Finnish kids are taught by the parents to read long before they get to school. Sure, it helps that the Finnish language is phonetic... But really, it's a home environment that teaches that reading is fun and enjoyable and can get you what you want.
Same goes for counting and basic arithmetic.
It's a cultural thing.
Teachers in Finland are not geniuses. The caliber of the teachers is, in fact, higher than the USA, but this stems more from seats in schools as opposed to "smart people wanting to become teachers".
The desirability ranking of what the average student would like to do goes like this:
Medical
Engineer
Law
French
Pyschology
...
Education
...
Waiter
...
So somewhere along this spectrum, you get a bunch of qualified people who become teachers. There's only a limited number of seats for each profession (driven by free education... you can NOT become anything you want to become, you have to do better than the others on the entrance test). So you don't get a disproportionate group of people getting a degree in History or Biology or Pyschology. The number seats are arranged according to the needs of the society.
And kids would rather be teachers than waiters (yes, there's a school for that).
In Finland, teachers do NOT make more than engineers or doctors. They make about one third (pre tax) of what doctors or engineers make.
Also, Finland is incredibly homogenous. Take that for what you will...
I'm from the US, but my mother read to me from the day I was born, and got me reading before I turned 3, and reading full books for kids by the time I was 4 or 5. Unsurprisingly, I tested as "on a college age reading level" from the 3rd grade onward.
She also did basic arithmetic with me as well, and I ended up pretty good at math and logical thinking.
I think a huge part of the education problem today is lack of engaged parents. They don't concentrate on teaching their kids before they send them to school, and once they're in school, they leave the teaching up to the teacher and do not assist really.
I've read to my kid since forever, my wife as well. We have a library that rivals most school's and we read to him 2-3 books (at least) a day. He is 3.5 years old and can't read at all (heck, I think he recognises some words but I'm not even sure of that).
At 3 I was able to do math (addition, subtraction and basic multiplication) quite easily but basic reading only came to me at around 5 years old.
Kids are different, some learn to read earlier, others later, same with math, same with diapers, same with everything really. My 3.5 year old can climb trees like a 7 year old (better even if the kids around here are any indication). Do basic math (he has the concept of multiplication and can do most numbers times 2 or times 10). Recognises flowers and various different birds. He knows most traffic signs. He can almost cook his breakfast with just a bit of help with the oven. He does physics experiments (with our help). Are we worried that his peers at school know more letters? No. Kids develop at different speeds, but unfortunately, schools/kindergartens/parents expect their little treasures to be the smartest, brightest unique snowflakes and push them to it.
It's great that you think this way. I see too much of this pressure with my friends who have kids. They want to see them do math and read before they're x years old, with x being one or two less than what the cheaper schools are doing. My 3.5 says more elaborate sentences than the older kids, but never showed any special interest in math, and I never felt that he was ready to learn to read. It's completely normal for a 3.5 kid to not be ready to learn these things.
From what I've read about the Finish school system educators are selected from the top quartile of academic performers of university students. In the US, educators are ranked in the bottom 1/3.
The limited number of seats per profession is a new one, but kinda makes sense. However, by doing this the nation "locks in" their capacity for growth in these areas. It would seem that this is somewhat misguided. An economy cannot be very efficient if it makes decisions a decade in advance.
From my experience in Finland kids very rarely have been taught to read before school, and typically just a few kids on a first grade can read. Of course, having phonetic language helps, as once you know all the letters you can correctly write almost any word hear.
The views of the value of studies also differ quite a lot, but luckily it's way more common for uneducated parents to value a better education for their kids than the way around. It of course helps that all studies are free and students in universities are actually paid to attend (though less than they would get for being unemployed).
What average uni students want to study actually does not affect the quality of teachers as much as you suggest. In 2014* a total of 1649 applicants took the entrance exam for becoming a class teacher in Helsinki University, and 146 were selected among them. I don't believe many of the 146 best applications would rather study engineering or biology.
It reads as "If finns can't become doctors or lawyers or engineers, they'd like to become french". She/He probably wanted to write Finance, but the autocorrect did its thing.
Sure, some kids might learn to read, write and count before school, but it is definetly not a norm. The first two years of school here is mostly spent learning those skills.
Finnish kids are taught by the parents to read long before they get to school. Sure, it helps that the Finnish language is phonetic... But really, it's a home environment that teaches that reading is fun and enjoyable and can get you what you want.
Same goes for counting and basic arithmetic.
It's a cultural thing.
Teachers in Finland are not geniuses. The caliber of the teachers is, in fact, higher than the USA, but this stems more from seats in schools as opposed to "smart people wanting to become teachers".
The desirability ranking of what the average student would like to do goes like this: Medical Engineer Law French Pyschology ... Education ... Waiter ...
So somewhere along this spectrum, you get a bunch of qualified people who become teachers. There's only a limited number of seats for each profession (driven by free education... you can NOT become anything you want to become, you have to do better than the others on the entrance test). So you don't get a disproportionate group of people getting a degree in History or Biology or Pyschology. The number seats are arranged according to the needs of the society.
And kids would rather be teachers than waiters (yes, there's a school for that).
In Finland, teachers do NOT make more than engineers or doctors. They make about one third (pre tax) of what doctors or engineers make.
Also, Finland is incredibly homogenous. Take that for what you will...