You touched on why the US will never adopt this type of thinking: it can be directed at religion and there is too much money and too many political influences (vested interests) to want people to think for themselves.
You'd have to have a couple of precursor steps to get to this point. First of all multiple political parties so that extreme parts of parties will be checked by more moderate parties. A republican could vote christian conservative party to protest against republican policies without selling his soul to the democrats. A democrat could vote green party to police the democrats without selling his soul to republicans. This can't be done in the current system.
I'm a Finn, now 56. I'm still amazed about how much I actually learned in school as a teenager in the 80s about how to evaluate any media, content and sources critically, 10 years before internet. As a journalist (!) today I still remember much of what my wonderful teacher taught us about critical reading. Back then, of course, I was just a bored jerk and could not guess how much she planted in my brain. But ... has Finnish school somehow deteriorated? There has been a decline, I think, but education is still on a quite high level. Why do I think so? Well, all the young people I know or meet are so amazingly aware of so much. Damn, how clever they are! There are things to do, but I am not that worried.
As someone who's participated in amis and now is in AMK I can tell you that there's a definite deterioration. I'd say a large portion of my teachers have been people who are too young to retire but too lazy to do actual work until retirement. So their solution is a pre-retirement holiday as a teacher photocopying worksheets and taking coffee breaks. The respect for the teaching profession and the difficulty and skill involved doesn't appear to be present at least among those people.
By contrast, I have an Engineering degree from a well known Canadian university. There was no mention of critical thinking until one lecture sometime in the year before I completed my degree. Until then, it never occurred to me or my classmates to even take note of who was the author of a given scientific journal paper, and most importantly, who pays his salary anc for what motive. In hindsight, this is a rather grievous matter, but even we who considered ourselves well educated were unprepared didn't think to make such analysis. If it was so hard for me and my classmates, how impossible is critical analysis in a population than cannot read beyond a 5th grade level? I think many governments like it just that way.
@@HailHeidi As a Danish teacher I can confirm that. We teach similar stuff like the Finns, but don't always have a dedicated class on it, but having it being part of all the different classes. I for example as a math teacher, show them how statistics can be deceiving and that there always is a tradeoff when you represent thinks, therefore I teach my pupils to always be aware of what has actually been shown in the statistic and how transparent it is. In Denmark we work with "technology education/understanding" It is up to the separate school how they implement the curriculum either as part of the regular classes or as a separate course. Must of what was talked about in this video is part of the curriculum that the Danish pupils are required to learn.
This is the difference between a democracy that serves the people for the benefit of their country, and an elitist political system that serves the politicians and their 'special interests' - i.e. power & money. America is way down the list on serving its people.
its the politicians who are serving the billionairs - see how hard Elon is working to get his hands on all the government contracts and he is not the only one - not talking about millionairs here -
I believe that USA looses the game, because everything is so money driven there. Our goal here in Finnish schools isn't to help our pupils to become as rich as possible, but to pursuit in their lives to be happy and live a full life.
As a born and raised American, I can say it's not as innocent as your comment makes it seem. Our public schools are basically training grounds to work 8-12 hr shifts without complaints or questioning management - ever. The private schools are 1 of 2 options; 1 being based on money and how to find/exploit loopholes while saving your public image, 2 being entirely devout/fundamentalist religious. Getting rich is a carrot dangled to all while being a plausible outcome for but a mere few.
@@cannabotany Yes. We also have private schools in Finland, but those, too, have to operate by the national curriculum and the elementary school law. Some of them operate with different pedagogic methods. But in the end every school much provide every pupil the same education and knowledge so that everyone has an equal opportunity to have same starting point toward the further education. For example, we do have a subject called Religion in schools, but it's prohibited to be teached with a religious view point.
You are correct with both of your statements: Finland is going down hill AND is still doing well :D Not just as good as before. Everything is relative.
@@finnishview2933 Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. Parhaat päivät on eessäpäin. Yt, Karjalan pakana
@@SK-nw4ig Imo were going down with math skills but these kind of critical thinking, emotional skills and media skills education has improved. Definitely wasn't like this when I was in school.
Hi Heidi, Many, many thanks for digging out this video -- it's excellent! The German language has a proverb that goes "Ehrlich währt am längsten" (literally "Honesty lasts the longest", meaning "In the long run, honesty is the best policy"). I think the Finnish government has been understanding this fundamental truth for a long time. Good for that country -- while most other governments did not even start taking the baby steps yet (let alone including critical thinking into their schools' curricula...). All the very best to you from Germany and thanks a lot for your great reactions! Robert
Finland is STILL doing well.. it is just slowly, ever so slowly being changed and not for the better. So, both can be true at the same time, it performing well in comparison to other countries but also slowly getting worse when compared to itself.
Then again, people are afraid of any change and wants to keep things the same they used to be - which is always impossible, because people change, ideas and values change, laws change, fashion changes, technology changes, economy changes, even political orientations and religion changes - but still some people wants the country/government to stay like it used to be before years back??!! Fear is the motivation here, restless questions arise, that what happens to me and my wealth and job etc. etc. In nature for millions of years one rule has been the major guideline: "Life and nature changes and those who cannot embrace the change and change with it will be extinct.." - Deal with it!
It's rather relative actually, if Finland doesn't do right now as well as say four years ago it could be that some other countries are improving and thus Finland's number is not as high as before. I did not know about this but I assume it's because my youngest kid is already 25. One thing I like in Finnish education is that we gave up on boarding schools and same sex schools too many many years ago also there is not the same two class system like in say Britain.
Some change is good, but grades dropping all over the country year-by-year doesn't seem like good change to me... ofc the fact that students and teachers have been forced to move away from pen and paper has something to do with it too, since especially math and physics software are super hard to use. But grades are dropping on all subjects, so much so that they're making the tests easier to make up for it..
@@HenritheHorse Toki, mutta taas yhden hevonen on toisen muuli, eli näkökannat kuinka paljon ja kuinka pahasti muutos vaikuttaa vaihtelee missä roolissa katselija/arvostelija on.. Joka tapauksessa kauas taaksepäin historiassa kun kunkin mielestä oli asiat paremmin ei vaan pysty resetoida tyystin - kaihota ja valittaa toki aina voi, mutta sekin käy vähän ajan päästä jo ärsyttämään..
One safeguard against disinformation is that Finnish is a weird language from a very small language family so it's an extra layer of complexity any foreign disinformation spreaders need to solve if they want to be effective. One good example are the messages shown at 5:32, the tweets shown say that Nato cannot save Finland (from russia) - but they used the wrong word. "Tallentaa" only refers to capturing images or audio, saving files or downloading something whereas rescuing or protecting are completely different words ("pelastaa", "suojella"). Finns had a bit of fun on social media after that with people wondering if it'd help if we saved the country as a pdf first and sent that to Nato, floppy disk shaped morale patches were made etc.
I love that Finnish people took the misused word and twisted it to make a point! Good job!!!! America could do so much better- but it’s doubtful we will… unfettered capitalism gets in the way of intelligent critical thinking.
I love George Carlin, the person who sees through Lies and smoke screens and is not afraid to speak about it to others and does it ingeniously with comedy - what a man, what a loss nowadays..
We had this kind of critical reading in Finland at early -80s when I was in 8th and 9th grade. We did read news papers from other countries and compare to our own media, most stories was translated to us.
Yup, I'm 43 years old and I remember critical thinking from school. Don't be dumb was the message. But there's so much more distracting stuff these days...
Glad you liked the video and got to watch it!! Wasn’t sure if you’d think it would be worth reacting to, but I’m happy to see how you found it so informative and I thought you’d enjoy watching it even if you wouldn’t react to it but it worked out perfectly! 😊 As always I enjoy your videos and opinions/observations! These are fun to watch while relaxing a bit after a long day! Stay awesome and keep em coming! 😎🤘🏽
but YLE is not unbiased.. its also fake media... dont believe their misinformation.. there is huge thing now because they fired a journalist who revelaled their DEI training which is not actually allowed in legislation its not their purpose.. so many people want to dismantle YLE
Yeah, we have some good stuff. However our goverment is very good hide everything negative. Like "free" healthcare what is a big lie. It slowly but surely collapsing. At least here where i live, its almost impossible see a doctor. Or it takes so long that people die for waiting. And if you are lucky and get there, it cost quite a bit (depending), nothing is free anymore. Or breadlines what they did hide when covid came. Yes, we have lot of people who are that poor. Or so many younger people are depressed. Or suicide rate what is still high. List is very long and sad if start to think abt how this country was and how it is now. Things are not as good anymore. And it going worse and worse each year for ordinary people. I dont know how this ship can turn around, it may be too late already. But compared to USA or many other countries, this is still better place to live. Just dont think that everything is good and wonderful. Its not. IF you have money, things are good. You can go see private sector doctor when you need, you can eat healthy, nature is nice in the short summer etc.
