Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms pdfdrive com

make it real is to promote a sense of purpose in the classroom, which will
ultimately bring joy to learners.
Demand responsibility
Through teaching in Helsinki and interviewing Finnish teachers, I kept hearing
the word “responsibility” repeated. I wasn’t used to hearing this word in
conversations with American educators. Instead, the substitute word I heard
most often in the United States was accountability. Although educators in
Finland aren’t held accountable by standardized tests or school inspections, I’d
argue that this low level of accountability works in Finnish schools because

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argue that this low level of accountability works in Finnish schools because
there’s a high level of professional responsibility, which is afforded by a high
level of professional trust.
The idea that Finland’s teachers are trusted more than America’s teachers is
one that I’ve heard repeated in education circles, and I’ve heard different
theories for why Finland’s teachers garner this level of societal confidence. One
popular theory is that the status of teachers is sky-high in Finland. To become
qualified, Finns must complete the equivalent of a master’s degree in the field of
education. Unlike America, Finland has only a handful of university teaching
programs, where the acceptance rate is famously low, and education students are
required to complete a rigorous master’s thesis. Teach for America, the
organization that’s famous for recruiting high-achieving U.S. college graduates
and depositing them in urban American schools, is known for requiring five
weeks of training. Finland’s elementary education program requires five years.
While I do think that Finland’s teachers are generally trusted more than
America’s teachers, I think it’s less about a difference in status and more about a
difference in culture. In both countries, I’ve met many hardworking, dependable
educators. I think the problem in America’s school system, in this regard, is that
there’s too much emphasis on “accountability,” which is fear based, and too little
emphasis on “responsibility,” which is trust based.
Beginning at an early age, Finnish children are trusted with many
responsibilities. If you remember, the vast majority of my Helsinki students were
commuting to and from school on a daily basis. I noticed subtle things, too, such
as little kids—the age of kindergartners—roaming around Helsinki’s parks
without parents, or children serving themselves food in the school cafeteria, or
kids walking the hallways without their teachers. These children weren’t trusted
with these responsibilities because they were “high status” individuals; they
were trusted because adults believed they could be successful on their own.
Educators in Finland experience something similar, in my opinion. I’ve
found that Finland’s administrators and parents trust the nation’s teachers
because they respect their professionalism. I’ve detected a common belief that
teachers can do their jobs well, without external pressure—and, in the end,
everyone seems happier that way. Fear-driven accountability efforts can
essentially squeeze out opportunities for a person to experience the joy of
exercising meaningful responsibility.
This applies to both adults and children. Recently, I’ve seen this dynamic
play out in my relationship with my son, Misaiel. When Misaiel was four years
old, he figured out how to lower and raise the windows in the car. Initially my
wife and I were a little worried about his newfound skill. Although he was

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securely strapped into his car seat, lacking the ability to get out on his own, we
feared that he would (somehow) fall out of the car. So, we’d exert accountability
by letting him lower the window only by a few inches, and then we’d lock his
window.
But our lack of trust, evidenced by his locked window, greatly bothered our
four-year-old. Suddenly, the activity of lowering his window no longer seemed
satisfying to him, and he’d often pout on those car rides. After a few experiences
like this one, we told our son that we’d try something new—we’d no longer lock
the window, to see if he could be successful on his own. Once my wife and I
made this change, we saw his attitude shift immediately for the better, and he
continued to respect our rule of only a few inches.
Initially, due to our fear and our lack of trust, we had provided him so little
freedom that he lacked meaningful responsibility. But when we showed him that
we would trust him to carry out his responsibility to manage the window, he was
successful and happy.
While it’s infeasible to think that the American school system could import
Finland’s culture of trust, we teachers can bring this same attitude into our
classrooms by trusting our students with a little more autonomy, in order to give
them more opportunities to assume age-appropriate responsibilities. Earlier in
this chapter, I suggested the strategy start with freedom, which is certainly an
approach that requires trust, but the strategy I’m suggesting in this section,