The Smartest Kids In The World: And How They Got That Way

The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way is a 2013 work of sociological nonfiction written by American journalist Amanda Ripley. The primary focus is What Defines a Quality Education and how the United States can make its educational system more successful. Ripley provides three countries as case studies—Poland, South Korea, and Finland—and explores their education systems through research and interviews with exchange students. The text aims to discover what creates Rigor and the Drive to Learn and emphasizes The Lifelong Importance of Higher-Order Thinking, which Ripley feels American education neglects. The book draws on Ripley’s journalistic writings in Time magazine, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic. In addition to The Smartest Kids in the World, she has authored The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes—And Why (2009) and High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How to Get Out (2021). The Smartest Kids in the World was a New York Times bestseller.

This guide refers to the 2013 Simon & Schuster paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, and mental illness.

Summary

Journalist Amanda Ripley initially avoided education stories but became intrigued after learning of controversial education reform in Washington, DC. Her research revealed that while US test scores were stagnating, countries like Finland and South Korea were rapidly improving, and Norway’s were declining. These findings challenged the idea that poverty alone drives education outcomes. Ripley discovered that high-performing countries emphasized critical thinking more than the United States. To investigate what this truly meant, she followed three American exchange students who studied abroad in top-performing nations (South Korea, Finland, and Poland), hoping that their experiences could offer insights to help improve US education outcomes.

In Part 1, Ripley explores why some countries outperform others in education by discussing three American exchange students, Kim, Eric, and Tom, who studied abroad in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, respectively. Ripley begins by explaining the origins of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). The PISA was developed by German physicist Andreas Schleicher to measure critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, and other real-world skills that American standardized tests fail to measure. The test showed that countries like Finland had top scores, while the United States remained average and stagnant despite high government spending on education. Ripley took the test herself and found that it challenged her to think, not memorize, and considers this as something that is missing from most American classrooms.

The first exchange student, Kim, is from Oklahoma. Kim grew frustrated with her school’s arbitrary performance standards and the lack of work ethic she observed in her peers and wanted to be around like-minded people. Inspired by Finland’s students’ high performance, she raised the funds to study there for a year. The next exchange student is Eric from Minnesota. Minnesota is one of the top-achieving states and one of the few states in which American students excel in math. He went to South Korea, where he encountered an intense, high-pressure education system in which students study all day and late into the night. The system raised his concerns about mental health and its narrow focus on test scores above learning for its own sake. The third student, Tom, from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was intrigued by Poland’s culture and found that the country fosters a serious academic environment, especially in math. Based on her discussions with the students, Ripley argues that countries with successful education systems focus on critical thinking, consistent standards, and math, rather than just spending or cultural factors.

In Finland, Kim marveled at and appreciated the country’s serious, respectful approach to education. All the students attended school regularly and valued learning. She noticed a stark contrast in teacher and overall education quality between Finland and the United States, which Ripley’s research confirms. Finnish teachers are highly educated, trained, and deeply respected by society in general. In comparison, US schools often accept underqualified teachers and have little appreciation or funding for their profession. Ripley argues that improving teacher training and selectivity is essential for raising educational standards in the United States.

In South Korea, Eric struggled with the country’s extreme academic pressure and decided to leave his high school. He bonded with Jenny, a Korean American student, who also found the Korean system overwhelming. Both Eric and Ripley found that Korean parents act more like educational coaches than cheerleaders (when compared to American parents) and tend to emphasize test scores while minimizing interest in the students’ other activities. The flaw in this logic is its emphasis on results over the actual benefits of learning. Ripley points out that how parents engage with their children, such as through reading to them at a young age and discussing what they learn in school as they grow up, has a sizeable effect on academic success. Ripley concludes that a society’s attitude toward education, particularly how seriously students and families take it, has a stronger impact on outcomes than cognitive ability.

In Poland, Tom witnessed the success of a country that transformed its education system in under a decade. After decades of war and occupation, Poland implemented major reforms in the 1990s, including better teacher education, standardized testing, and delaying the point at which students are tracked into academic or vocational paths. These changes raised expectations and performance among students across the country, regardless of their financial status. Ripley criticizes early academic tracking, which can limit students’ potential and reinforce inequality. In the United States, Tom had been placed in a gifted program early. His principal chose to eliminate the applied studies track, which led to more students performing at higher levels, reinforcing the idea that expectations shape outcomes.

In the second half of her exchange year in Finland, Kim experienced depression and was encouraged by her host mother to see a psychologist. During the train ride to Helsinki, Kim realized her own inner strength, embodying the Finnish concept of sisu (grit and determination). After therapy, she chose to stay in Finland with a new host family. When Ripley visited Kim, she noted the rigor of Finland’s education system, particularly the intense high school graduation exam, which serves as a standardized academic goal and, like most graduation tests, is associated with higher PISA scores. Despite its strengths, Finland struggles with growing diversity and an increasing immigrant population. Ripley observed that while many teachers strove to treat all students equally, some parents relocated to avoid schools with increasing immigrant populations. She contrasts this with the United States, where race and background are central in studies on education, often to the exclusion of other considerations.

In South Korea, Ripley had a firsthand experience of the hagwon (private tutoring) industry, where top instructors like English teacher Andrew Kim earn millions based on their students’ high scores. These centers showcase extreme academic competition, are sometimes guilty of helping students cheat, and create disparities for those who cannot afford them. Upon escaping the “hamster wheel” of South Korean academia, Eric found relief and new connections in a vocational college in the United States instead. 

The students had mixed experiences upon returning to the United States. Tom thrived at Vassar, Kim took her final year of high school online and appreciated the approach’s flexibility, and Eric felt unchallenged after entering DePaul University. None of the countries studied has a perfect system, but Ripley concludes that Finland, South Korea, and Poland all emphasize higher-order thinking, rigor, and belief in students as keys to their success. She urges American parents, educators, and policy makers to take education seriously and support student potential to improve education in the United States.