McFarland, J.; Hussar, B.; Zhang, J.; Wang, X.; Wang, K.; Hein, S.; Diliberti, M.; Forrest Cataldi, E.; Bullock Mann, F.; Barmer, A. (2019). The Condition of Education 2019 (NCES 2019-144)(PDF). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics: U.S. Department of Education. p. 296. Retrieved 2019-10-01.
Asked about the many hours Asian students spend in school, Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, of Finland's Education Department told Justin Snider of the Hechinger Report (9 December 2010Archived 2013-01-18 at the Wayback Machine : "There's no evidence globally that doing more of the same [instructionally] will improve results. An equally relevant argument would be, let's try to do less. Increasing time comes from the old industrial mindset. The important thing is ensuring school is a place where students can discover who they are and what they can do. It's not about the amount of teaching and learning."
"In contrast to the United States: "almost every teacher and principal in Finland belongs to the same union. The union works closely with the Ministry of Education to improve the quality of education, and it negotiates for better salaries, benefits, and working conditions for educators." See Diane Ravitch, "How and How Not to Improve Our Schools", New York Review of Books (22 March 2012). In the United States, the Taft Hartley Act, enacted in 1947 over President Truman's veto by a conservative congress, prohibits supervisors from engaging in union activities.
According to Eeva Penttilä, Director of International Relations for the Finland Education Department (City of Helsinki), "When a child is born in Finland, every mother gets a box (maternity package) from the Mother Care Center which consists of the first bed the baby has...[and]... three books. There is a book for the mother, a book for the father, and a book for the baby. Of course the baby book has...mainly those faces that babies easily can see. This indicates to the parents that for this new member of the family, you have to read. Reading to the baby is so important. I was amazed when I read somewhere that when you consider our population, we produce more children's books than any other country does. One thing you can't do here is to buy good education for your child. Everything is free including universities. Every child is a self made person in this kind of a system because whatever your background is, you can make it but if you don't make it, whatever your father is, you will drop down because we do not have this elite. The school meals are also free... Education isn't even free in China. If I count the taxation from my salary, it goes somewhere about 60 percent. I am a happy taxpayer because my grandchildren get everything they need for free." Eeva Penttilä, quoted in Leo R. Sandy, "Education in Finland", New Hampshire Journal of Learning Vol. 10 (April 2007)
"These classes provide natural venues for learning math and science, nurture critical cooperative skills, and implicitly cultivate respect for people who make their living working with their hands," Samuel E. Abrams, "The Children Must Play: What the United States can learn from Finland about Education Reform", The New Republic (28 January 2011).
Asked about the many hours Asian students spend in school, Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, of Finland's Education Department told Justin Snider of the Hechinger Report (9 December 2010Archived 2013-01-18 at the Wayback Machine : "There's no evidence globally that doing more of the same [instructionally] will improve results. An equally relevant argument would be, let's try to do less. Increasing time comes from the old industrial mindset. The important thing is ensuring school is a place where students can discover who they are and what they can do. It's not about the amount of teaching and learning."
