Best Educated Populations in the World

Estonia? Lithuania? That can't be right.

Link, OP?

Hmmm...

hmmmmmmmmmm....

#4 is Russia? Bitch, please! @Boris

I didn’t know Hong Kong was a country.

Hmmmm indeed

Why can’t Estonia and Latvia be right, R1? What do you know about those countries?

^^^ Lithuania, I mean. Although the point remains the same.

The link says America is 6. What study are you talking about OP?

What you generally find in these countries is a curriculum focused in facts, not on feelings. For the last 20 or so years schools have obsessed over making subjects like history and literature relatable to students personal lives. That's how we get stupid essay questions that ask students to compare themselves to various historical or literature figures, even if they have absolutely nothing in common. Many curriculums also place an emphasis on vulgar emotional prying rather than cool analysis. English class in middle school always seemed to consist of the teacher trying to get the students to give personal details about their psyches or their home lives. Icky. Another factor is the degree of disruption by students permitted in American schools. Here it is the norm to allow violent, loud and disruptive students to bully other children, and sometimes teachers, while administrators do nothing. In turn, the people who are willing to work in this type of environment are not exactly the cream of the crop.

Uh...wasn't there just a thread about how Canada's education system is a joke? How is it ranked #1 according to one of the links?

[quote] What you generally find in these countries is a curriculum focused in facts, not on feelings. For the last 20 or so years schools have obsessed over making subjects like history and literature relatable to students personal lives.

This is absolutely correct. I was a college professor before I started teaching high school. The whole thrust of education is to make things relevant and interesting to students. The problem is that we need to teach kids to imagine a world full of facts and feelings not like their own. They need to learn that they are not the center of the world. This trend in education has nothing to do with "wokeness" or SJWs. It goes back to specific developments in the 80s and 90s towards so-called student-centered and active learning. Education doctorates are responsible for more bullshit than any other group in the world, in my opinion.

Hong Kong has its own legal system, immigration & passport control, governance, and education system.

I agree with 13. I'd like to add that doctorates in education are the easiest doctorates to get, and every idiot who gets one insists on being called Dr. LOL.

R13 "We need to teach kids to imagine a world full of facts and feelings not like their own ". Yes, I agree one hundred percent.

[quote]So much for American "Exceptionalism"

American Exceptionalism is not about education or intelligence.

[quote]American exceptionalism is not the same as saying the United States is "different" from other countries. It doesn't just mean that the U.S. is "unique." Countries, like people, are all different and unique, even if many share some underlying characteristics. Exceptionalism requires something far more: a belief that the U.S. follows a path of history different from the laws or norms that govern other countries. That's the essence of American exceptionalism: The U.S. is not just a bigger and more powerful country — but an exception. It is the bearer of freedom and liberty, and morally superior to something called "Europe." Never mind the differences within Europe, or the fact that "the world" is bigger than the U.S. and Europe. The "Europe" versus "America" dichotomy is the crucible in which American exceptionalist thinking formed.

It's over. I'll be convinced otherwise if Pete and Warren do well in the nominations.

IQ matters more, and the US is way up there.

R1 Estonia is actually similar to the Nordic countries, so it's not surprise it's up there along with them.

Link please or this is more fake news and propaganda

Masters and Doctorates are a dime a dozen in Cameroon but the quality? Russian middle class have excellent primary education, if the student is interested, but its rather cruel since their country is a shit hole waiting for them to be adults in it.

I have read that learning English spelling delays school progress of English speaking kids by up to a year - because there's no logic to it and it isn't close to being phonetic. Children of East Asia are good at rote learning - because they have to memorize 2000 characters just to read a newspaper. Each country has its educational strengths and weaknesses. There was a time when American schools were great levelers. Everyone in them learned to be an "American" and not a hodge-podge of some ethnic backgrounds. People learned principles about fairness and equality. "Everyone is created equal" is a strictly American concept - it was never taught in any other land prior to the founding of the US. Now every 10th kid is home-schooled and civics and American history have become electives.. So what the hell is up with that?

Germany didn't make the list, OP?

Germany still has apprentice system so not everyone needs a B.A./B.S. M.S. etc.

Link please.

[quote] IQ matters more, and the US is way up there.

[quote] Now every 10th kid is home-schooled and civics and American history have become electives..

One thing that surprised me when I started teaching high school is that the home schooled kids are actually a lot more capable than everyone else. There's really no comparison. The parents who home school their kids are also usually very intelligent. It's like that episode on South Park. I think home schooling is a bad idea, but there's no denying that it works in a lot of cases.

I think it’s very very true, you americans don’t know shit outside your country and feel like you’re too superior to know more. The post-soviet countries are very good at secondary education

This makes me happy. I'm Norwegian and I have a master's degree. It's a useless degree though. I was lucky to get a job. I work in public administration, not the best salary but it's ok.

Russia at no 4??? Above Japan, Israel and Singapore? Like R5, I have my doubts. How was this measured?

Roughly correlated with IQ. Not Russia though. That's bullshit.

At least one thing used to make sense in the Soviet system. Every child in the entire country from coast to coast (8000 miles), learned from exactly the same text books and classes moved along at basically the same speed, so someone who transferred to a different school was never lost. (I found this out from friends who grew up there). I'm sure that by 8th grade, as in many other systems around the world, the academically challenged students were weeded out and sent to trade schools to learn to be carpenters or mechanics or to learn to sew. Not everyone is designed to study calculus and rocket science, but in the American system we keep encouraging kids to learn academic subjects when many are not cut out for it.....and we wonder why we have a big dropout rate...

This is what happens when you have free education. College (university) is free here. We only pay a tiny tuition fee every semester (like 40 $) and that's it.

I knew the OP's link was crap when I saw Russia, Georgia & Lithuania on the list but not Luxembourg.

Why is our children not learning?

I've always interpreted the term "American exceptionalism" as referring to the American constitution and the fact that America is the only country in the world with a constitution that ring-fences individual liberties such as freedom of speech from government abuse and punishment.