Good reaction thanks, i believe there's a good reason that government and religious institutions don't want people to critically think about the information they are told, take care.
This reminds me of a lesson when I was about 12. It was supposed to be an English lesson, but as it was a couple of days before the end of term, the teacher talked to us about the news instead. He used the phrase Stop, Look, Listen, Think, which was the tagline from a children's road safety campaign at the time, so we were all familiar with it. That afternoon, more than any other point in my 14 years of school, has stayed with me for more than 50 years now.
I'm Canadian and can definitely say we were not taught anything like this, although I grew up in the 70's and 80's so I can't speak for the current education system. But something like this would have definitely made for a better society, on the whole.
Have you forgotten about the house hippos etc? Put out by the CBC for young children who would normally be watching mindless cartoons although some had some value.
The polar opposite what the Finn education does in Europe is what the German method is. It’s also used in several countries. It’s more focused on lexical knowledge and to learn a lot of things, read a lot. Somewhat close to a university study. It’s not that diverse in students. Still effective and way more detailed than the American in global history, math etc…. For critical thinking… that part is… I think it’s on EU level supported/suggested that all the countries should teach or introduce at least some basic understanding some empathy against all minorities. Religion, gender, whatever. Now some countries have mandatory reading lists some have suggested ones. But for sure all are well read. I discussed it with booktubers and it’s way ahead especially regarding classical literature and how to analyze text. We all have to write about the subject in matter. As for media literacy: why would it be thought in USA? It’s not good for the government there. Your media is full with propaganda. From political to marketing but these are the same at the end of the day in USA. Keep in mind: in Finland or in any northern country a government like Trump? In 5 minutes would be in prison. They don’t allow any kind of bribe at all. But really. Check any video what happens if a politician in these countries fail the smallest thing. They use a bit of euro for personal gains… 20 euro and they lose their job.
You may want to correct your "why would be thought in USA? " to "Why would it be taught in USA?" I had to reread it multiple times to get what you actually meant to say.
Its not just you who likes this Heidi. I know about the Nordic School System for over 20 years by now and my government has still not copied it, which drives me crazy!
I'm a finn and went to school in the 90's, so before social media or even internet really. And even then, critical thinking and source criticism was tought to us. (Teachers also always kept saying before a test: "Answer the questions in your own words. I don't want to read the same paragraphs you have memorized from the textbook - I want you to explain it to me, so I see if you have understood.") I am very happy to see that these new generations have classes like this, that teach about social media and misinformation etc. (Now, if ONLY we could have those same classes for us older generations as well...)
if ´´they´´ teach you how to think they don´t get money, and control over you and that is bad for ´´them´´. you remember George Carlin, ´´is a big club and you are not in it´´.
It’s more important than ever that we get the SOURCE of our information- and then what the agenda is of the source promoting that information. Excellent job, Finland!!!!
*Big in the Nordics. As a Danish teacher I know that Finland is leading in some areas, so let's make sure to include them. Scandinavia is only Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Sure, finland is not technically part of scandinavia, but it was part of the swedish realm for a long, long time, and sweden is part of scandinavia. Technically denmark is not part of scandinavia, but a part of the european continent, so maybe we should just exclude denmark once and for all. Culture is apparently a big part of the definition.
@@madsimusnuo Wrong. Denmark is part of Scandinavia even if you go by technicality. Do you even know what the origin of the word is? It is the southern most region of Sweden, which Denmark used to own. Furthermore even ancient records describes the islands east of Jutland as being Scandinavian (they didn't know Sweden wasn't an island), which includes big parts of modern Denmark. Going by tectonics. Finland, Norway and Sweden also belongs to the European continent, so it is pointless to say that Denmark belongs to it and therefore should be excluded from Scandinavia. There is absolutely no way to exclude Denmark, beside if one wants to talk about the Scandinavian peninsula, which include the northern part of Finland as well, but that isn't Scandinavia and never has been. It is merely a part of it. Norway is further away from the region that was the origin of the name and as far as I know has never owned it independently, so if you are going to exclude one country Denmark wouldn't even be the most obvious choice.
@@Bronzescorpion ok, then we learn different geography in school in norway and denmark. got it. the scandinavian peninsula includes norway, sweden and parts of finland. not denmark. culturally denmark is included. that is what we learn in school.
What comes to religion.... In Finland we actually have an "official" religion, Lutheran. If you (or your parents) don't make an effort to get rid of it, it's kind of a given status. Still.... atheism is really, really common in here and it's not a big bad boogie man. And these are one of the reasons , why Finland is the happiest county in the world 👍🏼
@@sabertoetiger2582 just to be frank we there is another ‘official religion’ in here , that is the Orthodox Christian faith. We are a smaller church than the Lutheran one but we are also an official national church in Finland.
Religion, the oldest manipulating and controlling instance or at least the way the humans have developed it in the forms of institutions like church - George Carlin in his comedy brings out this hypocritical way of scamming the common man - where ever there is power or wealth, there will always be power hungry and richness seeking humans nesting around and taking over the dominion of them (Churches, government, big corporations, etc..) - not the most of persons, but the very on top organisationally of them will eventually be conquered by these selfish and greedy persons..
Finland going "downhill" is a bit like saying "base camp" is lower than the summit on Everest. They can go a long way down before they get North American levels. Critical thinking needs to be standard in people's minds, sadly making people think is not always easy. I've always said, "If the only way to get people to believe the same things as you is to deny them access to other info... you might be wrong."
First I will say is that YLE is FBC, Finnish Broadcasting Company in English. It is the Finnish version of BBC. One should understand that even though Finnish language is a formidable barrier for any foreign actor who wants to spread disinformation in Finnish, it is known that some Finns do that as well and they are probably paid by foreign actors who are hostile towards Finland. There was shortly during that video clip an interesting sentence in Finnish: "NATO ei voi tallentaa* Suomea." It is supposed to mean "NATO cannot save Finland." However, native Finns will at once notice that as a very poor translation because the word "tallentaa" actually means "to record or to save as a file". The correct word for that sentence would be "pelastaa*" which means to save.
"paid by foreign actors" is so overused these days. When people have nothing intelligent to add, they resort to logical fallacies and blatant lies in order to cover their inadequacies.
I think the language barrier is already lost thank to LLMs getting smart enough. ChatGPT can translate English text to very fluent Finnish and makes less grammar errors than an average native Finn.
@@MikkoRantalainenLast time i checked it (chatGPT) wasnt able to speak with a slang. Only good formal Finnish and that still gives it away, except in formal setting.
In high school, our physics teacher always required us to justify the formulas we were using. We did not need to derive them, but he wanted us to write down why we are using this particular formula. For example for speed = distance / time, we would have to say that it's forward motion where acceleration is zero. Basically he taught us to recognize the problem, the situation and only after that think about the mathematical side. I think it kind of relates to this topic here about seeing the big picture
The Finns do it more comprehensively. But when I was at school in the Netherlands in the seventies (I am old), we were told time and again to read at least two differing sources of information (mostly newspapers) and think for ourselves what we thought of the news AND WHY we thought that. I think this was only done at higher level education, unfortunately (pre-university). And of course being at the theoretical scientific university it was a given that you had to be able to logically and factually underpin everything you wrote. Of course we did not have computers or social media. But sure enough we also had a lot of fake news or at least very colored "truths" in all the available mass media at the time.
In England at school in the 60's we were taught to read multiple sources for research using different publishers to avoid bias. Often required using a public library not just the school one.
@@tonys1636 Yeah, but it went a bit further than that. We were also encouraged to read two newspapers. One left wing and one right wing or Christian newspaper. Every day.
@@cynic7049 Yes, as I mentioned, the Finns do it far more comprehensively. Did you also have the recommendation at school to read two newspapers every day? One right wing and one left wing?
