edjumicating the progeny: the homeschool interviews

According to the United Nation's Human Development Index, Finland is currently tied for first place in education, meaning it has one of the best, most effective educational systems in the world. The weird thing about this is that Finnish kids don't start school until age seven, and when they do start their days are shorter and less formal (with no standardized testing). Also, they graduate at fifteen or sixteen years old, which means they end up doing four to five less years of formal education than your typical American kid.

So, to recap: In Finland, kids work less, take school less seriously, and on average outperform everybody else in the world.

Is it the diet? Are kids just smarter in Finland? Do the teachers suck less?

Or is it possible, rather, that there is some correlation between taking school a little less seriously and getting good results? I don't know. But as I contemplate possibilities for my son's impending education, I have to wonder if I would really be doing him a favor by forcing him to descend into North America's truly horrendous system. To that end, I have decided to re-visit a project I started last year of interviewing some of my formerly home-schooled students. Here is the first: