Dear readers, good morning,
These days the autumn holidays are coming to an end in the last federal states as well, at the same time the incidence values are rising almost everywhere, especially among children and adolescents.
Germany's schools are in the middle of the second Corona autumn.
Perhaps you are like us: We suspect that this topic will stay with us for a while - and therefore need a little break.
So here's an experiment: an edition of the newsletter without Corona news.
There is so much else to report, some of it is even positive: Berlin is giving schoolchildren and educational staff at schools a day off, in Bavaria children can now learn to ride at some elementary schools (“That's going on”).
No other: Primary school students in Augsburg re-enact the brutal Netflix series »Squid Game« in the schoolyard (»That's the matter«).
And once again there is trouble with digitization ("number of the week").
As always, we appreciate praise.
Criticism and topic suggestions (then also gladly again about Corona) by e-mail to bildung@spiegel.de.
Have a good November.
Feedback & suggestions?
The SPIEGEL education team
Susmita Arp, Kristin Haug, Armin Himmelrath and Miriam Olbrisch
That's going on
1. There is much to be done by 2026
From 2026 there will be a legal right to all-day care for primary school children, as the Bundestag and Bundesrat decided in the summer after long negotiations.
But there is still a lot to do before then: The German Youth Institute together with the TU Dortmund has calculated that there is a shortage of 600,000 additional childcare places and 35,000 additional full-time positions, as SPIEGEL reports.
There are huge differences between the federal states.
According to the study, the situation is particularly critical in the western German states.
2. Where are the teachers?
At the same time, the already tense situation for teachers could worsen.
As reported by the University of Jena, 28 percent fewer young people started teaching in this winter semester than in the previous year.
ZEIT reports this online.
There was a particularly strong decline in interest in teaching at secondary schools: the number of first-year students halved compared to the previous year to 42 (previous year: 88).
3. Squid playing games
The bloody South Korean series "Squid Game" is the most successful Netflix production to date - and has now apparently reached the first German schoolyards.
On the screen, 456 people compete against each other in seemingly harmless children's games in order to win prize money worth millions.
But the macabre competition does not allow a second chance: Those who do not make it to the next round will be killed immediately.
In Augsburg, children in a primary school acted out scenes.
Instead of shootings, there were slaps in the face.
Something similar was reported from Berlin and even from a daycare center in Pinneberg, Schleswig-Holstein.
»Squid Game« is only allowed from the age of 16.
4. What else?
Berlin is extending the Christmas break and giving schoolchildren and teachers a "day off": December 23rd.
The Senate Administration announced that the "hectic pace and stress immediately before Christmas for parents and schoolchildren" should be reduced.
At a private Montessori primary school in Brandenburg, parents, school management and management are fighting over the question of how good digitization works.
As a result, six children had to leave school.
The full story can be found in the current issue of SPIEGEL or online at SPIEGEL +.
Primary school students in Bavaria should be able to learn to ride.
Karin Baumüller-Söder, First Lady of the Free State and, according to the press release, herself "has been a show jumping competitor for decades", recently opened the "Riding in Primary School" initiative.
On closer inspection, this conceals a cooperation between a riding club and a primary school in Heroldsbach near Erlangen.
But the model is supposed to "set school", assures the State Ministry for Education and Culture in Munich.
Number of week
Around 400,000
So many underage children and adolescents use the commercial school app »Scoolio« - and have been victims of a data leak, as the IT security collective »Zerforschung« around the activist Lilith Wittmann has discovered.
Wittmann demonstrated to Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk how easily it could access the names, dates of birth and location data of the underage users.
At the same time, the collective reports on alleged further hair-raising business practices by »Scoolio«.
The platform plays advertisements with almost every click, writes "Zerforschung".
For this purpose, the users would be examined in detail.
Scoolio recorded "every data point they can get." Personality tests in the form of "job quizzes and other funny mini-games" would collect "more and more information in a targeted manner."
Debate of the week
There have always been gifted children.
But what's the hype about them?
The growing attention and funding are unnecessary and, above all, unfair, argues the political scientist, sociologist and book author Martin Hecht.
Here you can read an excerpt from his text.
You can find the full article on SPIEGEL +.
»Are our children getting smarter and smarter? No, more and more people are recognized as being ›highly gifted‹. Pedagogues who deal with such children do not explain the increased number genetically, but with today's measurement options. In the past, many simply remained undiscovered, one hears, today more and more are being 'identified' earlier and earlier.
The discussion about the sense and nonsense of promoting gifted children is quite one-sided. It often seems agreed that the school system should respond with targeted offers to four-year-olds who do math in the thousands or who speak fluent English as a second language.
But is it even necessary to give clever children a different treatment than others? To date, there is actually not a single study that has shown that gifted people are harmed if they simply go through normal school operations. Like everyone else. "
MIRROR Ed
New teaching unit for elementary school: "Ice in danger"
In this new module, children from the 3rd grade onwards deal with the causes and effects of the climate crisis in the role of journalists.
Through research and interviews, they develop their own options for action and at the same time deal with journalistic working methods.
All materials for the lesson can be downloaded here free of charge.
To go with it: »Your SPIEGEL« for class
Teachers receive three issues of "Dein SPIEGEL" free of charge as a class set for use in lessons.
The booklets are delivered directly to the school and the offer ends automatically after three months.
You can order the booklet here.
That's it for this time.
Do you have a topic on your mind that we should take a closer look at?
Then write to us at bildung@spiegel.de - the “Little Break” team thanks you for your interest!