Attitudes Toward Immigrants Are a Problem in Schools

In recent decades, it has long been known that humanitarian immigration has had harmful effects on Western societies. For example, the link between immigration and increased gang, drug, and sexual crime is quite clear (example, another).

Less has been said about other impacts of people from developing countries on Western nations. In Finland’s case, however, this is one of the reasons why, according to PISA tests, the country’s school system is no longer anywhere near the best in the world.

The matter was written about by a local Helsinki newspaper, which interviewed Ulla Talvensaari, who has worked as a primary school teacher for 25 years. To understand her views, my esteemed reader must know that in many Helsinki schools, the proportion of pupils with an immigrant background can exceed half of the student body.

According to the experienced teacher, insufficient Finnish language instruction for pupils with an immigrant background threatens to weaken the entire education system, from primary school to vocational studies. This is reflected in the fact that “today only the sharpest quarter of pupils can manage tasks that, at the start of my career around the turn of the millennium, were routine for the majority.”

This has led to a situation where “secondary school teachers wonder why children with such weak skills have been allowed to pass through primary school to higher levels. In vocational studies, people then question secondary school assessments. Eventually, in vocational schools, standards are lowered and incompetence becomes a burden for working life.”

Schools also do not take immigrant pupils’ lack of competence seriously, but instead “it is now difficult for a teacher to hold anyone back a grade or to give conditional passes. Many teachers end up lowering standards just to get everyone through the system.” In this way, they avoid being branded as racists for prolonging immigrant pupils’ time at school.

Thus, the teacher raises the question: “Is it really equality if there are huge gaps in skill levels within classrooms? We used to talk about the Gaussian curve. Most pupils were average, with only a small number being particularly weak or highly gifted. Now the middle group has almost disappeared, and classrooms consist mostly of extremes—either capable pupils or those with major learning challenges.”

As one way to improve the situation, the teacher also calls for more parental responsibility. In her view, “we [Finns] should demand that immigrant parents also practice Finnish regularly at home with their children.”

One can only hope that this teacher will be listened to both in Finland and elsewhere in Europe, and that society will abandon woke dogmas and instead uphold children’s right to learn at school—including those with immigrant backgrounds. This should remain the case even if their learning takes longer than that of the native population’s children.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Unintended Consequences of Modern Value Shifts
Finland Denies Blanket Asylum for Gazans, Confirms Tighter Immigration Policies
Has Modern Education Strayed Too Far — and Is It Time to Change Course?

Has Modern Education Strayed Too Far — and Is It Time to Change Course?

Finnish basic education was once the best in the world — at least if measured by PISA success. Unfortunately, Finnish children’s results in these tests have been declining for nearly 20 years.

The reasons for this trend have been debated in Finland, but the general view is that the root cause lies in changes to the principles of teaching, in such a way that students are required to have less and less precise knowledge. At the same time, teaching methods have shifted toward giving students significantly more freedom during lessons, and instruction has proceeded at the pace of the weakest pupils.

In addition, it appears that students have been moved up from one grade to the next even in cases where they have not mastered the objectives set for that level. Meanwhile, the most gifted pupils have been left without sufficient instruction. In this process, integrating children from developing countries into teaching has also led to classroom disruptions.

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This issue was brought up today by Member of Parliament Jorma Piisinen (Finns Party), who stated: “We must acknowledge the facts. Not everyone is the same, and neither are learning needs identical. Talent is not elitism but a national resource that must be nurtured just as much as supporting the weakest.”

He further demanded that “gifted young people be allowed to grow to their full potential.” If that were to happen, “Finland would gain future makers who would move our country forward.”

According to Piisinen, paying attention to gifted youth “is not only in the interest of the individual, but of society as a whole. A fair school forgets no one. Not even the best.”

