About three years ago, I received a short e-mail from one Deborah, an editor in New York City. At the time, I had been teaching in Helsinki for six months and had run a modest blog called Taught by Finland. Deborah asked me if I wanted to write a book. I hadn't really thought about it before, but she gave me a good idea.

I'm very grateful to <a href="https://www.thepinnaclelist.com/articles/top-rated-essay-writing-services/">best writing services</a> for believing in me from the beginning. I am also grateful to the entire publishing team for their professionalism and the support these people gave me throughout the entire project of creating the book "The Finnish Learning System".

Special thanks to Pasi Salberg, who from my first year in Helsinki supported me in my desire to write about Finnish education from a foreigner's perspective. I am very glad that he prepared the foreword for this book. I am also grateful to former colleagues at Ressu Comprehensive School in Helsinki, where I spent two wonderful years. While working on the book, I also talked to Finnish educators from other schools, and they always found time to talk to me, for which I am very grateful.

I had several talented American mentors before I moved to Helsinki. Many thanks to Brian, Henry, Joanna, Cathy, Linda Liu, Lisa, Steven and Trisha. In addition, I want to express my gratitude to my household, whose love brings me much joy: my wife Johanna and my children Misael and Adalia. Finally, I am deeply grateful to the Lord God for graciously blessing my endeavor.

Preface
Back in the year 2000, a book like this simply could not have been written. The major trends in world pedagogy looked very different then. England had been carrying out fundamental reforms of its education system for the past decade, focusing on higher marks and more frequent attestation, and changing the lives of students and teachers alike. Sweden tried to solve the problem radically by introducing vouchers that allowed parents who wished to provide their children with alternative education to choose a new type of free school. In East and Southeast Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore) also reoriented educational systems, focusing on accelerated rates of learning and achieving better results, especially in reading, mathematics and science{1}. In the U.S., in order to increase student outcomes and the success rate in secondary education, many states experimented by tightening accountability for teachers and schools. In short, high achievement was at the forefront of education at the time. If this book had been written in the early 2000s, like many similar works of the time, it would have talked about new models for improving teaching effectiveness, strategies for transforming weak schools, and critical goals for changing the education system as a whole.