Great summary of the experience, Sam. Oodi makes a statement about the future of learning with new architecture. They quite clearly lift each other up, design and education, each more powerful in the company of the other. Even my taxi driver said Oodi Library had to be seen in our brief trip! He also recommended the salmon soup, which was another spot-on bit of advice.
The "secret" of Finnish schools, according to the former Sec. of Education, is their uniformly small classes, and integrating all students in the same classes, with little or no tracking: "We teach all pupils in the same classrooms. ...the average class size for all grades is 21. In first- and second-grade, it’s 19." https://hechingerreport.org/an-interview-with-henna-virkkunen-finlands-minister-of-education/ When the government decided to end tracking, the teachers union agreed-- as long as they reduced class size at the same time.
The Fins are fortunate that their native language writing system was developed after studying other languages and their faults. A 1:1:1 (one letter, one sound, one symbol) transparent language makes learning very easy. How do the Finnish teacher teach less transparent languages and their spelling patterns? English has 26 letters, 44 sounds and 250 symbols (letters or groups of letters that make one sound) that require a lot of explicit methodical instruction for most people to master.
David! Good to see you here, and thanks for sharing. I'm not sure there is a simple call to action here, other than an invitation to think about the ways that the world's most forward-thinking "libraries" seem to be reimagining the full possibility of themselves better than most "schools" are -- but maybe you see something I don't?
Great summary of the experience, Sam. Oodi makes a statement about the future of learning with new architecture. They quite clearly lift each other up, design and education, each more powerful in the company of the other. Even my taxi driver said Oodi Library had to be seen in our brief trip! He also recommended the salmon soup, which was another spot-on bit of advice.
The "secret" of Finnish schools, according to the former Sec. of Education, is their uniformly small classes, and integrating all students in the same classes, with little or no tracking: "We teach all pupils in the same classrooms. ...the average class size for all grades is 21. In first- and second-grade, it’s 19." https://hechingerreport.org/an-interview-with-henna-virkkunen-finlands-minister-of-education/ When the government decided to end tracking, the teachers union agreed-- as long as they reduced class size at the same time.
The Fins are fortunate that their native language writing system was developed after studying other languages and their faults. A 1:1:1 (one letter, one sound, one symbol) transparent language makes learning very easy. How do the Finnish teacher teach less transparent languages and their spelling patterns? English has 26 letters, 44 sounds and 250 symbols (letters or groups of letters that make one sound) that require a lot of explicit methodical instruction for most people to master.
I shared this with a colleague, head of department, and will do so at the school I'm at once holidays are over: https://app.sqale.co/invite/sLe1YhdC2DvSb3Sm0LO1I21xCdUGAv What's the call to action btw?
David! Good to see you here, and thanks for sharing. I'm not sure there is a simple call to action here, other than an invitation to think about the ways that the world's most forward-thinking "libraries" seem to be reimagining the full possibility of themselves better than most "schools" are -- but maybe you see something I don't?
Nice review. Makes sense. Why call it a library then? It appears to be more an open, unwritten book, based on your last quote. Social studio.