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Comment by Svip | Hacker News Reader

I know I might be a bit pedantic, but Finland is not part of Scandinavia; only Sweden, Denmark and Norway are. Finland is part of the Nordic countries, along with Scandinavia and Iceland.

This tiny bit of research makes me concerned about the rest of the article's content. And as jared314 correctly points out; things are different in Finland compared to the United States. Moreover; remember, what is good for Finland, may not be good for Colorado. Hell, what is good for Colorado may not be good for Maine. Or Finland versus Denmark, for that matter.

Each country and/or state is different, and should - appropriately - be treated that way. Don't be too swayed by success, also learn from failure.

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I'm not sure what you're saying... There's no point in making comparisons because the U.S. and Finland are different?

Canada is much closer to Finland in PISA rankings than the U.S., but probably has more in common with the U.S. in most respects than Finland. Of course, Canada is not Finland or the U.S., and what is good for Canada may not be good for the U.S. ...

Seriously, look no further than the text-book industry in the U.S. It's a friggin' mess. If I were designing a curriculum in Canada, my #1 criteria for choosing a text-book would be "must not be used in Texas or California".

Not that bold. We should not ignore what others are doing, but we should not think that because someone else is doing well, a carbon copy of their solution will fit here. I am just saying that things are never simple.

According to an English dictionary, Scandinavia may also refer to Finland.

From Merriam-Webster, Scandinavia: 1) peninsula N Europe occupied by Norway & Sweden 2) Denmark, Norway, Sweden --sometimes also considered to include Iceland, the Faeroe Islands, & Finland

Your dictionary is wrong. Frankly, I've never trusted Merriam-Webster, so I don't consider that a valid source.

Including Iceland is beyond ridiculous, that's the Nordic countries!

This comparison is way too vague to have any significant meaning. So what if Finland is different from Denmark/US? You're different than me (I'm not US), but we both need to eat to survive, exercise to stay fit and read to learn. We probably share similar ambitions (health, family, financial stability) and have similar fears (health, family, financial stability), so why not education?

Those kind of geographical terms are hardly ever well defined (same with continents etc.), mostly because there is no rigorous way to define them.

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