In my view, it would be important for Finland’s future that the MP’s proposal be taken into account when deciding on Finnish education policy — despite the fact that the minister responsible, Anders Adlercreutz (Swedish People’s Party), represents the most value-liberal wing of the government, for whom a return to the old teaching methods and principles — which produced good results — is likely to be unappealing from the outset.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Police to Finnish Graduates: Leave Fireworks, Blades, and Booze at Home
Marx in the Classroom: How Ideological Education Shaped Careers and Values

A Fair Game or Unfair Judgment?

National Identity in Stone: Finland’s Ancient Crust Meets Canada’s Hadean Record

The Earth began to form 4.7 billion years ago, when planetesimals—formed from material left over from the birth of the Sun—started to attract particles from the surrounding space and gradually gave rise to planets. This process eventually led, around 4.6 billion years ago, to the birth of the rocky planet on which I am writing this text.

This information was once taught to Finns of my generation. At the same time, we were told—in a spirit of patriotic pride—that Finland’s bedrock is extremely old, up to three billion years in age, though this is unlikely to be emphasized in the same way to today’s youth, who are more often guided to see themselves as global citizens.

This remains true, as the oldest known rock in Finland is about 3.5 billion years old. It is located slightly north of Finland’s geographical center, in the municipality of Pudasjärvi.

There is very little direct information about the Earth’s earliest crust, because rocks and minerals from the Hadean eon (>4.03 billion years old) are extremely rare. Even so, the age of the rock material in Pudasjärvi pales in comparison to that of the Canadian bedrock.

This is because, according to recent Canadian research, the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in Canada has been dated to as much as about 4.156 billion years old. This means that this bedrock formed during the Earth’s earliest geologic eon, the Hadean. Studying this Canadian rock thus offers us rare and valuable insight into what the newborn Earth might have been like.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
Control of Douglas fir beetles by woodborer beetles
Diverging Findings in Antarctic Ice Sheet Research
Evolution Doesn’t Just Create New Species – It Can Also Reverse It

Marx in the Classroom: How Ideological Education Shaped Careers and Values

Assistant Professors of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of Helsinki, Jaakko Meriläinen and Matti Mitrunen, have investigated the long-term effects of an experiment conducted in Finland in 1974–75 on fifth-grade schoolchildren.

The experiment involved exposing children to pro-Soviet and Marxist interpretations of history. The educational materials used were essentially copied from Soviet textbooks and emphasized class struggle. The researchers were particularly interested in whether the pupils’ views would shift in favor of socialism.

In 1975, news of the experiment leaked to the public, prompting Finland’s then Social Democratic Minister of Education to admit that the handout used in teaching did not meet the required educational standards. As a result, the experiment was discontinued.

According to the findings of Meriläinen and Mitrunen, the children exposed to the experiment earned approximately 10 percent less over their lifetimes compared to control groups. Statistically, this effect is equivalent to ending formal education a year earlier.

They worked less and were more likely to choose socially-oriented, lower-paid professions such as teaching and nursing, and were less likely to pursue managerial positions.

However, the experiment had no measurable effect on educational attainment, cognitive abilities, or academic performance. The lower earnings were therefore not due to a lack of competence but rather to a conscious choice influenced by the propaganda they were exposed to in childhood.

As possible explanations for the reduced labor participation, the researchers suggest weakened materialistic values and a reluctance to work within a capitalist society. In other words, the findings demonstrate that propagandistic education can have a significant impact on individuals’ later economic behavior, political views, and values—even in a democratic, market-based society.

This study highlights the importance of ensuring that school education is grounded in scientific knowledge rather than political ideology. At the same time, it helps explain the paradox of why socialist societies based on planned economies have repeatedly lost the economic competition to free democratic societies—and why they have time after time produced outcomes contrary to their stated goals.

Previous thoughts on the same topic:
May Day Reflections from a President—and a Student
The Increasing Criminality Among Swedish Students Stems from Their Values
An African and an Iranian Immigrant Educated a Woke-Blinded Deputy Mayor