Thanks Nina for your comment and your input! Always welcome to the conversation!

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Hi Sihui, thanks for sharing your educational experience in Finland. I especially liked how sensitive the instructor and the other students were with regard to your needs. I feel like, that made you feel validated in the class, and taught a good lesson of altruism for the other students. Whenever I contemplate on my experience regarding my educational career, I always remember the memories that are similar to yours: The moments I realized my thoughts, feelings, experience matter for the instructor and/or the other students, and how these moments of realization boosted my mood, ideals and performance.. As you mentioned, may be the tradition of “recognition” and “respect” for the students’ needs is the very basis of why the drop-out rate is so low in Finland, the grass is green when you water it.

Hi Betsy, thank you for your insightful post. I would agree with you regarding the need to design the textbooks in a manner which is appealing to a variety of learning styles and encourage the students to study the material mindfully. Yet, I also think that some of the students will never read all the lines of the textbook - as a kinesthetic learner, I know from my personal experience :) Not because they are not passionate learners, but just because reading the textbooks is just not their way of learning. I love the textbooks when they have recommendations for discussions, activities and auditory materials for the topics, and when they provide some real-life, hands-on connotations: case studies, "topic"-in-the-news and etc. As you've mentioned, we need an all-learning-styles-inclusive education system.. Best, yesim