Finland's classrooms are very different from America's -- far more permissive, with less of an emphasis on academics. There are no standardized tests until high school, and children get 15 minutes of recess in between lessons -- more than an hour of recess a day. "Play is important," one Finnish teacher told the Smithsonian magazine. "We value play."

芬蘭的教室跟美國的很不一樣, 更有流動性, 不強調學科. 到高中前沒有像聯考那類的標準考試, 學生在課堂與課堂之間會有15分鐘小休 - 一天下來超過一小時. "玩耍很重要", 一位芬蘭老師這麼說, "我們重視玩耍"

Yet Finnish kids always get good grades on comparisons of student achievement between countries. Their average scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, a test that's given to 15-year-olds in 65 countries, are among the highest in the developed world. As a result, critics of education reform in the United States often cite the Finnish example. It's a stark contrast to America's reliance on using test scores in public school teacher evaluations, or the strict, "no-excuses" model of discipline in charter schools that many have touted as improving academic results.

但是芬蘭小孩在國際間的學生比評總是拿高分. 他們在國際學生評量上的平均分數, 有個針對65個國家15歲小孩所做的測試, 芬蘭孩子的拿分是已開發國家拿最高分的. 結果, 美國的教育改革評論常引用芬蘭的例子. 跟美國形成強烈對比, 美國太依賴在公立學校老師評估的考試分數, 完全沒有彈性的教育模組.

Now, Finnish schools are embracing an even more radical approach to teaching. One major initiative is to encourage teaching by topic instead of by subject. According to The Independent, instead of teaching geography and foreign language classes separately, teachers will ask kids to name countries on a map in a foreign language. Instead of separate lessons on history and economics, they'll talk about the European Union.

現在, 芬蘭學校擁抱更彈跳的教學方式. 一個主要的改變是鼓勵以主題教導, 而不是以科目教導. 不是分開, 地理歸地理, 外文歸外文, 老師拿地圖以外語問孩子這是哪個國家. 取代個別科目, 打破疆界, 他們看整個歐盟

The new approach would be dramatically different for today's students and teachers, but in fact the idea of combining subjects is at least a century old and dates to the American philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey, "who believed that school should be connected to real life," said Larry Cuban, a professor emeritus of education at Stanford University.

這個新教法是非常跳躍式, 變化非常大的, 但事實上, 芬蘭這個實驗新教學的想法也不新, 早在至少一世紀前就有美國哲學家John Dewey在倡導, "學校應該與生活充份連結".

"When you teach subjects separate from one another -- you teach science, you teach math, you teach reading -- that means that there's a divorce between these contents, when in real life, they're not," Cuban added. "When you're cultivating a garden, you've got to know a lot about botany, insects, fertilizer, math, and a whole bunch of other things."

"當你科目分明, 井然有序在教學 - 你教科學, 教數學, 教閱讀 - 代表這些內容是破碎分離的, 真實生活, 他們不是". "當你培育一座花園, 你必需知道有關陽台, 昆虫, 施肥, 數學, 還有一堆雜事"

As Finnish educators describe their goals, the program sounds similar to the approaches that U.S. teachers adopted briefly during Dewey's lifetime -- before World War II -- and again four decades ago, during the years of "open classrooms."

芬蘭教育主事者形容他們的目標, 有點像Dewey在世時, 二戰前, 至少四十年前所說的, <打開教室>.

Teachers abandoned the technique for a few reasons, Cuban said. The interdisciplinary approach didn't fit well with public schools' general format, in which students are expected to learn a certain amount of material before moving on to the next grade. Not only that, but the system demanded more of teachers, who had to know multiple subjects in depth and be able to develop assignments based on individual students' strengths and interests.

後來的人放棄這教法有幾個原因. 這樣的科目互聯網概念, 不適合公立學校想要標準化的模組, 學生需要學一定數量的資料, 確定之後才能再移往下個年級. 不只這樣, 這個(Dewey的互通概念)系統需要更多老師, 而且需要知道多樣科目, 不論廣度, 深度都要具備, 還要能根據各別學生的長處與興趣去準備教材

These are goals that every teacher aspires to, of course, but Finnish teachers are arguably better prepared to achieve them. Finns must meet rigorous requirements in order to become teachers, as Krista Kiuru, the education minister, explained last year. "Teachers have a lot of autonomy," she told The Atlantic. "They are highly educated--they all have master’s degrees, and becoming a teacher is highly competitive."

這些都是每位老師很想做的, 當然, 但芬蘭老師已經準備做到. 芬蘭老師有很多自主性. 他們教育程度非常高, 已到專家程度, 成為一位老師是高度競爭之事.

They're also paid salaries comparable to what other university graduates earn. In the United States, teachers are paid less.

芬蘭老師的薪資比起美國要高

There are other important differences between the two countries. Only 9 percent of Finnish children live in poverty, compared to nearly a third of American kids, according to the United Nations. With so many children under so much stress, it's hardly worth comparing pedagogies between the two countries, said Martin Carnoy, an education economist at Stanford.

除此之外, 芬蘭與美國還有很多不同之處. 只有9%的芬蘭小孩家庭背景貧窮, 美國卻有1/3小孩是貧窮的. 美國那麼多孩子生活在貧窮的壓力下, 很難放在對等的狀況做比較

"It's a different ball game," he said.

是一場不一樣的球賽.

It's true that students in the lower Finnish socioeconomic classes do better than their disadvantaged peers in the United States, but Carnoy noted that test scores have been declining in Finland for this group, while poor U.S. students have made rapid gains. And educators don't need to look abroad to find successful schools: students in Massachusetts are doing nearly as well as Finnish kids in math and slightly better in reading. (That's before accounting for socioeconomic differences.)

在芬蘭, 家庭社經地位較低的學童, 表現得比美國劣勢的同伴優異, 但專家注意到, 芬蘭的這個族群(社經背景低的學童), 分數明顯掉落, 但是美國對等的劣勢學童, 分數卻扶搖直上. 教育家不需望向國外去找成功案例: 麻州學生在數學表現上, 與芬蘭學生一樣好, 在閱讀方面比芬蘭學生更好. (還沒把社經條件的考慮放進來時)

That doesn't mean that the idea of interdisciplinary lessons has no value for teachers here. Indeed, proponents of the Common Core have argued that the standards encourage a more inclusive approach to reading.

這不代表互聯科目的概念對美國老師沒有價值. 支持者說, 可鼓勵一個更具包容性的閱讀方式

The goal is for students to practice reading in all of their subjects, said Kathleen Porter-Magee, the superintendent of a half-dozen Catholic elementary schools in New York City. Still, she doesn't like the idea of eliminating the subject of reading entirely.

目標是讓學生練習所有學科的閱讀, 位於紐約市一半天主教小學的所長說, 她不喜歡把閱讀這科完全拿掉

"It sounds like the Finns are swinging the pendulum a bit too far in the other direction," said Porter-Magee, who is also a fellow at the Fordham Institute, a think tank for educational research. "Literature should have its rightful place alongside the content courses, like science and history and the arts."

感覺芬蘭把改變的幅度搖晃太大晃到另一端. "文學還是要有個適當位置, 科學, 歷史, 與藝術都是"

The sections of the Common Core on reading have proven controversial, as many English teachers feel they're being asked to eliminate literature in favor of informational material in various subjects. Supporters of the standards say that wasn't the intention, and that teachers in other subjects should be making those assignments.