The United States is failing to develop the math skills of both girls and boys, especially among those who could excel at the highest levels, a new study asserts, and girls who do succeed in the field are almost all immigrants or the daughters of immigrants from countries where mathematics is more highly valued.

The study suggests that while many girls have exceptional talent in math — the talent to become top math researchers, scientists and engineers — they rarely are identified in the United States. A major reason, according to the study, is that U.S. culture does not highly value talent in math, and so discourages girls — and boys, too — from excelling in the field. The study will be published today in Notices of the American Mathematical Society.

“We’re living in a culture that is telling girls you can’t do math — that’s telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,” said the study’s lead author, Janet Mertz, an oncology professor at the University of Wisconsin, whose son is a winner of what is viewed as the world’s most-demanding math competitions. “Kids in high school — where social interactions are really important — think, ‘If I’m not an Asian or a nerd, I’d better not be on the math team.’ Kids are self-selecting. For social reasons, they’re not even trying.”

Many studies have examined and debated gender differences and math, but most rely on the results of the SAT and other standardized tests, Mertz and many mathematicians say. But those tests were never intended to measure the dazzling creativity, insight and reasoning skills required to solve math problems at the highest levels, Mertz and others say.

Mertz asserts that the new study is the first to examine decades of data from the most difficult math competitions for young people, including the USA and International Mathematical Olympiads for high school students, and the Putnam Mathematical Competition for college undergraduates. For the winners of these competitions, the Michael Phelpses and Kobe Bryants of mathematics, getting an 800 on the math SAT is routine. The study found that many students from the United States who participate in these competitions are immigrants or children of immigrants from countries where education in mathematics is prized and mathematical talent is thought to be widely distributed and able to be cultivated through hard work and persistence.

Source: San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_10683875

A cross-party group of British MPs is expected on Wednesday to try to introduce a legal ban preventing parents from smacking their children, a campaign group said.

The MPs, headed by Kevin Barron, Chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, have backed an amendment to the Children and Young Persons Bill calling for youngsters to have the same rights as adults on assault.

The amendment aims to abolish the legal defense of “reasonable punishment,” said the Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance, which represents more than 400 organizations.

More than 100 backbench Labour MPs have signed a private statement demanding the government allow them a free vote on whether there should be a ban, it added.

The issue was last debated in 2004 when calls for a complete ban were rejected despite a rebellion by Labour MPs. Instead a compromise measure was agreed which forbids any punishment which causes visible bruising, grazes, cuts or scratches.

The government remains opposed to an outright ban but campaigners, including the Children’s Commissioner for England Al Aynsley-Green, say the current situation is ineffective and sends out confusing messages.

“We must act now to end the legal approval of hitting children,” Barron said.

“The current law allowing so-called ‘reasonable punishment’ is unjust, unsafe and unclear. Frankly we are baffled by the hesitation so far about giving a vote on what is so clearly a conscience issue.”

Last year, ministers said the law, which applies to England and Wales, would remain unchanged after a review found that most parents did not want a complete ban on corporal punishment.

“This is one of those principled reforms on which politicians must make a stand whatever the pollsters might say,” said William Utting, the Alliance’s spokesman.

“The law must send the clear message that hitting children is as unacceptable as hitting anyone else.”

Source: Canada.com
http://tinyurl.com/4475e3

Being talkative, chirpy and bubbly are some of the features associated with being a female. Nothing can beat a female tongue, her ever-lasting gossips and the constant groupings, but surprisingly the girls fall behind boys when it comes to making friends.

Girls find it more difficult than boys to adjust to new surroundings, where they are required to learn a new language, according to new Michigan State University research.

The study, conducted on three- to six-year-old kids attending an international school in Beijing, found that generally girls faced more social adjustment problems than boys. All the students, belonging to 16 nationalities, were dealing with both Chinese and English, which implied that each child was learning at least one new language.

“In early childhood, we know from previous research that girls are more verbal and more social than boys, generally speaking, but what we found in this study is that girls had a tougher time with social adjustment in the classroom,” said Anne Soderman, MSU professor emeritus of family and child ecology and lead researcher on the project.

It was found that girls who did not understand teachers or classmates at the 3e International School, tended to withdraw more than their male counterparts. The pupils at the “dual immersion” school were taught in Mandarin during the morning and English in the afternoon.

In the last school year, Soderman, a consultant at the school, examined preschoolers and kindergartners , by using more than 100 two- to three-hour observations in the classroom and teachers” perceptions of the children”s social adjustment on the Social Competence Behaviour Evaluation scale.