Itwas just the same for me in my German school in the seventies and at university in the eighties.We had to check everything and find different sources to proove the facts.But weonly had print media,radio and TV .I am 63.
I went through the Montessori school system starting in 1969. Critical thinking was always the core of our education. By the time I was 10, I'd learned that man creates gods, not the other way around.
This kind of critical media reading was already being taught in Finland, in a much smaller scale, roughly 20 years ago in the middle school. Curiously, it was often the art teachers that introduced the idea to students, mayhaps partly fueled by the already common trend of people "Photoshopping" images to make them more striking and cool, or even faking entire scenes from scratch, which surely was already blurring the lines of fact and fiction. Not only that, but because of their geopolitics and history, Finns have learned to observe rest of the world, think outside the box, and not think that they have all the answers needed. They've been sitting "in between the feet of giants" for a millennium. Even if you leave the old and new superpowers out of the equation, one thing that seems to boggle especially the Americans' minds about Europe is the fact that you can drive a couple hours to one direction, and all the sudden the entire culture, language and landscape changes. This by default requires some introspection and studying of the world around you, even if some of the bigger EU countries tend to live in their own bubbles at times.
It's like German üle, isn't it? It is annoying, but we have to give them some slack, pronouncing sounds that do not exist in their native language is something most people can't do. On the other hand, we have to learn their dumb "th" and rolled R and 20 fucking vowel sounds, they could at least try. 😀
Oh gosh, I'm jealous that our kids aren't getting this type of critical thought and media literacy. Our lack of critical thought shows fully in today's American politics. Thanks for responding to this video; I learned alot!
I was raised LDS and as you know the church actively fought this type of thinking. "Don't read this or go there if you know it'll be bad." My parents messed up and made my siblings and I critical thinkers. Now, all 6 of us are no longer mormon.
As a Gen-X. and 3rd Gen American Finn, Yes there is a lack of critical thinking in education in the US. Is the Finnish education system going down hill, probably not. Beside their first language is literally the most difficult to learn in the world. I would have rather that been my first language Finnish.
As almost 30 years old now and went to school in finland when Nokia bricks were thing. I remember that we always were thought media literature and how to judge sources. Of course back in my elementary school it was about tv, news papers, books mostly ect.
One of the most important differences between kids and *adults* learning is we adults, are imagining we are skillful at seeing through things, while childhood education is thorough with the pressure of a teacher and tests while adults have to self-motivate. Typically we wouldn't be regularly revising the same thing for proper thorough memorization and recall. Nor do we have the class discussion, or having to clearly understand and articulate things for fear of looking stupid in front of other real people.
Some 25 years ago when I was in high school we read newspapers and did reports on them. I even remember a young russian politician following in Yeltsin's footsteps. Didn't sound that bad at the moment...
Finns generartions remember ww2 with ”ryssä” ruskie. Ruskie attack i mn Finland. My grandfather and gmother fight ryssä ruskie 1938-1945. Now we have NATO OTAN. Finns have own modern defence forces.
and you don't remember that Finland fought on Hitler's side ? Just like our government in Canada, applauding a Natsie in the Parliament because he was fighting the Russian...
@@moestietabarnak There would be no Finland if we wouldn't have taken the help from the natsis. russia wanted to destroy us so we had no other choice. After the war with russia was over we fought the natsis and drove them away from our country.
When my daughters grew up I often played tricks on them. Not cruel, but something we could all laugh at. It taught them humour from a very early point, but also critical thinking. Is dad yanking my tail right now? Before anyone feels sorry for those two - don't. They'd paid back. _Plenty_. 😂
This is what the world desperately needs. In the uk in the 90s we used to look at newspapers and talk about the reliability of the source and the underlying motive of the author. Political leanings, is anyone really independent or do we all have a filter that skews our understanding so how can we know what we read is reliable etc etc. but that was only once we got to upper secondary and only if you picked academic subjects. I’ve no idea if it still happens but this is needed throughout school for all peoples in this age of media saturation. Stop, think, check
Everyone can make a difference and make this world more safe by start doing the same, start questioning everything you hear, see and experience and warn your surroundings.
One aspect of Finland which probably contributed to their education methods is the degree to which people there are digitally connected, with computers, smartphones, internet connections and all the media these connections give easy access to. Even 20 years ago, Finland was described as "the worlds most wired nation", with something like 90% (or more) of households there having internet connections - whether that be basic dial-up over a landline, broadband, or wireless of some kind. So their population would have been exposed to all the information as well as misinformation and deliberate disinformation to a far greater degree than any other nation, much earlier than any other nation. This could easily be the reason (or part of the reason) why they have such a massive head-start on these education methods - they probably realised the need for it before anyone else did.
I had stuff like this in school 50 years ago in Germany. I think it wasn't a general thing and more like what the Teacher for politics did by himself. We bought for example all available newspapers at a specific day and compared the selection of themes, headlines, content and what was left out in some of them. It was just the content of one day but it was pretty much obvious which of the papers where really bad and obviously wrong and misleading.
these classes were always fun, in the 90s we had as exercise, for example, to come up with titles that paint situations in the best and worst light. Another one that I remember well was pic that was cropped to look like theft, but when pic was revealed it was a picture of rescue workers
Find in life what works for you. Not a solution for everyone else. And never expect it to be. What works for you . Might not work for other people. Never let people force ideals on you n.
Nowadays there is less difference and meaning which country the news comes from, lots of countries are producing news to influence on general opinion. We Finns certainly are aware of Russian misinformation due to our history. Less that of American. I hope many Finns are now more aware of it thanks to the previous president of the USA. Always good to check the source and think how correct the info can be. Use common sense. Check out more articles of the same topic published by other sources. Everyone has their own interest/agenda they are promoting.
was it Russian misinformation, or you fell for the western propaganda ? Like TODAY. You were occupied by Russia ? (soviet really).. do you remember WHY ? Hint: It might be related to fighting on which side...
So I’m genX critical thinking came into picture maybe around 8th grade and more in-depth around 10th grade. My kid is now in 8th grade and they did start in elementary school. They were taught early on how to find information, how to process it and determine whether it’s good info or bad. I don’t know how deep they have gone into the “behind the scenes and motivations” of text or pics as of yet. There are aspects in our education system that are fine, but the truth is the math skills in Finland lag behind many countries now. We used to be better in the 90s, but they also fixed parts of the system that weren’t broken 🤷🏼♀️
On many, many levels I envy the Finns for going to the heart of the modern world and its challenges, particularly as it relates to critical thinking. America is so far from this thought and teaching process that it is embarrassing.
I am soon 54 y.o. Finn. We did read newspapers in school and in home. Father order our city's and next bigger city's newspaper, partly to educate us. I also liked watch news from age 12 or earlier, younger age we did not watch, (maybe forbidden) because there was so much misery and wars, not good for children.
Great video. To answer your question, my parents encouraged critical thinking from an early age, which is what saved me from the indoctrination of the church schools they sent me to. I did prove to get me in trouble a few times in school when I would point out things in the Bible that don't stand up to scrutiny.
And Finland being a small country of only 5,5 million people needs all available people to be well educated and as intellectual as possible, otherwise in opposite situation where a too small amount of intellectual people tries to make a living to a vast number of ignorant and un-knowledgeable people and it would not work at all - in countries with hundreds of millions of people 1-2 million intellectual and well educated people can harvest the funds to provide for the rest of the nation - no offence intended to anyone or any nation, but this is just a fact..
Just for fun, you should listen to the The Children's Complaints Choir of Poikkilaaksa in Finland. Complaints choirs were created 20 years ago by a pair Finnish musicians in Helsinki. They have spread around the world.
Heidi, I just this evening stumbled upon your site, and I'm fascinated by the topics you bring up. Some of which I have been aware of for many years. You come across as VERY new to a lot of things many take for granted, as if you became Mormon nonbeliever only Very Recently. So in that light, I'd like to know afew more things about you, in particular about your own relationship with LDS. I'd like to know about what line of questioning led to your (and tour husband's) departure, how long ago that took place, and how the transition period affected you. I ask because the general public wants to know how their feelings are in line with yours and that yours represents a large and growing trend rather than an isolated case that is easily disregarded. Or have you already addressed my questions in a previous vudeo? If so, please send an appropriate link to this new, very curious, fan. Thanks.
@@Nephilim2001 I was wondering about that, english not being my first language. I meant it to say "it isn't true", but yeah I guess you can read it meaning it "isn't too good to be true".
Some basics for critical thinking on social media: Who is behind the post you are watching? Do you get strong emotions about the post? Why are they posting it? Why are they posting it now? for example, a 10-year-old news article just randomly came up in your social media flow.. Have you seen any other trustworthy source sharing the same information? Swedish agency for psychological defence making some points about how easy you can get fooled [ENG sub]: Are you easy to influence? ruclips.net/video/Ooz3FRwbDnA/видео.htmlsi=CrlGBeRj1XTnIujw Are you easy to manipulate? ruclips.net/video/mARmF09v0gM/видео.htmlsi=vKgtaZVc4ZADrvHl
I was taught in newspaper media criticism as a Finn from before social media boom 😄 As a (substitute) teacher in high school I am worried about young people nowadays being so bad with electronics. They only look to the first result in the google search and trust that and if the answer they want isn't there, then it cannot be found in the internet 🙄 ...well, it's our job to be patient and keep teaching...
Hey just to let you know joe pesci is tommy in Goodfellas. If you haven't seen good fellas I would definitely check it out. He was also the short robber in home alone.
Critical thinking skills are essential to everyone who truly wants to learn and understand facts rather than merely to accept and absorb the opinions of others. These skills should be integrated into all schools in every country. I am fortunate in having been encouraged to read widely from a very early age and in later pursuing a science-based education and career, so I think my critical reasoning skills are reasonably well developed. Sadly, many others have not been so well served.
"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." - Thomas Jefferson... Whoops! Though his estate says it aligns with his views, HE NEVER WROTE THAT! So, at least partially fake news of a quote, I myself had not questioned be for being reminded of it by this video!
One can be at the top but still be worse of than earlier. I don’t think we are at the top but it’s for sure not getting better. But that seems to be a common trend all over the world.
Aging age structure makes economies worse and that starts to eat stuff like healthcare that is also burdened by having more old people. We should have already invested more into automation so we can get more value with less work. But people will often not think in big enough picture and might even oppose using AI to replace human workers etc. because they only think in the scale of the individual. internet is also a really big force that seems to have at least made us less constructive in politics. Kinda feels like US culture war spread at least a bit into the whole west. Felt a bit eerie to see the "woke vs. populist right" -chasm appear between SDP and Kokoomus.
I was never taught this stuff since I was born in the 70s before the Internet, but at least it was a part of high school philosophy classes to a great extent. Sometimes we had teachers who clearly had an ideological agenda and we pointed out their fallacies. Finland was a pretty unified nation with a single truth even through the 80s. It wasn't until the Internet that we had to adapt.
Math skills specially with boys in Finland is going down and boys in general are falling behind, while girls stay at top but overall education is still at top of the world. Edit: Also remember that Finland has population of 5.5 million people, so education falling in Finland wouldn't be so big that worldwide news studios like CNN or BBC would notice. But we in Finland would and we would be worried and we would think ways to react.
You are smart enough to know this is good. You are way above average. Most people do not even understand the concept of critical thinking. The reasons they do not understand are varied, but I guess that is not important.
Critical thinking in Finland.... After living here for 37 years.... No chance. Absolute sheeps blindly believing what theyre told on TV or on Newspaper with zero ability to question it. Even when you show someone evidence that what they've been told is not true they cannot wrap their head around the fact that the TV lied to them.
AFTER LIVING HERE FOR 53 YEARS ... NO CHANCE ... ABSOLUTE SHEEP ... I taught Theory of Knowledge in the International Baccalaureate for 10 years and Political Science at the University of Helsinki for 15 years. As strange as it might seem, there is more critical thinking in the USA than in Finland. In Finland if you dissent you will be shunned.
we do teach very simmilar things to the finnish here, but the problem we have is that we start way to late, where finnland starts even before school we start with that topic in 6th grade...i guess its better than not starting at all.
There has been also campaigns for adults, to educate them about misinformation and how to detect it. It of course is not systematic, doesn't reach everyone. YLE is very important for those kind of campaigns that aim to educate and inform citizens. It is trusted source, it is the people's TV. And guess if there is a political pressure towards YLE from certain political movement that relies on misinformation and loves commercial media... Everything nice you hear about Finland is always going to in the end result to "guess which bunch is trying to end this specific nice thing"... and it is ALWAYS the same bunch that has a lot in common with the current GoP, both the lunatic and the neoliberal wings of it....
As a Finn, some bygone things make me think. We as a nation have a questionable reputation to be stubborn and non-cooperative, as the imperial officials put it during the Russian era, the most part of the 19th century until 1917. So, as it is an essential part for a human individual to back one's opinion to someone wiser, I think we all start our career as orators by saying 'my mom says so'. Then, comes 'my primary school teacher says so', and further, 'my friends say so (we have all been teenagers, haven't we). But here in Finland, I fear the over-developed argument is 'who says so???' Not sure if it is quite so in general, but that's what you get I fear...
When you now look at how it is in Europe and now how Finland teaches its children and young people in school. And you have yourself experienced and heard what school is like in the USA. Do you and your husband want your children to have the same poor education in the USA or to get a better schooling in Europe. As well as already saving for your child's cost of higher education in the USA and bad lunch. Compared to the fact that higher education in Sweden is free for your child if the child grows up in Sweden and has free and good education at school. Don't worry about the high costs of healthcare in the US compared to the cheap ones in Sweden or other places in Europe.
A lot of _adults_ would benefit from classes like these!
Especially those who vote
my cynicism tells me its far too late for a lot of them. id rather there was a solution, a way to "fix" their cognition. i just dont see it.
You touched on why the US will never adopt this type of thinking: it can be directed at religion and there is too much money and too many political influences (vested interests) to want people to think for themselves.
You'd have to have a couple of precursor steps to get to this point.
First of all multiple political parties so that extreme parts of parties will be checked by more moderate parties.
A republican could vote christian conservative party to protest against republican policies without selling his soul to the democrats.
A democrat could vote green party to police the democrats without selling his soul to republicans.
This can't be done in the current system.
I'm a Finn, now 56. I'm still amazed about how much I actually learned in school as a teenager in the 80s about how to evaluate any media, content and sources critically, 10 years before internet. As a journalist (!) today I still remember much of what my wonderful teacher taught us about critical reading. Back then, of course, I was just a bored jerk and could not guess how much she planted in my brain. But ... has Finnish school somehow deteriorated? There has been a decline, I think, but education is still on a quite high level. Why do I think so? Well, all the young people I know or meet are so amazingly aware of so much. Damn, how clever they are! There are things to do, but I am not that worried.
if you're a real reporter, investigate the matter, don't make any assumptions
As someone who's participated in amis and now is in AMK I can tell you that there's a definite deterioration. I'd say a large portion of my teachers have been people who are too young to retire but too lazy to do actual work until retirement. So their solution is a pre-retirement holiday as a teacher photocopying worksheets and taking coffee breaks. The respect for the teaching profession and the difficulty and skill involved doesn't appear to be present at least among those people.
By contrast, I have an Engineering degree from a well known Canadian university. There was no mention of critical thinking until one lecture sometime in the year before I completed my degree. Until then, it never occurred to me or my classmates to even take note of who was the author of a given scientific journal paper, and most importantly, who pays his salary anc for what motive. In hindsight, this is a rather grievous matter, but even we who considered ourselves well educated were unprepared didn't think to make such analysis.
If it was so hard for me and my classmates, how impossible is critical analysis in a population than cannot read beyond a 5th grade level? I think many governments like it just that way.
@@jklmnop8607 thats id addition to the rapidly declining literacy in the us. just exacerbating this problem going forward.
My danish teacher used to repeat "Remember the source criticism!" -She never wanted any answer if we didn't consider the source first.
I love that!
@@HailHeidi As a Danish teacher I can confirm that. We teach similar stuff like the Finns, but don't always have a dedicated class on it, but having it being part of all the different classes.
I for example as a math teacher, show them how statistics can be deceiving and that there always is a tradeoff when you represent thinks, therefore I teach my pupils to always be aware of what has actually been shown in the statistic and how transparent it is.
