I apologize for this being huge. Blogger has changed its posting settings, so I can no longer reform resize images. It was either this (the actual size) or the incredibly minute "X-Large" picture setting, which was actually extra fucking small because the damn picture is so long. I do love when website updates remove functionality. Screw you, Google.
"When
your signature dish is hamburger in between a doughnut, and you've been
cheerfully selling this stuff knowing all along that you've got Type 2
Diabetes. ... It's in bad taste if nothing else."
Like most other little kids, all I wanted to do was eat junk food, play
video games and goof around with my friends. I didn’t like being made to
go to school, going to bed at 9 p.m., eating vegetables, doing homework
after school, or taking out the garbage. And like most other little
kids who don’t like abiding by the rules of their parents, I sometimes
fantasized about what it would be like to run away from home. But when I
packed my backpack full of clothes and individually-wrapped packs of
peanut butter crackers from the pantry, I could never go through with my
plan. I knew if I ran away, I’d be hungry, cold, lost, and eventually
found by the police and returned home.
Like most other little kids, all I wanted to do was eat junk food, play
video games and goof around with my friends. I didn’t like being made to
go to school, going to bed at 9 p.m., eating vegetables, doing homework
after school, or taking out the garbage. And like most other little
kids who don’t like abiding by the rules of their parents, I sometimes
fantasized about what it would be like to run away from home. But when I
packed my backpack full of clothes and individually-wrapped packs of
peanut butter crackers from the pantry, I could never go through with my
plan. I knew if I ran away, I’d be hungry, cold, lost, and eventually
found by the police and returned home.
Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system
dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately
is looking at the stunning success of the West's reigning education
superpower, Finland.
Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer,
most of the discussion seems to be missing the point.
The small Nordic country of Finland used to be known -- if it was known for
anything at all -- as the home of Nokia, the mobile phone giant. But lately
Finland has been attracting attention on global surveys of quality of
life -- Newsweek ranked it number one last year -- and Finland's national
education system has been receiving particular praise, because in recent
years Finnish students have been turning in some of the highest test scores
in the world.