When temperatures rise, humans sweat, dogs pant (喘息), and cats… don’t move enough to overheat? Well, partially. Cats, which need to maintain an internal body temperature of 101°F to 102°F, have several methods for keeping cool in sweltering weather.

It’s a misconception that cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. As summer wears on you might see moist paw prints, but as veterinarian Kimberly May told The Washington Post, “Any secretions (分泌物) there or from their nose, mouth, or tongue are not for sweating; they’re for protection and moisture and are insufficient to cool the blood.”

Instead, cats recreate the sweating process—which is similar to human’s via evaporation (蒸发)—by grooming themselves regularly. The saliva (唾液) from their tongues acts like sweat that cools their body when it evaporates—which is why you can also help cool your cat down by using a damp washcloth to lightly wet their fur. In extreme weather, cats will also pant, but unlike dogs who pant regularly to keep themselves cool, a panting cat is a sign of more dangerous over-heating or other serious diseases.

And if you’re tempted to shave your fur friend to help keep him cool—don’t!

“Fur acts as a thermal regulator to slow down the process of heat absorption,” James H. Jones, an expert in comparative animal exercise physiology and thermoregulation at the University of California at Davis, told The Washington Post.

Fur coats are highly evolved—in the winter they keep animals warm, but in the summer, they work both to protect delicate skin from the sun and slow dehydration, Jones notes that, according to research, shaved camels performed worse in the deserts than those with their fur undamaged.

But even with these methods for keeping cool, cats also need to stay indoors to keep comfortable. So even though they evolved from wild ancestors and are able to tough it out, leave the air conditioner or a fan on for your cats when you go out, and make sure to leave them plenty of water.

To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades and tests. But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.

Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want. There are no teachers, only “staff members”. The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway. “You do not need to say to the four-year-old, ‘Go to explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!” says Daniel Green berg, a founder of the school. “But if you make children do what you want all day, they will lose all tastes for learning.”

At Sudbury Valley School, you will permit children to talk, read, paint, cook, work on computers, study French, play the piano, climb trees, or just run around. Two boys spent three years just fishing!

The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules. Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote each—even the four-year-old. They decide the school rules, how to spend the school budget, and even which staff they want and do not want anymore.

When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work. But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all the time have successful careers today. One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.

It’s a tradition that dates back to the 1930s’ and it’s designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they’re from, an equal start in life.

The maternity(母性) package — a gift from the government — is available to all expectant mothers. It contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing products for the baby as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress.

With the mattress at the bottom, the box becomes a baby’s first bed. Many children, from all social backgrounds, have their first naps within the safety of the box’s four cardboard walls.

The tradition dates back to 1938. At first, the scheme was only available to families on low incomes, but that changed in 1949. In the 1930s Finland was a poor country and the infant death rate was high — 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figure decreased rapidly in the decades that followed. Over 75 years, the box has been an established part of the Finnish rite(仪式) of a passage to motherhood, uniting generations of women.

Reija Klemetti, a 49-year-old woman from Helsinki, remembers going to the post office to receive a box for one of her children. “My partner Milla and I were living in London when we had our first child, Jasper, so we weren’t eligible (有资格) for a free box. But Milla’s parents didn’t want us to miss out, so they bought one and put it in the post office. We couldn’t wait to open the box. There were all the clothes I had expected, with the addition of a snowsuit for Finland's cold winter.”

“We now live in Helsinki and have just had our second child, Annika. She did get a free box, from the Finnish government. This felt to me like evidence that someone cared — someone wanted our baby to have a good start in life,” Reija Klemetti said.