The Smartest Kids In The World By Amanda Ripley Summary

Many topics concerning education and its institutions are discussed in Amanda Ripley’s book “The Smartest Kids in The World: and how they got that way,” however, one of the most interesting can be found in chapter five “An American in Utopia.” The introduction of Kim, an American exchange student studying at a high school in Pietarsarri, Finland opens the chapter. Using Kim’s experiences in the Finish school system, Ripley continues to make a comparison between the students' in Finland and the United States. This segment highlights Finish teachers and students viewing education as a legitimate pursuit, while the American students more often than now saw it as a forced activity. Incidentally, the students viewpoints in the two countries are then used to look at the different levels of education teachers need to complete in Finland and America in order to become professional educators. This dialogue is eventually transitioned into a history of the sweeping education reforms in Finland and the lack of similar reforms in America.

While America pays its teachers moderate wages, Spain pays its teachers the highest wages in the world, yet its student’s average scores in math, reading, and science are worse than their US counterparts. The impact of these phenomena are used to describe why America’s school system might actually be defunct and in need of improvement if it is going to be of legitimate use in the future. To reinforce this stark contrast, the views of students in America versus Finland are thoroughly expressed. The Finish students saw education as a way to get a good job in the future, whereas the American students seemed rather apathetic about it. Ripley then summarized Finland’s student exchange program and how the majority Finish students are better prepared than their American