by David Safier
According to Matt Yglesias, in Finland, teacher education programs turn away five applicants for every one they accept, and the applicants
typically come from the top half of upper secondary schools which themselves only basically the top half of Finnish primary school graduates (the rest go to vocational schools).
Why? It's not the salaries. He says teacher pay is roughly equivalent to ours. But he makes one distinction.
The relative salary is higher because other professionals such as lawyers and doctors earn less in Finland than do their US equivalents.
There's the answer. We don't have to pay teachers more. Just pay other professionals less. Brilliant!
Yglesias also says Finnish kids have fewer discipline issues, which could be an added incentive for potential teachers, but that doesn't seem to me to be important enough to account for the far greater enthusiasm for the teaching profession. (Besides, it gets in the way of my thesis, so in the grand tradition of scholars everywhere, I'll ignore it.)
Teachers in other countries tend to have higher status in their society than they do here. That's a factor I definitely wouldn't discount in the career choice. Somehow, when someone who is intelligent and talented goes into the profession, people are likely to say (or think), "You mean you're only a high school teacher?" Makes you feel special, doesn't it?
Discover more from Blog for Arizona
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.