In Denmark we work with "technology education/understanding" It is up to the separate school how they implement the curriculum either as part of the regular classes or as a separate course. Must of what was talked about in this video is part of the curriculum that the Danish pupils are required to learn.
It eccoes in my 60 years old Danish ears too!
My kids are more familiar with: Where've you got THAT from?
This is the difference between a democracy that serves the people for the benefit of their country, and an elitist political system that serves the politicians and their 'special interests' - i.e. power & money. America is way down the list on serving its people.
its the politicians who are serving the billionairs - see how hard Elon is working to get his hands on all the government contracts and he is not the only one - not talking about millionairs here -
I believe that USA looses the game, because everything is so money driven there. Our goal here in Finnish schools isn't to help our pupils to become as rich as possible, but to pursuit in their lives to be happy and live a full life.
And you are the happiest contry in the world 🙂
As a born and raised American, I can say it's not as innocent as your comment makes it seem. Our public schools are basically training grounds to work 8-12 hr shifts without complaints or questioning management - ever. The private schools are 1 of 2 options; 1 being based on money and how to find/exploit loopholes while saving your public image, 2 being entirely devout/fundamentalist religious. Getting rich is a carrot dangled to all while being a plausible outcome for but a mere few.
@@cannabotany Yes. We also have private schools in Finland, but those, too, have to operate by the national curriculum and the elementary school law. Some of them operate with different pedagogic methods. But in the end every school much provide every pupil the same education and knowledge so that everyone has an equal opportunity to have same starting point toward the further education. For example, we do have a subject called Religion in schools, but it's prohibited to be teached with a religious view point.
Thanks for your show. Your content is so important. Well done, I hope it spreads.
You are correct with both of your statements: Finland is going down hill AND is still doing well :D Not just as good as before. Everything is relative.
But it is more to do with Gen Z, just like in every other country as well. They just don't perform - those useless slobs ;D
br, single dad
Yeah. This country turn to same shit than everyone else, slowly but surely its worse in each year.
@@finnishview2933 Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Parhaat päivät on eessäpäin. Yt, Karjalan pakana
If I may ask, what is it that is causing Finland's education to go down hill?
@@SK-nw4ig Imo were going down with math skills but these kind of critical thinking, emotional skills and media skills education has improved. Definitely wasn't like this when I was in school.
Hi Heidi,
Many, many thanks for digging out this video -- it's excellent! The German language has a proverb that goes "Ehrlich währt am längsten" (literally "Honesty lasts the longest", meaning "In the long run, honesty is the best policy"). I think the Finnish government has been understanding this fundamental truth for a long time. Good for that country -- while most other governments did not even start taking the baby steps yet (let alone including critical thinking into their schools' curricula...).
All the very best to you from Germany and thanks a lot for your great reactions!
Robert
Finland is STILL doing well.. it is just slowly, ever so slowly being changed and not for the better. So, both can be true at the same time, it performing well in comparison to other countries but also slowly getting worse when compared to itself.
Then again, people are afraid of any change and wants to keep things the same they used to be - which is always impossible, because people change, ideas and values change, laws change, fashion changes, technology changes, economy changes, even political orientations and religion changes - but still some people wants the country/government to stay like it used to be before years back??!! Fear is the motivation here, restless questions arise, that what happens to me and my wealth and job etc. etc. In nature for millions of years one rule has been the major guideline: "Life and nature changes and those who cannot embrace the change and change with it will be extinct.." - Deal with it!
It's rather relative actually, if Finland doesn't do right now as well as say four years ago it could be that some other countries are improving and thus Finland's number is not as high as before.
I did not know about this but I assume it's because my youngest kid is already 25.
One thing I like in Finnish education is that we gave up on boarding schools and same sex schools too many many years ago also there is not the same two class system like in say Britain.
@@kimmikke_ Pitää myös tajuta, että muutos ei ole aina hyvästä ja huomata mitkä tahot sitä muutosta pakottaa ja hyötyy.
Some change is good, but grades dropping all over the country year-by-year doesn't seem like good change to me... ofc the fact that students and teachers have been forced to move away from pen and paper has something to do with it too, since especially math and physics software are super hard to use. But grades are dropping on all subjects, so much so that they're making the tests easier to make up for it..
@@HenritheHorse Toki, mutta taas yhden hevonen on toisen muuli, eli näkökannat kuinka paljon ja kuinka pahasti muutos vaikuttaa vaihtelee missä roolissa katselija/arvostelija on.. Joka tapauksessa kauas taaksepäin historiassa kun kunkin mielestä oli asiat paremmin ei vaan pysty resetoida tyystin - kaihota ja valittaa toki aina voi, mutta sekin käy vähän ajan päästä jo ärsyttämään..
One safeguard against disinformation is that Finnish is a weird language from a very small language family so it's an extra layer of complexity any foreign disinformation spreaders need to solve if they want to be effective. One good example are the messages shown at 5:32, the tweets shown say that Nato cannot save Finland (from russia) - but they used the wrong word. "Tallentaa" only refers to capturing images or audio, saving files or downloading something whereas rescuing or protecting are completely different words ("pelastaa", "suojella"). Finns had a bit of fun on social media after that with people wondering if it'd help if we saved the country as a pdf first and sent that to Nato, floppy disk shaped morale patches were made etc.
I love that Finnish people took the misused word and twisted it to make a point! Good job!!!!
America could do so much better- but it’s doubtful we will… unfettered capitalism gets in the way of intelligent critical thinking.
This is great, thanks for highlighting this!
George Carlin had a good bit about critical thinking on his standup routine called "Dumb Americans." You can find it on youtube.
I love George Carlin, the person who sees through Lies and smoke screens and is not afraid to speak about it to others and does it ingeniously with comedy - what a man, what a loss nowadays..
Love your reaction videos! You have substantive things to say and tackle serious topics as well. Subscribing!
We had this kind of critical reading in Finland at early -80s when I was in 8th and 9th grade. We did read news papers from other countries and compare to our own media, most stories was translated to us.
Yup, I'm 43 years old and I remember critical thinking from school. Don't be dumb was the message. But there's so much more distracting stuff these days...
I always wanted to live in an enlightened society like that… sadly I am too old now to make such a big move. Amazing to see ❤
Glad you liked the video and got to watch it!! Wasn’t sure if you’d think it would be worth reacting to, but I’m happy to see how you found it so informative and I thought you’d enjoy watching it even if you wouldn’t react to it but it worked out perfectly! 😊 As always I enjoy your videos and opinions/observations! These are fun to watch while relaxing a bit after a long day! Stay awesome and keep em coming! 😎🤘🏽
Amazing content and reaction!! Critical thinking is the most important thing that is missed in our US education system!
Finland is a wonderful country.
but YLE is not unbiased.. its also fake media... dont believe their misinformation.. there is huge thing now because they fired a journalist who revelaled their DEI training which is not actually allowed in legislation its not their purpose.. so many people want to dismantle YLE
Ok.
Yeah, we have some good stuff.
However our goverment is very good hide everything negative. Like "free" healthcare what is a big lie. It slowly but surely collapsing. At least here where i live, its almost impossible see a doctor. Or it takes so long that people die for waiting. And if you are lucky and get there, it cost quite a bit (depending), nothing is free anymore. Or breadlines what they did hide when covid came. Yes, we have lot of people who are that poor. Or so many younger people are depressed. Or suicide rate what is still high. List is very long and sad if start to think abt how this country was and how it is now. Things are not as good anymore. And it going worse and worse each year for ordinary people. I dont know how this ship can turn around, it may be too late already.
But compared to USA or many other countries, this is still better place to live. Just dont think that everything is good and wonderful. Its not. IF you have money, things are good. You can go see private sector doctor when you need, you can eat healthy, nature is nice in the short summer etc.
Country as in location and nature, yes. As a state and society, nah.
@@MusaFinderi Muuta sitten vaikka Pohjois-Koreaan jos on niin kamalaa. :D
So, Al Jazeera is telling in English how Finns are fighting against Russian trolls is just too good to be true:)
Al jazeera is islamistic and facist fake news nest.
Maybe some one is telling, something-?
Al Jazeera is an independent news agency. Mostly hated on western countries because of the pressure from USA, but we all know why that is.
Good reaction thanks, i believe there's a good reason that government and religious institutions don't want people to critically think about the information they are told, take care.
