How do other countries create smart kids? In a few countries, children are learning to make complex arguments and solve problems they have never seen before. They are learning to think and thrive in the modern economy.

A global quest to find answers for our own children. Time. Three Americans are being followed by a magazine journalist for a year. Kim, 15, raises $10,000 so she can move from Oklahoma to Finland; Eric, 18, exchanges a high-achieving Minnesota suburb for a booming city in South Korea; and Tom, 17, leaves a historic Pennsylvania village for Poland.

Ripley meets battle-scarred reformers, sleep-deprived zombie students, and a teacher who makes $4 million a year through these young sources. None of these countries had many smart kids a few decades ago. Things had changed. Children had bought into the promise of education and parents had focused on things that mattered.

A journalistic tour. The smartest kids in the world. The young Americans who have the most at stake are told about the book.