Perhaps Competition Isn't the Way to Do Everything

Pamela Sargent forwarded this article, "What Americans Keep Ignoring about Finland's School Success," to me, perhaps because she knew I had been working recently in support of Ohio's education reform efforts. It's a worthy article to read if you are interested in education, and while the author focuses a bit more on the nature of Finland's equal access to education -- no mean feat, in this sense, as it's not just that everyone can go to school, but that everyone can go to ANY school, something that would be nigh to impossible to achieve in the U.S. because of the money involved in private education -- the point that the writer makes about Finland's respect for its teachers is where I think that the U.S. could make some strides. While I'm not anti-sports per se (I like sports, I just would rather play them myself than watch others play them--in a sense, it's the same kind of feeling I have about watching others play video games, in that I can admire the skill of the players, but I'd much rather be having fun myself), I strongly believe that U.S. schools place an incredible amount of emphasis on sports rather than academics.  No coach should be paid more than a teacher, from the Kindergarten level through collegiate. If winning is sports is so important in your school, than you've misplaced your school priorities.