The Smartest Kids In The World Chapter Summary

In The Smartest Kids in the World (2013), Amanda Ripley reports how countries with the highest scoring students are able to get the highest scores and how much importance is placed on education. Throughout the book, Ripley makes it clear that education around the world can vary and it can affect the social life of students. According to Ripley, “There is no better way to prepare for teaching than to actually teach and get meaningful feedback on how to improve” (94). One area the author explores is when education is placed as the most important thing in the student's life, it affects their social lives. For example, “-kids,parents, and teachers- saw getting an education as a serious quest, more important than sports or self-esteem”(116). In Korea, the importance of education is placed very high and is considered terrifying by foreigners. Korean students will have to take a test that determines their entire lives, so they spend the majority of their time studying and gave up certain values in their lives. Ripley also has said that Korean students spend most of their time in classrooms rather than at home because of
When Korean students are constantly told by everyone to constantly study, it takes a toll on their social lives. Ripley commented on how that Korean high school students spent the majority of their time in school rather than at home because of their schedule. A frustrating idea that I agree is that students in the U.S do not give the expected respect to teachers. In Finland, Ripley highlights that even students that are seen as obnoxious out of class, they still show respect to the teacher and don’t disturb the class at all. I found the ending to be satisfying because I learned how education can have an impact on social lives and how different different countries have varying perspectives on