The Hechinger Report – Tara García Mathewson
“How do we know when kids are ready to learn anything? Babies can learn how to use toilets, but most parents don’t introduce the concept until they’re well into toddlerhood. Fourth graders can master college-level biochemistry topics but most teachers don’t even consider trying to teach them. Life is full of examples like this. (I’ll focus on the biochemistry since this is a newsletter about schools, but email me if you want to talk more about babies using toilets!) Daniel Fried is an assistant professor of chemistry at Saint Peter’s University in New Jersey. While pursuing his doctorate at Yale, he started to wonder whether some of the concepts he was learning could be taught to kids.” (more)