Pasi Sahlberg

At Harvard's Graduate School of Education, I got a handshake and a "keep up your great work" from renown Finnish educator, scholar, author and activist Pasi Sahlberg. 

Made my day.

Pasi is a former Director General of CIMO (Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation) at  Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture in Helsinki and currently a visiting Professor of Practice at HGSE. I've used his best-selling book Finnish Lessons 2.0 in my own courses.

I've been a fan of his ever since I saw this interview with Andrea Mitchell back in Sept. 2010.

He told an astonished Mitchell that the secret of Finland's celebrated school success was essentially doing everything just the opposite of current U.S. school reform policies. Some of the major differences: Finland puts the focus on collaboration rather than on competition. Finnish education policy supports public good and equity over privatization and school choice. The Finnish school system de-emphasizes standardized testing. Finland has implemented high standards for entry into the teaching profession, rather than using mass purges of the profession and school closings.

Good Flick...I told Pasi that I had just seen him in Michael Moore's new film, Where To Invade Next, where he tells Moore essentially the same thing he told Mitchell.

Check out Pasi's website: pasisahlberg.com and Twitter: @pasi_sahlberg.