Stockholm on the run

This weekend I have been visiting Stockholm, capital of Sweden and probably one of the most modern cities in the world. However, coming out from Central Station this time was not as impressive as it used to be. Sweden in December, without snow, is actually quite ugly (see picture below). Nevertheless, there are beauties. Centralbadet (Central bath) which I visited Saturday evening seems to be up and coming. Raw cacao bar in a light therapy garden, bubbles in a mixed pool and two different types of saunas.

Bus stop at Sankt Eriksplan, Stockholm

Quebec beats Sweden in school performance

Back in Sweden one of the first things to meet me was the local school kids substituting their lunch at the Coop supermarket at Trollebergsvägen in Lund. Some of them even smoked in my yard, unwilling to move. "Endast Sverige svenska tonåringar har" ("Swedish teenagers occur in Sweden only"), I thought and went on. The day after - that is today - it is in the news that according to the new Pisa-ranking, Swedish 15-year-old students' performance in maths, science and reading is declining considerably. We are now below average (we used to be above). Canada, on the other hand, is still above average. And according to the Huffington post, Quebecers perform even better. Swedish students skip questions they don't understand. Canadians, and Quebeers in particular, appear to work harder.

In Canada and Quebec authority is respected. This is not the case in Sweden. Furthermore, the basic stuff att school: "läsa, räkna, skriva" (reading, maths and writing) is no longer attractive. It takes time and patience, at any level.


http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/12/03/pisa-results-canada-student-rankings_n_4376190.html
http://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/sverige-samst-i-klassen/