This reminds me of a lesson when I was about 12. It was supposed to be an English lesson, but as it was a couple of days before the end of term, the teacher talked to us about the news instead. He used the phrase Stop, Look, Listen, Think, which was the tagline from a children's road safety campaign at the time, so we were all familiar with it. That afternoon, more than any other point in my 14 years of school, has stayed with me for more than 50 years now.
I'm Canadian and can definitely say we were not taught anything like this, although I grew up in the 70's and 80's so I can't speak for the current education system. But something like this would have definitely made for a better society, on the whole.
Have you forgotten about the house hippos etc?
Put out by the CBC for young children who would normally be watching mindless cartoons although some had some value.
The polar opposite what the Finn education does in Europe is what the German method is. It’s also used in several countries. It’s more focused on lexical knowledge and to learn a lot of things, read a lot. Somewhat close to a university study. It’s not that diverse in students. Still effective and way more detailed than the American in global history, math etc….
For critical thinking… that part is… I think it’s on EU level supported/suggested that all the countries should teach or introduce at least some basic understanding some empathy against all minorities. Religion, gender, whatever.
Now some countries have mandatory reading lists some have suggested ones. But for sure all are well read. I discussed it with booktubers and it’s way ahead especially regarding classical literature and how to analyze text.
We all have to write about the subject in matter.
As for media literacy: why would it be thought in USA? It’s not good for the government there. Your media is full with propaganda. From political to marketing but these are the same at the end of the day in USA. Keep in mind: in Finland or in any northern country a government like Trump? In 5 minutes would be in prison. They don’t allow any kind of bribe at all. But really. Check any video what happens if a politician in these countries fail the smallest thing. They use a bit of euro for personal gains… 20 euro and they lose their job.
You may want to correct your "why would be thought in USA? " to "Why would it be taught in USA?" I had to reread it multiple times to get what you actually meant to say.
Its not just you who likes this Heidi. I know about the Nordic School System for over 20 years by now and my government has still not copied it, which drives me crazy!
I'm a finn and went to school in the 90's, so before social media or even internet really. And even then, critical thinking and source criticism was tought to us. (Teachers also always kept saying before a test: "Answer the questions in your own words. I don't want to read the same paragraphs you have memorized from the textbook - I want you to explain it to me, so I see if you have understood.")
I am very happy to see that these new generations have classes like this, that teach about social media and misinformation etc. (Now, if ONLY we could have those same classes for us older generations as well...)
if ´´they´´ teach you how to think they don´t get money, and control over you and that is bad for ´´them´´. you remember George Carlin, ´´is a big club and you are not in it´´.
Yes, yes, yes. Remember, Heidi?
It’s more important than ever that we get the SOURCE of our information- and then what the agenda is of the source promoting that information.
Excellent job, Finland!!!!
congratulations Heidi!
Yea, critical thinking is big in scandinavia; learning the tools for you yourself to identify what is true or not. Really enjoy this way of thinking
Finland is not scandinavia😀
*Big in the Nordics. As a Danish teacher I know that Finland is leading in some areas, so let's make sure to include them. Scandinavia is only Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
Sure, finland is not technically part of scandinavia, but it was part of the swedish realm for a long, long time, and sweden is part of scandinavia. Technically denmark is not part of scandinavia, but a part of the european continent, so maybe we should just exclude denmark once and for all. Culture is apparently a big part of the definition.
@@madsimusnuo Wrong. Denmark is part of Scandinavia even if you go by technicality. Do you even know what the origin of the word is? It is the southern most region of Sweden, which Denmark used to own. Furthermore even ancient records describes the islands east of Jutland as being Scandinavian (they didn't know Sweden wasn't an island), which includes big parts of modern Denmark.
Going by tectonics. Finland, Norway and Sweden also belongs to the European continent, so it is pointless to say that Denmark belongs to it and therefore should be excluded from Scandinavia.
There is absolutely no way to exclude Denmark, beside if one wants to talk about the Scandinavian peninsula, which include the northern part of Finland as well, but that isn't Scandinavia and never has been. It is merely a part of it.
Norway is further away from the region that was the origin of the name and as far as I know has never owned it independently, so if you are going to exclude one country Denmark wouldn't even be the most obvious choice.
@@Bronzescorpion ok, then we learn different geography in school in norway and denmark. got it. the scandinavian peninsula includes norway, sweden and parts of finland. not denmark. culturally denmark is included. that is what we learn in school.
What comes to religion.... In Finland we actually have an "official" religion, Lutheran. If you (or your parents) don't make an effort to get rid of it, it's kind of a given status. Still.... atheism is really, really common in here and it's not a big bad boogie man. And these are one of the reasons , why Finland is the happiest county in the world 👍🏼
@@sabertoetiger2582 just to be frank we there is another ‘official religion’ in here , that is the Orthodox Christian faith. We are a smaller church than the Lutheran one but we are also an official national church in Finland.
@@finnsuomi1719 Sorry, you are right. Typing in English sometimes makes me ignore the obvious.
Just to clarify to any Americans reading, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Finland in NOT the same thing you think when you hear Lutheran.
Religion, the oldest manipulating and controlling instance or at least the way the humans have developed it in the forms of institutions like church - George Carlin in his comedy brings out this hypocritical way of scamming the common man - where ever there is power or wealth, there will always be power hungry and richness seeking humans nesting around and taking over the dominion of them (Churches, government, big corporations, etc..) - not the most of persons, but the very on top organisationally of them will eventually be conquered by these selfish and greedy persons..
Finland going "downhill" is a bit like saying "base camp" is lower than the summit on Everest.
They can go a long way down before they get North American levels.
Critical thinking needs to be standard in people's minds, sadly making people think is not always easy.
I've always said, "If the only way to get people to believe the same things as you is to deny them access to other info... you might be wrong."
First I will say is that YLE is FBC, Finnish Broadcasting Company in English. It is the Finnish version of BBC.
One should understand that even though Finnish language is a formidable barrier for any foreign actor who wants to spread disinformation in Finnish, it is known that some Finns do that as well and they are probably paid by foreign actors who are hostile towards Finland.
There was shortly during that video clip an interesting sentence in Finnish: "NATO ei voi tallentaa* Suomea." It is supposed to mean "NATO cannot save Finland." However, native Finns will at once notice that as a very poor translation because the word "tallentaa" actually means "to record or to save as a file". The correct word for that sentence would be "pelastaa*" which means to save.
but now YLE is in scandal which is not looking good and YLE is not unbiased news its very left leaning every Finnish people can see this....
"paid by foreign actors" is so overused these days. When people have nothing intelligent to add, they resort to logical fallacies and blatant lies in order to cover their inadequacies.
For anyone curious, YLE is short for Yleisradio, which directly translated means "Public radio".
I think the language barrier is already lost thank to LLMs getting smart enough. ChatGPT can translate English text to very fluent Finnish and makes less grammar errors than an average native Finn.
@@MikkoRantalainenLast time i checked it (chatGPT) wasnt able to speak with a slang. Only good formal Finnish and that still gives it away, except in formal setting.
In high school, our physics teacher always required us to justify the formulas we were using. We did not need to derive them, but he wanted us to write down why we are using this particular formula. For example for speed = distance / time, we would have to say that it's forward motion where acceleration is zero. Basically he taught us to recognize the problem, the situation and only after that think about the mathematical side. I think it kind of relates to this topic here about seeing the big picture
The Finns do it more comprehensively. But when I was at school in the Netherlands in the seventies (I am old), we were told time and again to read at least two differing sources of information (mostly newspapers) and think for ourselves what we thought of the news AND WHY we thought that. I think this was only done at higher level education, unfortunately (pre-university). And of course being at the theoretical scientific university it was a given that you had to be able to logically and factually underpin everything you wrote. Of course we did not have computers or social media. But sure enough we also had a lot of fake news or at least very colored "truths" in all the available mass media at the time.
Same her, Sweden in the 80thies, much more hands on in Finland now than what we had but we got the warnings and the information about ways to check.
In England at school in the 60's we were taught to read multiple sources for research using different publishers to avoid bias. Often required using a public library not just the school one.
@@tonys1636 Yeah, but it went a bit further than that. We were also encouraged to read two newspapers. One left wing and one right wing or Christian newspaper. Every day.
