Brian Micklethwait links to an intriguing story: Perfect pitch is far more common in music students who speak Mandarin, a tonal language, than among native English speakers, according to a new study.

Psychologists at the University of California in San Diego found that children who learnt Mandarin as babies were far more likely to have perfect pitch – the ability to name or sing a musical note at will – than those raised to speak English. Perfect pitch, though common among the great composers, is extremely rare in Europe and the US, where just one in 10,000 is thought to have the skill.

Diana Deutsch, who led the research, believes the explanation lies in the different use of tones in the two languages. While the meaning of English words does not change with tone, the same is not true for Mandarin and other tonal languages, such as Vietnamese, Thai, and other Chinese dialects.

For example, in Mandarin, the word ma has four meanings. Depending on tone, it can mean mother, horse, hemp, or be a reproach.

Among conservatory students in Beijing who began music lessons before the age of five, 60 percent had perfect pitch. Only 14 percent of U.S. conservatory students with early music lessons had perfect pitch. In both groups, delaying music lessons dramatically lowered the chances of developing perfect pitch. An alternative to Mandarin, a psychologist said, “might be to let babies play with keyboards with different notes labelled or coloured in.”

Almost all the math programs used by middle schools lack evidence of effectiveness, says a federal evaluation. Education Week reports:

Most of the off-the-shelf mathematics programs used in middle schools across the country have little or no rigorous evidence attesting to their effectiveness, concludes a federal research review released last week.

The U.S. Department of Education analysis was based on a review of studies undergirding 44 math programs used in grades 6-9, including some of the nation’s most popular textbooks for those grade levels.

. . . The researchers found only five that had a research record strong enough to meet their standards. Of those, just two — a pair of computer-based algebra programs called I CAN Learn Mathematics and Cognitive Tutor — had studies showing that students actually learned more with their programs compared with other programs.

The researchers set high standards, preferring programs backed by randomized controlled studies. Programs that didn’t make the list may be effective, but there’s no research.

Connected Math, Saxon Math and a computer-based program called Expert Mathematician also made the short list.

If Levi Meir Levi (also known as Levi Clancy) had stayed in public school, the taxpayers would be paying $7,000 or more a year for his education. Instead, diagnosed as “profoundly gifted,” he left at the age of 7 to start college. Now 14, Levi is a junior pre-med at UCLA, where he works as a math tutor. He hopes to become a cancer researcher. He and his single mother, a part-time public school art teacher, are
sueing the school district, claiming that his education costs should be covered, just as the district would have to pay for a disabled child who couldn’t be taught adequately in a normal school. I think she’s got a case.

The complaint filed with a California superior court in Sacramento points to the state’s compulsory-education law requiring “a free and equal education” for all minors until age 18.

. . . The complaint says the taxpayer-funded public-school system owed Miss Levi and her son other school options and should have paid for his college costs under state law, or at least paid as much as the public-school district’s yearly per-pupil expenditure.

. . . “[Levi] Clancy has a fundamental constitutional interest in receiving an education that is non-discriminatory and provides for his individualized needs,” the complaint states. “UCLA is capable of providing the education for him. However, neither he nor his mother can afford to pay for this education.”

In response, the California Department of Education’s attorney has asked the state superior court to dismiss the suit “and to order Levi returned to a public secondary school.” Why not prison?

Levi blogs at LeviLevi.com.

As a prank, two students at an elite prep school in Quebec inserted a secret message in the yearbook “calling for death to all Jews.” Ha. Ha.

Copies of the yearbook were destroyed before distribution when the messages, written in e-mail abbreviations, were spotted. The pranksters, who are described as immature rather than anti-Semitic, have graduated.

A fifth-grade teacher in California claims he was told not to give students “documents from American history that refer to God — including the Declaration of Independence.” From Reuters:

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek Elementary School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

. . . Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity.

Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington’s journal, John Adams’ diary, Samuel Adams’ “The Rights of the Colonists” and William Penn’s “The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania.”

Stevens Creek is a top-scoring school; a majority of students are Asian-American. I find it hard to believe they’re not allowed to read the historical documents that state history standards require schools to teach, as The Remedy, Claremont Institute’s weblog, points out. It sounds too crazy.

Via Powerline.

Hundreds of foreign students have eaten a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with a Kansas family over the last 50 years.

(Tom) Grimwood’s late mother, Betty, began the Thanksgiving tradition by inviting foreign students from the University of Kansas to travel the 130 miles from Lawrence to break bread with her.

