This feature explores how European education systems negotiate tensions between collective ideals and growing competition. Drawing on studies from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Belarus, it examines shadow education, policy debates over equity, culturally grounded early childhood learning, and enduring post-Soviet public institutions. Together, these perspectives reveal education as a social mirror, continuously balancing public good, cultural identity, historical legacy, and individual ambition across diverse European contexts and shared societal values.

A multi-institutional study led by the University of California, Davis, finds that living in urban areas with a higher percentage of visible trees is associated with a 4% decrease in cardiovascular disease. By comparison, living in urban areas with a higher percentage of grass was associated with a 6% increase in cardiovascular disease. Likewise, a higher rate of other types of green space, like bushes or shrubs, was associated with a 3% increase in cardiovascular disease. The new research was published in Environmental Epidemiology.