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Principal Schimpf travels abroad
After a nine-day visit to Helsinki, Finland, South Putnam High School Principal Mike Schimpf has returned to the states with expanded horizons and an item crossed off his bucket list.
"I know that Finland is known for having an excellent education system, so for a while I've been looking for opportunities to go there," Principal Schimpf said. "I didn't know one would present itself this quickly. I was just really fortunate."
Principal Schimpf was one of 53 American educators and the only Hoosier to attend the event. Some of the educators were Teachers of the Year for their states and others were superintendents, but Schimpf's opportunity was made possible by Education First, an organization that prides itself on providing "life-changing education for global citizens."
After completing an application and several essays on global education, Schimpf learned that he would be traveling out of the country for the first time.
"I had not been out of the country once," he admitted, "not even Mexico or Canada."
But it wasn't all fun and games. Schimpf attended the Global Student Leaders Summit, where he toured the Fun Academy (a startup from the creators of "Angry Birds") and heard from speakers like Ndaba Mandela and Arun Ghandi. He also visited the Finnish National Board of Education and learned about the differences between the American and the Finnish educational systems.
"You can't box up everthing that Finland does and bring it to America," he said, "nor would you want to. But there's a few things. One, they're very proud of their schools. Here, the counter to that is that education has had negative press. There are only 5 million people in Finland; our state has over 6 million. It's more manageable for their country. They give teachers a great deal of autonomy and trust, but their culture's built upon that too. Students from a young age have a lot of responsibilities...from a young age students might be expected to hop on the city bus and go home.There are some cultural differences there."
But there are some things Schimpf feels are transferrable, like teacher autonomy and entrepreneurship courses. According to LynNell Hancock, who wrote "Why Are Finland's Schools Successful?" for Smithsonian Magazine, Finnish teachers spend less time in classrooms, assign less homework and enjoy less scrutiny and greater freedom to invent their own teaching methods than American teachers, but all that freedom comes at a price.
Since 1979, Finland has mandated that all teachers earn a master's degree from one of eight universities, and entering the nation's only teaching program is no easy task. To put it in perspective, Principal Schimpf related that of 1,000 applicants, one university accepted a mere 100. The trade-off to this is that a teacher is regarded with the same respect as a doctor or lawyer, is paid as much and expected to act professionally without the need for government oversight.
"They hire really qualified teachers," Schimpf said, "and it doesn't hurt their success rate. (In America), you need a bachelor's degree. Many teachers do have master's, but it's becoming less common. Part of that is because -- South Putnam still does compensate people for a master's -- that doesn't happen across the board. It's going to cost you extra money to get it, and you don't make extra money. Even with people with the best of intentions, that gets difficult."
In addition to learning about the Finnish educational system, Principal Schimpf learned about new teaching styles like design thinking, which teaches students by presenting them with real-life problems rather than spouting facts. But he is most excited about the new people he met, and how he might be able to use their knowledge to benefit South Putnam.
"My favorite part is the connections that I was able to make with people," Principal Schimpf said, "because that should last beyond this one experience. I'm thankful to have gone out of the country, but it needed to be more than that. I've now got contacts across the country. There was an educator in Los Angeles who sent me her whole entire school plan, which she just shared with me. I want to know what I can take from what I learned and apply it to South Putnam because that's what's important."
Although Schimpf is open to similar opportunities in the future, he says that there is still a great deal to "synthesize" from this last trip before he's ready to travel again. And the actual travel wasn't quite as smooth as one would hope.
"It was my first time overseas, and they lost my luggage," he said. "Luckily I packed a good carry-on."
Schimpf, an English teacher 13 years before, has served as the South Putnam High School principal for just more than a year now.