@@cynic7049 Yes, as I mentioned, the Finns do it far more comprehensively. Did you also have the recommendation at school to read two newspapers every day? One right wing and one left wing?
Itwas just the same for me in my German school in the seventies and at university in the eighties.We had to check everything and find different sources to proove the facts.But weonly had print media,radio and TV .I am 63.
I went through the Montessori school system starting in 1969. Critical thinking was always the core of our education. By the time I was 10, I'd learned that man creates gods, not the other way around.
This kind of critical media reading was already being taught in Finland, in a much smaller scale, roughly 20 years ago in the middle school. Curiously, it was often the art teachers that introduced the idea to students, mayhaps partly fueled by the already common trend of people "Photoshopping" images to make them more striking and cool, or even faking entire scenes from scratch, which surely was already blurring the lines of fact and fiction. Not only that, but because of their geopolitics and history, Finns have learned to observe rest of the world, think outside the box, and not think that they have all the answers needed. They've been sitting "in between the feet of giants" for a millennium. Even if you leave the old and new superpowers out of the equation, one thing that seems to boggle especially the Americans' minds about Europe is the fact that you can drive a couple hours to one direction, and all the sudden the entire culture, language and landscape changes. This by default requires some introspection and studying of the world around you, even if some of the bigger EU countries tend to live in their own bubbles at times.
This is what happens when taxes are spent on people, instead of business.
Finland is one of the countries in this world, that others should learn from in a massive way.
The way they pronounce YLE grinds my gears...
YLE grinds my gears
@@soulextracter 8:45
@@soulextracterNeither, google translate has the correct pronunciation if you wanna check it.
It's like German üle, isn't it? It is annoying, but we have to give them some slack, pronouncing sounds that do not exist in their native language is something most people can't do.
On the other hand, we have to learn their dumb "th" and rolled R and 20 fucking vowel sounds, they could at least try. 😀
9:28 YLE employee pronounced it two different ways one after the other.
Oh gosh, I'm jealous that our kids aren't getting this type of critical thought and media literacy.
Our lack of critical thought shows fully in today's American politics.
Thanks for responding to this video; I learned alot!
I was raised LDS and as you know the church actively fought this type of thinking. "Don't read this or go there if you know it'll be bad." My parents messed up and made my siblings and I critical thinkers. Now, all 6 of us are no longer mormon.
Haha that's great. 😂
If critical thinking is not taught, democracy is doomed.
As a Gen-X. and 3rd Gen American Finn, Yes there is a lack of critical thinking in education in the US.
Is the Finnish education system going down hill, probably not. Beside their first language is literally the most difficult to learn in the world. I would have rather that been my first language Finnish.
I have always gathered information from multiple sources to form my own opinions. No one taught me to do this; it's just my way of being objective.
As almost 30 years old now and went to school in finland when Nokia bricks were thing. I remember that we always were thought media literature and how to judge sources. Of course back in my elementary school it was about tv, news papers, books mostly ect.
Nice concept, they didnt have that when i was at school 20 years ago. Or atleast not on that level. But it is really important skill to have
One of the most important differences between kids and *adults* learning is we adults, are imagining we are skillful at seeing through things, while childhood education is thorough with the pressure of a teacher and tests while adults have to self-motivate.
Typically we wouldn't be regularly revising the same thing for proper thorough memorization and recall.
Nor do we have the class discussion, or having to clearly understand and articulate things for fear of looking stupid in front of other real people.
Some 25 years ago when I was in high school we read newspapers and did reports on them. I even remember a young russian politician following in Yeltsin's footsteps. Didn't sound that bad at the moment...
It isn't that bad now, ask a russian that lived through the 1990s and now...
Finns generartions remember ww2 with ”ryssä” ruskie. Ruskie attack i mn Finland. My grandfather and gmother fight ryssä ruskie 1938-1945. Now we have NATO OTAN. Finns have own modern defence forces.
and you don't remember that Finland fought on Hitler's side ?
Just like our government in Canada, applauding a Natsie in the Parliament because he was fighting the Russian...
@@moestietabarnak There would be no Finland if we wouldn't have taken the help from the natsis. russia wanted to destroy us so we had no other choice. After the war with russia was over we fought the natsis and drove them away from our country.
When my daughters grew up I often played tricks on them. Not cruel, but something we could all laugh at. It taught them humour from a very early point, but also critical thinking. Is dad yanking my tail right now?
Before anyone feels sorry for those two - don't. They'd paid back. _Plenty_. 😂
This is what the world desperately needs. In the uk in the 90s we used to look at newspapers and talk about the reliability of the source and the underlying motive of the author. Political leanings, is anyone really independent or do we all have a filter that skews our understanding so how can we know what we read is reliable etc etc. but that was only once we got to upper secondary and only if you picked academic subjects. I’ve no idea if it still happens but this is needed throughout school for all peoples in this age of media saturation. Stop, think, check
Everyone can make a difference and make this world more safe by start doing the same, start questioning everything you hear, see and experience and warn your surroundings.
One aspect of Finland which probably contributed to their education methods is the degree to which people there are digitally connected, with computers, smartphones, internet connections and all the media these connections give easy access to. Even 20 years ago, Finland was described as "the worlds most wired nation", with something like 90% (or more) of households there having internet connections - whether that be basic dial-up over a landline, broadband, or wireless of some kind.
So their population would have been exposed to all the information as well as misinformation and deliberate disinformation to a far greater degree than any other nation, much earlier than any other nation. This could easily be the reason (or part of the reason) why they have such a massive head-start on these education methods - they probably realised the need for it before anyone else did.
I had stuff like this in school 50 years ago in Germany. I think it wasn't a general thing and more like what the Teacher for politics did by himself.
We bought for example all available newspapers at a specific day and compared the selection of themes, headlines, content and what was left out in some of them. It was just the content of one day but it was pretty much obvious which of the papers where really bad and obviously wrong and misleading.
We have similar education in Sweden since a decade now
these classes were always fun, in the 90s we had as exercise, for example, to come up with titles that paint situations in the best and worst light. Another one that I remember well was pic that was cropped to look like theft, but when pic was revealed it was a picture of rescue workers
Find in life what works for you. Not a solution for everyone else. And never expect it to be. What works for you . Might not work for other people. Never let people force ideals on you
n.
Nowadays there is less difference and meaning which country the news comes from, lots of countries are producing news to influence on general opinion. We Finns certainly are aware of Russian misinformation due to our history. Less that of American. I hope many Finns are now more aware of it thanks to the previous president of the USA. Always good to check the source and think how correct the info can be. Use common sense. Check out more articles of the same topic published by other sources. Everyone has their own interest/agenda they are promoting.
Or like the Finns say: Everybody has their own cow in the ditch...
was it Russian misinformation, or you fell for the western propaganda ? Like TODAY.
You were occupied by Russia ? (soviet really).. do you remember WHY ?
Hint: It might be related to fighting on which side...
So I’m genX critical thinking came into picture maybe around 8th grade and more in-depth around 10th grade. My kid is now in 8th grade and they did start in elementary school. They were taught early on how to find information, how to process it and determine whether it’s good info or bad. I don’t know how deep they have gone into the “behind the scenes and motivations” of text or pics as of yet. There are aspects in our education system that are fine, but the truth is the math skills in Finland lag behind many countries now. We used to be better in the 90s, but they also fixed parts of the system that weren’t broken 🤷🏼♀️
On many, many levels I envy the Finns for going to the heart of the modern world and its challenges, particularly as it relates to critical thinking. America is so far from this thought and teaching process that it is embarrassing.
I am soon 54 y.o. Finn. We did read newspapers in school and in home. Father order our city's and next bigger city's newspaper, partly to educate us. I also liked watch news from age 12 or earlier, younger age we did not watch, (maybe forbidden) because there was so much misery and wars, not good for children.
I found this facinating. Can you please provide a link to the original original video you are reacting to?
THAT is teaching, not general but going deeper into matters and especially the current "dangerous digital" world and the woke culture
Great video. To answer your question, my parents encouraged critical thinking from an early age, which is what saved me from the indoctrination of the church schools they sent me to. I did prove to get me in trouble a few times in school when I would point out things in the Bible that don't stand up to scrutiny.
Investing in education is also productive from the state's point of view, because educated people enrich the country.