Since then, the Thanksgiving Homestay Program has spread from Burns, not far from Wichita, to towns throughout Kansas.

. . . Sometimes, the friendships last. A student from Venezuela met the Grimwoods for Thanksgiving in the late 1950s. This year, he sent his granddaughter to spend part of her holiday with the Kansas family. Another South American student from the inaugural class, now 73, traveled from her Houston home to visit Burns last week.

This Thanksgiving, 24 Kansas families are hosting foreign students.

University of Missouri’s new sports arena won’t be named after a Wal-Mart heiress, after all. Billionaires Bill and Nancy Laurie donated $25 million to build the arena, one third of the total cost, and were given naming rights. They named it after their daughter, who’d never attended Missouri. That annoyed Mizzou fans.

Then, last week, Paige Laurie’s freshman roommate at the University of Southern California, Elena Martinez, said in an interview on ABC’s 20/20 that Laurie paid her about $20,000 over 3 years to write papers and complete other assignments for her.

The Lauries (mom’s dad was the original Walton) gave up naming rights. The Paige Sports Arena is expected to become the Mizzou Sports Arena.

Thanks to Liz Ditz for pointing me to this page of handy science textbook disclaimers. The first is real; the rest are parodies.

Maryland’s public school students learn about Thanksgiving without learning who the Pilgrims thanked: God is taboo in social studies class.

Young students across the state read stories about the Pilgrims and Native Americans, simulate Mayflower voyages, hold mock feasts and learn about the famous meal that temporarily allied two very different groups.

But what teachers don’t mention when they describe the feast is that the Pilgrims not only thanked the Native Americans for their peaceful three-day indulgence, but repeatedly thanked God.

“We teach about Thanksgiving from a purely historical perspective, not from a religious perspective,” said Charles Ridgell, St. Mary’s County Public Schools curriculum and instruction director.

Of course, the Pilgrims’ religious beliefs are part of U.S. history.

Mentioning that the Pilgrims were Puritan is about as close as most administrators are willing to step to integrate religion into their curriculums.

“We mention they were Puritan but students usually just understand that they had a belief system and not much more than that,” said Carol Williamson, Queen Anne’s County Schools’ associate superintendent.

So, students are left in ignorance.

Thanksgiving is usually taught as a part of social studies and emphasizes cultural immersion.

“The Pilgrim Story is read in Spanish and English,” said Alfreda Adams, principal at Mills-Parole Elementary School in Anne Arundel County where 70 Hispanic students attend. “We make sure that we celebrate all cultures.”

Really? Sure you’re not missing one?

Update: Scrappleface has more on Lucky Thursday in Maryland.

In the 1960s, researchers studied whether a high-quality pre-school program, with well-trained teachers and lots of home visiting, would improve the life prospects of poor, black children. It did. For Perry Preschool participants, now middle-aged, the benefits persist, reports Education Week.

The latest findings from one of the longest-running studies on the effects of preschool, released last week, show that the children who attended the Perry Preschool in Ypsilanti, Mich., four decades ago continue to be more law-abiding, earn higher incomes, and have more stable home lives than similar adults who were not enrolled in the program as youngsters.

At age 40, those who attended the small demonstration program in the 1960s were found to have higher rates of employment and homeownership, and lower rates of illicit drug use and arrests for selling illegal drugs, when compared with the sample of adults who did not attend the classes.

The Perry Pre-school Project became the argument for Head Start, a much lower-quality program that hasn’t produced lasting effects. Few pre-school programs match Perry’s quality, researcher Lawrence J. Schweinhart said. “To get what we got, you’ve got to do what we did.”

The children assigned to the demonstration program participated in small daily classes for two years with certified teachers who led them through the steps of planning their activities, following through with their work, and reviewing what they learned. Those in the control group did not attend preschool at all.

Economists estimate each dollar spent on Perry saved $13, when public costs, such as reduced special education and welfare, and revenues, such as more taxes collected, are factored in.

It’s not that Perry participants excelled in later years. They just beat the control group.

At age 40, 36 percent of those Perry alumni had been arrested five or more times in their lives. But that figure was significantly lower than the 55 percent reported for the control group. And 14 percent of the demonstration group had been arrested for drug crimes, compared with 34 percent of the control group.

Sixty-five percent of Perry participants graduated from high school, compared to 45 percent of the control group.

Currently, very poor children have access to subsidized pre-school programs, though quality varies. Working-class families often find they earn too much for subsidized programs but not enough to pay the market price of pre-school.