I grew up in a standardized system. At the time, in South Africa (the 50s and the 60s), we were considered to have the best education system in the world. Of course, we were also the richest country in the world at the time. (Our one Rand bought 75 of your cents - our currency was stronger than yours).

I had a classical education system - something that was standard in America and the British Empire (Yes, I was born into the British Empire).

I learnt History, Geography, Latin, German, English, Afrikaans, French, Biology, Chemistry, Art, Physics, Math (algebra, trig, geometry) in high school. In junior school, I learnt sewing, knitting, art, cooking, hygiene, singing, arithmetic,

Our course work during the semester was not counted towards our year grade. Our year grade depended only on the result of our year end, final exam.

If we got less than a 50% aggregrate combined, we repeated the year. If we failed either math or our mother tongue, we repeated the year.

In order to get into university, we needed to be able to write to a publishable standard in our mother tongue, be fluent in a second language, math, a science (biology, chemistry, or physics), and two other subjects. We needed an aggregate of 60%.

In junior school, exams asked us questions - no multiple choice answers. "In what country is tunda the usual vegetation?" "In what year did Louis XIV of France die" In high school, we had to write essays for our exams, "Discuss the constitutional differences between the USSR and Red China." "How does the Mediterranean climate impact on Italy and Greece. Discuss the differences."

In our graduating year, the government department for education set the exam, and the exam was marked by teachers outside our own school. There could be no favoritism.

And we all emergened highly educated. We didn't have any problems. My class had it's half century reunion 2 years ago, and although we are now scattered across the world, we are still in touch. There were reunions in South Africa, in London, and in America.

Can you please tell me, exactly, why it is that Finland has best education in the world, and it is standardized, as is the education system of every other country in the world.

America has a terrible education system, and it is precisely because your fucking education system isn't standardized. In my 50s, I went back to college there, and I have never met so many professors who are profoundly ignorant. I spent my life correctly text books and going to the chair because your professors were wrong. I always won.

I had a long argument with an American teacher, because she didn't want to teach grammar and math, because it meant she couldn't teach the kids about life. In the end, it emerged that she hadn't learnt grammar and math at school, so that's why she couldn't teach it. She honestly thought that it was her job to teach her kids to be good human beings.

You are highly mistaken about why education is paid for by taxes. It is paid for by taxes in order to teach kids skills - not to teach them to be good humans beings. That' s thei parents job.