Sam Abrams is a former colleague and very dear friend of mine. He is one of the most thoughtful scholars on education I know, and he and I have spent many dozens of hours over the last ten-twelve years talking about education policy and pedagogy. He has been working on book on the school reform movement of the last decade, and knowing Sam, it will be measured, insanely well-researched, fair and incredibly powerful. With that…

With all of the discussion around the Finnish model of education that is being touted on many sides of the education debate, I’d urge folks to read The Children Must Play from January’s New Republic. It examines some of the underlying beliefs of the Finnish system – broad standards that allow teachers to then create curriculum around its, sampled test data, rather than testing every last student, small class sizes, and a powerful respect for teachers in their society, examines how Finland got to this moment in time and compares Finland’s success contrasted with their neighbor Norway.

It’s well worth the read.