And Finland being a small country of only 5,5 million people needs all available people to be well educated and as intellectual as possible, otherwise in opposite situation where a too small amount of intellectual people tries to make a living to a vast number of ignorant and un-knowledgeable people and it would not work at all - in countries with hundreds of millions of people 1-2 million intellectual and well educated people can harvest the funds to provide for the rest of the nation - no offence intended to anyone or any nation, but this is just a fact..
@@kimmikke_ and exploit the labor of the uneducated
Just for fun, you should listen to the The Children's Complaints Choir of Poikkilaaksa in Finland. Complaints choirs were created 20 years ago by a pair Finnish musicians in Helsinki. They have spread around the world.
YES!!! This is SO IMPORTANT!!
Heidi, I just this evening stumbled upon your site, and I'm fascinated by the topics you bring up. Some of which I have been aware of for many years. You come across as VERY new to a lot of things many take for granted, as if you became Mormon nonbeliever only Very Recently.
So in that light, I'd like to know afew more things about you, in particular about your own relationship with LDS. I'd like to know about what line of questioning led to your (and tour husband's) departure, how long ago that took place, and how the transition period affected you. I ask because the general public wants to know how their feelings are in line with yours and that yours represents a large and growing trend rather than an isolated case that is easily disregarded.
Or have you already addressed my questions in a previous vudeo? If so, please send an appropriate link to this new, very curious, fan. Thanks.
If something seems too good, or too awful, to be true, it usually isn't.
I think you mean 'it is' right? If something sound too good to be true it probably 'IS too good to be true'
@@Nephilim2001 I was wondering about that, english not being my first language. I meant it to say "it isn't true", but yeah I guess you can read it meaning it "isn't too good to be true".
You have the cutest laugh Heidi!
in europe generally we lear some basics knowledge and after that we think about life and critical thinking
Yes, Finland is the absolute best rolemodel when it comes to education.
Some basics for critical thinking on social media:
Who is behind the post you are watching?
Do you get strong emotions about the post?
Why are they posting it?
Why are they posting it now? for example, a 10-year-old news article just randomly came up in your social media flow..
Have you seen any other trustworthy source sharing the same information?
Swedish agency for psychological defence making some points about how easy you can get fooled [ENG sub]:
Are you easy to influence? ruclips.net/video/Ooz3FRwbDnA/видео.htmlsi=CrlGBeRj1XTnIujw
Are you easy to manipulate? ruclips.net/video/mARmF09v0gM/видео.htmlsi=vKgtaZVc4ZADrvHl
WHAT to think, vs HOW to think...
I was taught in newspaper media criticism as a Finn from before social media boom 😄 As a (substitute) teacher in high school I am worried about young people nowadays being so bad with electronics. They only look to the first result in the google search and trust that and if the answer they want isn't there, then it cannot be found in the internet 🙄 ...well, it's our job to be patient and keep teaching...
Hey just to let you know joe pesci is tommy in Goodfellas. If you haven't seen good fellas I would definitely check it out. He was also the short robber in home alone.
The last thing those in the government and churches want you to know is how to tell if your being lied to
Critical thinking skills are essential to everyone who truly wants to learn and understand facts rather than merely to accept and absorb the opinions of others. These skills should be integrated into all schools in every country. I am fortunate in having been encouraged to read widely from a very early age and in later pursuing a science-based education and career, so I think my critical reasoning skills are reasonably well developed. Sadly, many others have not been so well served.
"An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people." - Thomas Jefferson...
Whoops! Though his estate says it aligns with his views, HE NEVER WROTE THAT! So, at least partially fake news of a quote, I myself had not questioned be for being reminded of it by this video!
DÜNYANIN EN İYİ EĞİTİM SİSTEMİNİ SATIYOYORU. OKULLAR SADECE OKUMA VE YAZMA ÖĞRETİYOR.
As a Finn I can say that the media literacy in Finland is as good as it is because of the school system, but also because of our history.
Wiley :)
One can be at the top but still be worse of than earlier. I don’t think we are at the top but it’s for sure not getting better. But that seems to be a common trend all over the world.
Aging age structure makes economies worse and that starts to eat stuff like healthcare that is also burdened by having more old people.
We should have already invested more into automation so we can get more value with less work. But people will often not think in big enough picture and might even oppose using AI to replace human workers etc. because they only think in the scale of the individual.
internet is also a really big force that seems to have at least made us less constructive in politics. Kinda feels like US culture war spread at least a bit into the whole west. Felt a bit eerie to see the "woke vs. populist right" -chasm appear between SDP and Kokoomus.
I was never taught this stuff since I was born in the 70s before the Internet, but at least it was a part of high school philosophy classes to a great extent. Sometimes we had teachers who clearly had an ideological agenda and we pointed out their fallacies. Finland was a pretty unified nation with a single truth even through the 80s. It wasn't until the Internet that we had to adapt.
some day i predict u guys gonna move to a eu country.
Imagine what the US might be like if we even just taught students to recognize informal fallacies before the college level.
Math skills specially with boys in Finland is going down and boys in general are falling behind, while girls stay at top but overall education is still at top of the world.
Edit: Also remember that Finland has population of 5.5 million people, so education falling in Finland wouldn't be so big that worldwide news studios like CNN or BBC would notice. But we in Finland would and we would be worried and we would think ways to react.
You are smart enough to know this is good. You are way above average. Most people do not even understand the concept of critical thinking. The reasons they do not understand are varied, but I guess that is not important.
We need this in the UK, misinformation has recently caused riots throughout the country
Every time when something is too good to be true, it most likely is. No matter of you own opinion.
Critical thinking in Finland.... After living here for 37 years.... No chance. Absolute sheeps blindly believing what theyre told on TV or on Newspaper with zero ability to question it. Even when you show someone evidence that what they've been told is not true they cannot wrap their head around the fact that the TV lied to them.
Perhaps your evidence has not been very convincing or it wasn't represented in a way that its value could have been usefully evaluated.
AFTER LIVING HERE FOR 53 YEARS ... NO CHANCE ... ABSOLUTE SHEEP ... I taught Theory of Knowledge in the International Baccalaureate for 10 years and Political Science at the University of Helsinki for 15 years. As strange as it might seem, there is more critical thinking in the USA than in Finland. In Finland if you dissent you will be shunned.
@@MrFinnNielsen Can you give an example of this? For now it's just a youtube comment with no credibility.
we do teach very simmilar things to the finnish here, but the problem we have is that we start way to late, where finnland starts even before school we start with that topic in 6th grade...i guess its better than not starting at all.
If one is of working age, one still can learn that way of thinking ane benefit from it.
There has been also campaigns for adults, to educate them about misinformation and how to detect it. It of course is not systematic, doesn't reach everyone. YLE is very important for those kind of campaigns that aim to educate and inform citizens. It is trusted source, it is the people's TV.
And guess if there is a political pressure towards YLE from certain political movement that relies on misinformation and loves commercial media... Everything nice you hear about Finland is always going to in the end result to "guess which bunch is trying to end this specific nice thing"... and it is ALWAYS the same bunch that has a lot in common with the current GoP, both the lunatic and the neoliberal wings of it....
As a Finn, some bygone things make me think. We as a nation have a questionable reputation to be stubborn and non-cooperative, as the imperial officials put it during the Russian era, the most part of the 19th century until 1917. So, as it is an essential part for a human individual to back one's opinion to someone wiser, I think we all start our career as orators by saying 'my mom says so'. Then, comes 'my primary school teacher says so', and further, 'my friends say so (we have all been teenagers, haven't we). But here in Finland, I fear the over-developed argument is 'who says so???' Not sure if it is quite so in general, but that's what you get I fear...
If people start thinking who's going to do all the work?
Yaa its good here. We just don’t have so much colours and food is tasteless 🤣
Somehow it looks like aljazeera channel.
When you now look at how it is in Europe and now how Finland teaches its children and young people in school. And you have yourself experienced and heard what school is like in the USA. Do you and your husband want your children to have the same poor education in the USA or to get a better schooling in Europe. As well as already saving for your child's cost of higher education in the USA and bad lunch. Compared to the fact that higher education in Sweden is free for your child if the child grows up in Sweden and has free and good education at school.
Don't worry about the high costs of healthcare in the US compared to the cheap ones in Sweden or other places in Europe.