Description
How do other countries create smarter kids? What is it like to be a child in the worlds new education superpowers? The Smartest Kids in the World gets well beneath the glossy surfaces of these foreign cultures and manages to make our own culture look newly question is whether the startling perspective provided by this masterly book can also generate the will to make changes (The New York Times Book Review).
In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems theyve never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy. Inspired to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embed-ded in these countries for one year. Kim, fifteen, raises so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, eighteen, trades his high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, seventeen, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for Poland.
Through these young informants, Ripley meets battle-scarred reformers, sleep-deprived zombie students, and a teacher who earns million a year. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into learning in other cultures, reveal a pattern of startling transformation: none of these countries had many smart kids a few decades ago. Things had changed. Teaching had become more rigorous; parents had focused on things that mattered; and children had bought into the promise of education.
Author: Amanda Ripley
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 07/29/2014
Pages: 320
Weight: 0.6lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.80d
ISBN: 9781451654431
Language: English
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