Amanda Ripley's "Smartest Kids in the World'

BSR's editor Dan Rottenberg recently offered a good defense of academic sports. (Click here.) But his argument rests on his personal experience with an old-fashioned, atypical college sports program. In most American high schools, the athletic department presents spectator sports. A small number of students participate; the rest sit in the stands and cheer.

American public school teams serve, in effect, as tax-supported farm teams for the universities. The universities, in turn, finance farm teams for the pros.

Our attitude toward sports plays a small but important role in The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way, Amanda Ripley's critique of U.S. education. American students who study abroad are often surprised by the absence of school sports in countries with the highest performing students. Conversely, foreign kids who come here are surprised by our emphasis on sports.

Kids in other countries do engage in sports. But they do it outside of school, usually in private soccer clubs.

Critical thinking

Ripley looks at three countries that rack up notable scores on an international test called PISA (for Program for International Student Assessment): Finland (the current number one), Korea (number two) and Poland (currently slightly ahead of the U.S. but rising fast). She visited all three countries; she also grounded her research in reality by recruiting three "field agents"— American exchange students who experience the foreign educational systems first hand.

PISA is supposed to test "critical thinking." Students must apply their academic learning to real-world problems like reading instructions and evaluating the relevance of the graphs that accompany news stories. Test takers are given the relevant math formulas in the math sections. They're even handed basic facts like the value of pi. PISA tests their understanding, not their ability to regurgitate memorized facts.

American students usually end up in the middle of the PISA rankings of modern economically advanced countries. Our normal position lies "somewhere between Greece and Canada," even though we spend more money per student than any other country.

Paying attention

In Ripley's analysis, our attitude toward sports is a symptom of a deeper weakness. The countries she studies all have their flaws, but they achieve their high results because "the people in these countries all agreed on the purpose of school: School existed to help students master complex academic material. Other things matter, too, but nothing mattered as much. That clarity of purpose meant everybody took school more seriously, especially kids."

The American student who spent a year in Poland noted that even the "stoners" in the Polish schools pay attention in class, take notes and take their schooling seriously.

Finland's teacher-selection policies typify the Finnish attitude. American education schools draw most of their students from the bottom third of the pool. Finnish education courses, by contrast, accept only 20% of applicants, and the acceptance rate for some specialties is comparable to the acceptance rate at MIT.

When teachers coach

In the U.S., a math teacher can double as a football coach and be hired primarily for his coaching abilities. In Finland, a teacher of Finnish (the equivalent of an American English teacher) completes a six-year course comparable to a U.S. doctoral program, complete with dissertation.

Math is another measure of a country's attitude toward education. In the U.S., Ripley notes, many educated people seem to think math is optional. Many teachers in the lower grades hate and fear math and communicate that attitude to their students. Result: Math is the area where foreign students consistently outshine American students, decade after decade.

But today, Ripley argues, "all decent jobs" require some science and math. Contractors must factor inflation into cost estimates. X-Ray technicians use geometry. Salesmen must understand complex technical products.

Taking math seriously

One of Ripley's students comes from Oklahoma, in an area where one of the major employers produces fruit pies for McDonald's. The chief executive recently opened an expansion plant in Poland because it offered her the educated work force she can't find in Oklahoma.

"Maintenance technician" may sound like a menial job, the chief executive told Ripley, but it pays $25 to $30 an hour and requires workers who can read blueprints and compose written reports describing the events on their shift, in addition to maintaining complex systems.

The educational leaders in Finland, Korea and Poland have recognized the importance of basic math. They believe their students can learn it, they expect them to do it, and the students respond to those expectations.

The poverty excuse

Please note that these countries aren't teaching their kids quantum mechanics. They're teaching them the basic stuff that American students are supposed to learn from kindergarten through high school. Their kids are learning; ours aren't.

American educators often excuse our low international standing by pointing to all the poverty-stricken American students who skew our national statistics. But the top countries in the PISA league beat the U.S. even when you adjust for factors like poverty and immigration.

Poland is currently educating children who live in slums afflicted with the worst ills of America's worst neighborhoods. Korea has risen from Third World poverty magnified by the devastations of war and dictatorship.

Cause for hope

Ripley ends her book on an optimistic note. Finland and Poland have proved that a country can upgrade a mediocre educational system in a relatively short time. The U.S. can do the same.

We could start by deciding that schools are supposed to teach important academic subjects, and character-building activities like sports should be left to Pop Warner, Little League and our city recreation departments.