MONDAY 21s APRIL 2008, Helsinki I'm spending just one week in Finland and, in that time, I wll be visiting Torpparinmäki (r-r-r-roll the r's) Comprehensive School in Helsinki. I hope to find out what it is that makes Finnish educational standards as high as they are and whether what I learn can benefit our practice back in Birmingham (England, not Alabama). Much of what I discover will come not only from observations and experiences that I am priviliged to obtain but (and probably more importantly) from the conversations I have with adults and children alike. I came with a number of questions and, in just the first two days, some of those questions have been answered and have been replaced with more - different and more complex - questions. I started with questions like: Why is
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