Soderman said that young children overall were found to have a more difficult time learning a second language than many people believe. “There”s a wide-held perception that if children are very young, learning language is extremely easy for them – that they are like sponges – and that is just not true. Their motivations for doing so are very different from those of older children or adults,” she said. The study has been published in the latest issue of European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.

Well, after all its true that boys just want to have fun and can get well with just anyone very quickly.

Source: Oneindia
http://living.oneindia.in/men/man-vs-woman/2008/girls-social-adjustment-problems-071008.html

Human evolution is grinding to a halt because of a shortage of older fathers in the West, according to a leading genetics expert.

Fathers over the age of 35 are more likely to pass on mutations, according to Professor Steve Jones, of University College London.

Speaking today at a UCL lecture entitled “Human evolution is over” Professor Jones will argue that there were three components to evolution – natural selection, mutation and random change. “Quite unexpectedly, we have dropped the human mutation rate because of a change in reproductive patterns,” Professor Jones told The Times.

“Human social change often changes our genetic future,” he said, citing marriage patterns and contraception as examples. Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could alter genetics, one of the most important mutation triggers is advanced age in men.

This is because cell divisions in males increase with age. “Every time there is a cell division, there is a chance of a mistake, a mutation, an error,” he said. “For a 29-year old father [the mean age of reproduction in the West] there are around 300 divisions between the sperm that made him and the one he passes on – each one with an opportunity to make mistakes.

“For a 50-year-old father, the figure is well over a thousand. A drop in the number of older fathers will thus have a major effect on the rate of mutation.”

Professor Jones added: “In the old days, you would find one powerful man having hundreds of children.” He cites the fecund Moulay Ismail of Morocco, who died in the 18th century, and is reputed to have fathered 888 children. To achieve this feat, Ismail is thought to have copulated with an average of about 1.2 women a day over 60 years.

Another factor is the weakening of natural selection. “In ancient times half our children would have died by the age of 20. Now, in the Western world, 98 per cent of them are surviving to 21.”

Decreasing randomness is another contributing factor. “Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached half a million by now – about the size of the population of Glasgow.

“Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling. History is made in bed, but nowadays the beds are getting closer together. We are mixing into a glo-bal mass, and the future is brown.”

Source: Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4894696.ece

As soon as children are old enough to interact socially, some become entrenched in chronic and increasing patterns of victimization by their peers, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Children who are aggressive in infancy and are from families with harsh parenting styles and insufficient income appear more likely to be consistently victimized.

As many as one in 10 youth are the direct target of physical attacks, hostile words and social aggression from peers during school years, according to background information in the article. “Studies also show that peer victimization becomes increasingly stable over time, with the same children enduring such negative experiences throughout childhood and adolescence,” the authors write. “The consequences associated with high and chronic victimization are manifold and include depression, loneliness, low self-esteem, physical health problems, social withdrawal, alcohol and/or drug use, school absence and avoidance, decrease in school performance, self-harm and suicidal ideation [thoughts and behaviors].”

Edward D. Barker, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and colleagues studied 1,970 children (51 percent boys) born in Québec, Montreal, Canada, between October 1997 and July 1998. Participating children were assessed at ages 4.5 months, 16.6 months, and 2.4, 3.4, 4.1, 5.1, 6.2 and 7.2 years. At each point, mothers provided information on factors such as victimization, family adversity, parenting styles, physical aggression, hyperactivity and internalizing symptoms. At age 7.2 years, teachers and children reported on victimization by classmates.

“Three trajectory groups were identified with respect to victimization by peers between 3.4 and 6.2 years of age,” the authors write. “As expected, most of the children (71 percent) fell on a low/increasing trajectory, whereas 25 percent and 4 percent of the children followed moderate/increasing and high/chronic trajectories, respectively. The overall age-related increase in preschool peer victimization is consistent with the view that, as preschool children progressively spend more time interacting with peers, they are more likely to experience negative peer experiences.”

Children who were on the high/chronic and moderate/increasing trajectory according to their mothers’ reports at young ages also had the highest levels of victimization at age 7.2, as reported by themselves and their teachers. Children who were aggressive at a young age (17 months) were more likely to become victims in preschool than children who were less aggressive, but neither early internalizing symptoms (for example, sadness, fear and anxiety) or hyperactivity were associated with later victimization. Children exposed to harsh parenting were more likely to be chronic victims, and insufficient family income also predicted high/chronic and moderate/increasing victimization trajectories.

