Following three teenagers who chose to spend one school year living in Finland, South Korea, and Poland, a literary journalist recounts how attitudes, parenting, and rigorous teaching have revolutionized these countries' education results. In a handful of nations, virtually all children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they've never seen before. They are learning to think, in other words, and to thrive in the modern economy....

"It is no secret that American education is in crisis. Our children lag behind students in other countries--and they are losing ground. In The Learning Gap, Harold W. Stevenson and James W. Stigler put this crisis in perspective by comparing teachers, parents, children, schools, and educational practices in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, and China." "Based on five major studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science...