early and went to Korean college. When Eric got back to the States after going through
Korean educational pressure cooker he found that he was overly prepared for most of his classes and
found them boring. This seemed to show show that the Korean system worked. The drawback to the
korean system was that most parents and teachers in the system ere worried about the effect it had on
the students and were trying to find a way to lessen the need for so much studying by the kids.
Tom from Pennsylvania came from a normal high school in Gettysburg where they learned a
great deal about the Civil War. Tom was in love with 1940's literature and old world countries so he
decided to be an exchange student in Poland. Poland was a rising star in Prgramme for International
Student Assessment ( PISA) which seemed to happen overnight. Tom's first experience with Polish
schools was being asked in class to do a math problem and not being able to do it. Since then Tom had
adapted to Polish life. He enjoyed the old cramped and smoke-filled cafes and shops. He also enjoyed
the freedom he had in Poland to go on smoke breaks and to drink warm Polish beer as he wondered the
streets. Poland had recently increased their school curriculum, giving more money to vocational
schools, and to lower performing schools. This seems to be the opposite of what America is trying to do.
America is lowed their curricula, and sent most school funding to higher performing schools instead of
assisting the lower performing schools. Poland along with Finland place tracking later then American
schools which seems to improve students test scores and lets them all learn at the same pace. After
experiencing Polish education for a year, Tom learned how to work hard. He later went to Vassar College
where initially the students in his literature class seemed to be ahead of him. Tom was able to catch up
with hard work which he learned from schools in Poland.
Ripley's book showed that the countries that score higher in the PISA seemed to all have similar
patterns in their school systems. Poland, Korean and Finland all have tracking later in a kids life, or no
tracking at all. All three countries have tests at the end of the year for which the seniors study hardthe
results of which determine what college they will be allowed to attend like the American SAT's but
harder. Finland and Poland both pay teachers more money. Finland does because the teaching
profession more prestigious, and Poland because they put more money in lower performing schools to
help improve them. America has made it easier than Finland to become a teachers . Due to this in some
states the U.S has an over abundance of teachers. Most American states also place most of the money
for schools towards high performing schools instead of the lower performing schools that need more
assistance.
Ripley's book shows that American schools can improve with seemingly simple over hauls. If
American schools placed more money into low performing schools and dad tracking later they could
improve schools. This improvement might not happen quickly but over time there could be an
improvement in the schools over all. America also needs to make becoming a teacher harder because
we have many teachers that want to be coaches instead of a teachers; become teachers to be able to
coach high school sports. This is due in part to American society placing a high emphasis on sports. I
personal don't think this a bad thing but feel that it should not be what high schools are striving for.
Ripley's book show that all countries have similar problems, it is how countries deal with these common
problems that really show how well the schools as a whole are doing. American schools need to see the
differences in other countries school to try and improve our own schools.