American Music, German Schools, and The Critical Mom

I am of the generation that sang folk songs around the campfire somewhere in Vermont, and Peter, Paul and Mary's 500 Miles rings in my ears as one of the pleasanter memories of those days:

If you miss the train I'm on, you will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles
A hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles, a hundred miles
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles

 My fifth-grader came home alerting me to his teacher's insistance that the refrain goes, 

You can hear the wizards blow, a hundred miles

 "Actually, Mommy, the way she sings it is, "Yow can heah ze wizzuds blah-oh, ze hundred miles," 

the last word barked rather than lingered over.

 This gal has a Ph.D. in music and in all fairness conducts the school orchestra with such verve 

that people who are not parents of the musicians actually pay to hear it play.

 But really.  Gandalf and Dumbledore take note:  "You can hear the wizards blow a

 hundred miles!"  Let's hope they're at least blowing whistles, not passing gas.