It's complicated. From a very good article in The Atlantic, we read that,

Compared with the stereotype of the East Asian model—long hours of exhaustive cramming and rote memorization—Finland's success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign less homework and engage children in more creative play. All this has led to a continuous stream of foreign delegations making the pilgrimage to Finland to visit schools and talk with the nation's education experts, and constant coverage in the worldwide media marveling at the Finnish miracle.

The rest of the article is worth reading, but that reference to more creative play is a topic near and dear to my own quest to design a totally new system to replace public education. In my work with Dr. Peter Gray, recently retired research psychologist at Boston College, I have learned that the impact on the decrease in play in the daily diet of children is remarkably negative, and yet we as a culture and society continue to ignore it. His article in the Spring 2011 edition of the American Journal of Play highlights the overwhelming reseach correlating the decline in play with the rise in psychopathology in children and adolescents. It's a classic case of the unintended consequences: in our attempt to keep our children safe, we deny them the experiences that teach them how to get along with others, reason, make decisions, act responsibly, judge risks, and a host of other aspects of maturity we now abdicate to public schools – an environment that is not suited to teach them as well, if at all. 

One interesting example of a school that is aimed at offering those lessons in the perfect way (though play) can be seen in this video: School's Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten.

Peter's blog on the Psychology Today website, Freedom To Learn, is a rich source of reading on the comparative examples of good education systems as found in hunter-gatherer cultures, drawing paralleles between public schools and prisons, and the undemocratic nature of schools that force children to learn things they don't want to learn in ways that work against them being able to learn at all. Peter also shares his rare access to the Sudbury Valley School, an alternative free-school that has been operating in Framingham MA for over 35 years serving children from 4 years to when they want to leave. There are few adults on campus, and only in roles of facilitating the operation of the school and providing what the children cannot attain themselves. Dr. Gray writes extensively on why this system works and how; those interested in seeing how democratic education works should invest the time to read those posts!

The close to the Atlantic article is a crucial message that draws heavily on the recurring message of the Occupy Movement: "The problem facing education in America isn't the ethnic diversity of the population but the economic inequality of society, and this is precisely the problem that Finnish education reform addressed. More equity at home might just be what America needs to be more competitive abroad."

This is not a time to add bandages on a capital-intensive system that cannot produce consistent results year-to-year or from one town to the next. It is time to start from scratch. Look at what it means to learn thoughout a lifetime—from conception to death—and build a system that accomodates those needs. And start with this expectation: it does not have to be complicated. It will use technology, but it does not have to be technical. Start with play, how easy it that?