Yes, Finland is a great example of how to educate children and there is a wide gap between Finland and America's cultures. However, in the US, every public school teacher should walk out and demand respect and the truth about the achievements in Education in this country before returning to the classroom. Joseph Goebbels, one of Hitler's inner circle in the Nazi Party, once said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will come to believe it." You see, it all depends on how the facts are presented. The critics of public education have a loud voice and use language that shows the glass half empty instead of about 90% full, which is more accurate. Once all the facts about high-school graduation rates, the perception changes dramatically. To achieve this, one must start more than a century back and chart the progress . I'll start with 1900 when the total number of high school graduates in the US numbered 16,000 of 815,000 seventeen-year olds. In 1920, 311,000 graduated from high school or 16.8% of the total which was 1,855,000 In 1940, 1,221,000 or 50,8% of 2,403,000 graduated. In 1960, 1,858,000 or 69.5% of 2,672,00 graduated. In 1980, 3,043,000 or 71.4% of 4,262,00 graduated. Source: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs93/93442.pdf After 1970, high school graduation rates level off and fluctuated but stayed pretty close. in 2009, 75.5% of high school students that started as freshman graduated. In addition, In 2009, some 89.8 percent of 18- through 24-year-olds not enrolled in high school had received a high school diploma or alternative credential. How does this compare with other countries? In 2008, the U.S. high school graduation rate was lower than the rates of ten countries: The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Norway, South Korea, Japan, Italy, Ireland, Germany, Finland and Denmark. Source: http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/11/03/how-u-s-graduation-rates-compare-with-the-rest-of-the-world/ However, there are 193 countries represented in the UN, putting the United States High School graduation rate in the top 5.69% of all the nations that are members of the UN. That means 94.31% of the Earth's countries have lower high school graduation rates. When do we see these types of comparison from the American media or critics of public education in the US? Never The next question is, "What is the political and economic agenda of these critics and a media that seems controlled by the critics?"