In addition to identifying factors associated with victimization, “the present results also suggest that multiple forms of victimization may be the norm for victimized children, i.e., children with a high/chronic trajectory had harsh, reactive parents and were victimized by peers in preschool and after school entry. Other forms of victimization are likely to occur for these children, both within the school (e.g., verbal bullying by teachers) and within the community, particularly within low socioeconomic contexts,” the authors write. “These results suggest that early preventive interventions should target both child- and parent-level risks and focus on alternatives to harsh and aggressive interactions.” (…)

Source: EurekAlert
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/jaaj-seh100208.php

You are never too young (or too old) to learn about money. My first lesson about money was that candy bars cost 10 cents at the corner store in my small town, but only 9 cents at the big grocery store.

I also remember selling Kool-Aid on the sidewalk in front of our house. The flavor crystals, sugar, water, jug and glasses all came from our kitchen, so at 5 cents a glass I concluded that selling Kool-Aid was an exercise in pure profit.

Walking past the “Bank On It” exhibit in the Tacoma Children’s Museum last week, I saw 5-year-olds – who were still working on the art of sharing – discovering the more complex skills of budgeting and saving. They were playing (and learning) in these exhibits using “money” to make purchasing and savings decisions.

These preschoolers were learning a lesson that it takes most of us a lifetime to master: financial literacy. And watching them move from a “spend-it-all-on-ice-cream” decision reconsidered in favor of a “maybe-I’ll-save-some-for-cookies-too” mentality gives me hope for the future.

It’s a lesson we should all remember. Recent headlines confirm that even experts on Wall Street and in Washington are still learning it. Bailouts of financial institutions and industries, the distress caused by mortgage rollovers, and even teenagers getting into debt trouble are all cause for concern.

Through my work, I see both the benefit of providing families with the knowledge to avoid financial failures and the consequences when people lack an understanding of money management.

When we teach our children how to save money, make a budget, make thoughtful buying decisions, read a bank statement, bank online, use a debit or credit card, understand loans and use good judgment, we help them build immunity to predatory lenders, overdrawn accounts and housing foreclosure. We give them skills to survive and prosper.

Parents can help their children navigate an increasingly complex financial world by teaching the basics of money and finance at an early age. Like the preschoolers learning to budget for ice cream and cookies (not to mention candy bars), teaching our kids the basics of money and the benefits of saving can have enormous benefit down the road.

Where to begin? One of the basic skills of financial discipline is managing money, as opposed to just spending it. There are several good online resources for ways to explain money management to kids at each developmental stage. Try www.themint.org or www.jumpstart.org.

You can also use simple games to teach younger children valuable lessons. The National Council on Economic Education has a workbook full of ideas: “Financial Fitness for Life: The Parent’s Guide to Pocket Power.” There, you’ll find resources on story books that teach financial skills, and family activities that reinforce financial messages, such as “Goods vs. Services.”

In this activity, parents help children identify three “goods” and three “services” found at home. Children draw pictures of the goods and services, and use old magazines to clip photographs that illustrate them. This activity helps even young children distinguish between goods and services.

Schools are starting to offer more robust financial education as well. Check with your local school board to find out how you can support more financial education in your school system.

Some schools are partnering with Junior Achievement to provide financial education. Junior Achievement has exceptional experiential learning opportunities for children and young adults. In a dozen or so states across the country, children visit a Junior Achievement Finance Park, where they learn about how money works in real life.

They are randomly assigned an education level, profession, income and life situation (they might be a single parent, married couple, single person).

Based on their life situation, they go from one storefront to another in the village, setting up bank accounts, applying for mortgages or choosing to rent an apartment, buying a car or getting a bus pass, paying for groceries and clothing, and supporting children. They make decisions about how much money to spend on what, as long as it fits within their means.

The results are astounding. They quickly understand the value of trade-offs needed to make the budget work. And they might go home with a little more empathy for their parents’ financial decision-making, at least for a day.

Preparing our children to be money-smart, or financially literate, may be one of the most important and challenging responsibilities we have as parents.

The best place to learn financial literacy is at home. Talk about financial decisions with children at every opportunity. Involve children in money activities, such as saving for a special vacation over a period of time.

Be financially responsible yourself – role-model what you want your children to do. Take a class and increase your own financial knowledge. Have a family budget and retirement plan and share it with your family.

When you pass up some ice cream and cookies to create and build a stronger savings account that supports your financial goals, you teach by example. Meet with a financial professional to accelerate your financial literacy journey.

Patricia Akiyama is director of government relations for Russell Investments. This article is part of a series of monthly columns by Russell associates.

