Parents and teachers want lessons to be “age appropriate,” but disagree on when children are ready for painful topics, writes Marta W. Aldrich on Chalkbeat. She reviews books that have been challenged as inappropriate in Tennessee, which last year passed a law restricting how schools teach about racism. This year, book challenges and bans increased and Tennessee lawmakers passed Republican Gov. Bill Lee’s plan requiring periodic library reviews “so parents are empowered to ma

Sara Zaske moved to Germany with a four-year-old daughter, then gave birth to a son. In Achtung Baby she praises “the German art of raising self-reliant children.” At her daughter’s Kita, preschoolers frolic naked in the water-play area, notes Slate’s Rebecca Schuman. The school hosts a “gleefully parent-free sleepover” for four-year-olds. An adventure playground in Berlin. “Adventure playgrounds” are designed to be a little dangerous. One children’s park “consists solely of

The much-admired German apprenticeship system “relies on a very stratified education system along with regulated and heavily unionized labor markets,” writes Eric Hanushek in Education Next. Furthermore, it produces narrowly trained workers who aren’t prepared for changing work demands. Half of all German youth participate in their vocational and apprenticeship system, which itself builds upon school tracking that occurs in the 4th  grade. The dual system involves youth at th

A doll that records and transmits what it hears is an espionage device, German officials have concluded. “My Friend Cayla” is now banned in Germany, reports Bill Chappell on NPR.  The doll also is vulnerable to hacking, Cayla’s critics charge. The doll isn’t sold in U.S. stores, but is available on Amazon. Linking Cayla to a smart phone app makes the doll interactive. It also means whatever’s said to the doll will be sent to Nuance, a U.S. company that also maintains a voice-