[SNK]

"Finnish educators were astonished ... made no sense to them... surprised ... did not understand the idea ... can’t understand ... don’t make sense to them. Nor do they understand ...."

Ignorance and stupidity are nothing to be proud of. Disagreeing with us is one thing - they could be right. Willful disingenuous bug-eyed goggling is something else altogether.

[cromulent]

I don't think they are engaged in "willful disingenuous bug-eyed goggling".

I think the author is using the term "didn't understand" as in "I don't understand why you use LOC as a measure of a developer's productivity".

Being a little deliberately obtuse can be nicer, less judgmental, and less confrontational way of disagreeing with someone than saying outright "that's a bad way of doing it". And Finns do tend to avoid social confrontations, in my experience.

[sjwright]

Is the Finnish educators' ignorance of the American education system any more a sign of "ignorance and stupidity" than American educators' almost certain ignorance of the Finnish education system?

Given that Finnish educators appear to be doing a better job, I'd argue the latter is the more "ignorant and stupid".