Source: TheNewsTribune.com
http://www.thenewstribune.com/business/story/499949.html

Kelly and Tim are a lovely young couple with two beautiful children. One of the things that makes this young family especially nice is the behavior of their children. When Tim and Kelly go someplace, they can take their children along knowing that their children won’t disrupt others or play the obnoxious card.

But Kelly says it wasn’t always that way. There was a time when their daughter, Madison, at age three, was a tantrum thrower and as Kelly describes her, a beast. She would throw her hands up in the air and collapse to the ground sobbing. Her behavior would get beyond comprehension and for the finale the shower of tears rained over what had become a major meltdown.

“We tried everything,” says Kelly. Then they decided that her behavior did not go together with all the things that she enjoyed in her little world, so they decided to withdraw her toys and her games and the things she loved to do and show her that tantrums and toys did not go together.

Kelly and Tim slowly emptied her room of every single toy, every single activity down to a bed, a dresser, and one doll to sleep with. Everything went into their garage and was off limits to the child.

If her behavior was good for a day, she could earn a toy back. If she threw a tantrum, she would lose a toy. It was that simple. The child was able, by her own choices, to either enjoy what her parents had graciously given her, or forfeit her luxuries in favor of a tantrum.

Now what does this teach a child? Critics would say that this was cruel and unusual punishment, and that it won’t work because such a punishment holds a child to a level of competence she doesn’t understand.

On the other hand, Kelly is a teacher and Tim has counseling training, and in this very proactive and non-violent scheme, they have taught Madison to control her temper for her own sake. “If you want your toys, you have to make good choices.”

This wonderful educational scheme allowed Madison to make choices and see the result. She traded up - the tantrums for a beautiful life. The training is proactive because it eliminated temptations, excuses, and interference. It simply and completely said, “Here’s the deal. You live up to your end of the bargain, and so will we one toy at a time.”

What Madison learned is that’s the way life is. If you play by the rules, you get the life rewards of doing well. If you let others always take the blame, take the brunt of your temper; nobody will want to play with you.

And what is the result of this three years later? At the time, it took Madison four months to earn all her toys back. Because of this loving training engineered by her parents, she has become a workhorse. Madison works hard at everything she does. She loves being at big school now, and she loves the challenges in front of her, and at the same time, her parents are very proud of their beautifully behaved young lady.

(Editor’s note: Judy Lyden has worked with very young children for over thirty years. She’s been a preschool teacher for over twenty. She co-owns the Garden School, an early childhood academic center, with Edith St. Louis.)

Source: WFIE-TV
http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=7486189&nav=menu54_2/Global/category.asp

The University of Miami med school is one of the key research sites in a pioneering national study that will examine children’s health from birth to 21.

The University of Miami Medical School will be one of the primary research centers for a 25-year nationwide, pioneering study of children’s health, following potential mothers from before they’re pregnant to when their children reach 21.

The $3.4 billion National Children’s Study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, will track 4,000 children in four Florida counties — including Miami-Dade — and 100,000 nationwide. It will focus on 20 key children’s health issues, including autism, birth defects, heart disease, attention-deficit disorders and obesity.

”We believe it will be the largest study of pregnant women ever conducted — certainly in the United States,” said Dr. Peter Scheidt, director of the national study for the NIH. The NIH will create a national databank of health information on children.

”We won’t have to wait 21 years to benefit,” said Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. “We will release information at each step in the growth process, from pre-conception to 21.”

`THE WHOLE COUNTRY’

Dr. Steven Lipshultz, chairman of pediatrics at UM medical school and Florida principal investigator for the study, says the research will be more significant than the Framingham Heart Study, which has followed a Massachusetts town since 1948 and is seen as the basis for much of what is known about heart disease.

”That was just one Massachusetts town,” he said. “This will cover the whole country.”

Lipshultz estimates the study eventually will create up to 400 medical health jobs in Florida and $400 million of medical spending in Miami-Dade County. UM initially will receive $54.6 million from the NIH to lead the Florida portion of the project. UM will pay participants a range of fees, as yet undetermined.

Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Orange and Baker are the counties in Florida that will participate in the study — there are 105 counties nationwide.

Lipshultz said he hopes the program can help lift Florida from its ranking of 50th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia in 13 child-health categories according to a May study by the Commonwealth Fund, a private group that studies healthcare issues.

Starting in 2010, if pilot efforts go well, UM researchers will recruit 4,000 families in the four counties.

