By Amanda Ripley
Synopsis: How Do Other Countries Create “Smarter” Kids?
In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they’ve never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy.
What is it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers?
In a global quest to find answers for our own children, author and Time magazine journalist Amanda Ripley follows three Americans embedded in these countries for one year. Kim, fifteen, raises $10,000 so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, eighteen, exchanges a high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, seventeen, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for Poland.
Through these young informants, Ripley meets battle-scarred reformers, sleep-deprived zombie students, and a teacher who earns $4 million a year. Their stories, along with groundbreaking research into learning in other cultures, reveal a pattern of startling transformation: none of these countries had many “smart” kids a few decades ago. Things had changed. Teaching had become more rigorous; parents had focused on things that mattered; and children had bought into the promise of education.
A journalistic tour de force, The Smartest Kids in the World is a book about building resilience in a new world—as told by the young Americans who have the most at stake.
Published: August 2013 | ISBN-13: 978-1451654424
Author’s Homepage: http://www.amandaripley.com
Author’s Blog: http://www.amandaripley.com/blog
Author’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/amandaripley
The Washington Post Book Review
The Huffington Post Book Review
NYTimes Book Review
Inside Higher Ed Book Review
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Related articles
- What Makes The ‘Smartest Kids In The World’? (npr.org)
- What we can learn from the smartest kids in the world (eschoolnews.com)
- The smartest kids in the world – and how they got that way – Amanda R (mteakle.wordpress.com)
- How to raise a smart kid: live chat with author Amanda Ripley (theguardian.com)
Science Book a Day 
Well written, the society as a whole seems to have a higher level of importance placed on education. Although it is not all similar in appearance kids are learning at amazing rates when put in inviting environments.