”We will literally knock on 17,000 doors to get 1,000 children in Miami-Dade,” says Dr. Tracie Miller, associate chair of pediatrics at the UM med school and co-principal investigator of the study.

WATER SAMPLING

Other universities involved are Johns Hopkins University, Baylor College of Medicine, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Tulane, the University of California at Los Angeles and Vanderbilt.

The studies will follow women from before they conceive, sampling the water they drink, the air they breathe, the schools, shops and workplaces in which they spend time.

Doctors, nurses and medical researchers will look into genetics and environmental factors; psychologists will trace brain development factors that might cause dyslexia, learning disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Some of the key areas to be studied:

• Birth defects: Birth defects affect one in every 33 babies born in the United States each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They include heart defects, brain defects and spinal problems such as spina bifida. Birth defects account for more than 20 percent of infant deaths.

• Obesity: Studies by the Florida Governor’s Task Force on Obesity say 10 percent of Florida high school students and 11.5 percent of middle school students are overweight. They say 57.4 percent of Florida adults were overweight or obese, a 63 percent increase since 1986. Early blame was placed on lack of physical activity and poor eating habits.

• Heart disease: Reports by the Florida Department of Health say 39.7 percent of Florida residents said they had high cholesterol in 2005, up from 31 percent in 2001. The report said 26.9 percent engaged in no regular physical activity. And two-thirds of middle school students watched TV or sat at a computer screen for more than three hours a day.

• Autism: The CDC estimates that one in 150 8-year-old U.S. children has an autism spectrum disorder, making up about 560,000 individuals from birth to 21. The number is up from previous decades, possibly because a broader definition of ASD. Some parents believe, despite disagreement from many doctors, that autism might be associated with childhood vaccinations.

The CDC says it does not believe there is a connection.

Says Lipshultz: “There’s no substitute for data.”

Source: MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/712697.html

Next time you head off to bed to get a good night’s sleep, your brain’s memory bank is likely to thank you for it.

American research presented at the Australasian Sleep Conference in Adelaide yesterday showed that far from resting while people sleep, the brain uses this time to store and remember important information and discard useless details.

Associate Professor Robert Stickgold, from Harvard Medical School, said sleep played a more important role in memory processing than previously had been thought.

Professor Stickgold’s research showed that sleep not only strengthened recently formed memories, it could also blend them into networks of older memories.

He said the brain also used sleep to sift through memories such as scenes people saw that day, to remember the important “emotional” memories and dismiss unimportant ones.

And when people were given a task to finger-tap out a difficult-to-remember code and then sent home to “sleep on it”, the next morning they were 15-20 per cent faster at performing the task and had 30-40 per cent fewer errors.

“So while you’re sleeping, your brain is actually improving on the memory that you formed while you were awake, and if people don’t get enough sleep, say more than six hours, then you won’t see that improvement,” Professor Stickgold said.

Source: The West Australian
http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=2&ContentID=100927

Three-year-old Nicole Smith knows how to put numbers in order and she knows how to stack blocks from largest to smallest.

Experts say this early algebraic thinking will help students later in life … in school and at work.

Fourteen-year-old Jen agrees, “‘Cause everything that you do leads to math… and so like, I like to use math in a lot of different ways.”

Tips for Parents
Excellence in mathematics education requires high expectations and strong support for all students. Regardless of their personal characteristics, background, or physical challenges, all students must have opportunities to study - and support to learn - mathematics. This does not mean that every student should be treated the same. But all students need access to a coherent, challenging mathematics curriculum that is taught by competent and well-supported mathematics teachers.

Too many students - especially students who are poor, not native speakers of English, disabled, female, or members of minority groups - are victims of low expectations in mathematics. For example, “tacking” (grouping students by ability) has consistently consigned disadvantaged groups of students to mathematics classes that concentrate on redemption or do not offer significant mathematical substances. The Equity Principle demands that high expectations for mathematics learning be communicated in word and deeds to all students.

Children learn by exploring their world. Everyday activities are natural vehicles for developing mathematical thinking. When a parent places crackers in a toddler’s hands and says, “Here are two crackers - one, two,” or when a three-year-old chooses how she wants her sandwich cut - into pieces shaped like triangles, rectangles, or small squares - mathematical thinking is occurring. As a child arranges stuffed animals by size, an adult might ask, “Which animal is the smallest?” Through careful observation, conversations, and guidance, adults can help children make connections between the mathematics in familiar situations. Because young children develop a disposition for mathematics from their early experiences, opportunities for learning should be positive and supportive.

Source: Winknews.com, Florida
http://www.winknews.com/features/education/29946519.html