"Einstein Never Used Flashcards"??? Reviews?

[Michelle in MO]

Has anyone ever heard of this book or read it? Reviews?

Here's a link (http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Never-Used-Flashcards-Learn/dp/1594860688/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215809713&sr=8-1) to the book.

I saw this at our library today and was both intrigued and a little "put off" by the title. Is it another "rigorous education isn't a good thing" type of book?

The subtitle is, "How our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less". To be honest, this seems a bit antithetical to a classical education, and I'm wondering where they came up with the title. Honestly, Einstein graduated from German schools; my great-grandfather only went through the 8th grade in a German school but knew some pretty advanced math, so I question the premise.

Still, I haven't read the book and am wondering if anyone has and if it's worthwhile. I do understand the need for children to play----perhaps I just don't understand why they should necessarily memorize less. Are the two mutually exclusive in some way???

[Jan P.]

I only read a little from the sample excerpt, but I do think it is a bit silly to be pushing flashcards to an infant. However, I think flashcards are perfectly acceptable as a memory tool in learning math facts, foreign language vocabulary, and any thing else. I personally don't think babies' eyes are ready for "reading" of flash cards -- even if it is just pictures. Also flash cards are two-dimensional. Young children do better with three-dimensional objects. I guess I can't even seeing baby Benjamin Franklin sitting on the floor with his mama givning him flashcards of kites, keys, etc. I doubt if Einstein's mom did that either. Yet, I haven't read the book, so I'm not sure if they are talking about flash cards with just infants or with older kids, too. I hope I haven't stepped on anyone's toes. I personally am for little ones to do self-discovery under the safe watch of Mom and Dad (Grandma, Grandpa, or significant caretaker).

[Myrtle]

Has anyone ever heard of this book or read it? Reviews?

Here's a link (http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Never-Used-Flashcards-Learn/dp/1594860688/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215809713&sr=8-1) to the book.

I saw this at our library today and was both intrigued and a little "put off" by the title. Is it another "rigorous education isn't a good thing" type of book?

The subtitle is, "How our Children Really Learn--and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less". To be honest, this seems a bit antithetical to a classical education, and I'm wondering where they came up with the title. Honestly, Einstein graduated from German schools; my great-grandfather only went through the 8th grade in a German school but knew some pretty advanced math, so I question the premise.

Still, I haven't read the book and am wondering if anyone has and if it's worthwhile. I do understand the need for children to play----perhaps I just don't understand why they should necessarily memorize less. Are the two mutually exclusive in some way???


Here's a dissenting opinion.

Forty years ago, Laszlo Polgar, a Hungarian psychologist, conducted an epistolary courtship with a Ukrainian foreign language teacher named Klara. His letters to her weren't filled with reflections on her cherubic beauty or vows of eternal love. Instead, they detailed a pedagogical experiment he was bent on carrying out with his future progeny. After studying the biographies of hundreds of great intellectuals, he had identified a common theme—early and intensive specialization in a particular subject. Laszlo thought the public school system could be relied upon to produce mediocre minds. In contrast, he believed he could turn any healthy child into a prodigy. He had already published a book on the subject, Bring Up Genius!, and he needed a wife willing to jump on board.

He went on to have three daughters, one of whom became a grandmaster. And that upbringing involved playing chess with dad for hours a day at a very young age.
Entire 8 page article on Polgar (http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.php?term=20050614-000002&page=2)

What I like about Polgar is that he isn't just another PhD in education shmuck with an idea to sell, Polgar had the goods. He delivered big.

Susan Polgar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Polgar)
Sofia Polgar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zs%C3%B3fia_Polg%C3%A1r) Judit Polgar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polgar)

The other day I was on David Friedman's blog (son of Milton Friedman) and he had a blog entry about how he had unschooled his daughter in math and how it "had worked" because his daughter got an average SAT score in math. Is that what it means for an educational practice "to work"? Average? We'll have to stick around to see what else Friedman's daughter does in life that makes her different from a public school graduate with pushy parents. Although, even if she hit it big, I might attribute that to her father's indirect influence in informally fostering critical thinking skills rather than the unschooling itself. It's not like we flashcard types don't casually discuss issues with our kids at the dinner table.

On the topic of "early and intensive specialization in a particular subject"-- that has been my husbands motto since we began homeschooling. When people find out what our 12 year old is capable of mathwise compared to other kids his age they will say he is "mathy" implying that he has some inherent talent. I've also seen people say that he's just smart. (But we had his IQ tested before we started and we know that he's average) Other people think that it's genetic, Dad has degree in math then son got his mathiness genetically, except this isn't my husband's biological child.

Instead Mr Charon has come up with a crackpot plan much like Polgar, only in math, which goes something like "if you want the usual result in math, then use the usual programs, if you want a special result, then you will have to do something special."

When I read about SWB upbringing, you can see that she did get an intensive education and that her mother did rely on memorization. She also had a specialized education in the sense that she learned from nonstandard sources.

I am always stopping by Drew's blog to hear the latest on his daughter's progress in Latin. He, too, has perhaps adopted a program similar to this--- Intensive specialization in a subject taught using the apprenticeship model rather than pure book larn'in. (So in that sense I agree with your article, memorization alone without guidance, in other words, just turning the crank, won't work)

And by the way, if anyone out there is a musician or artist and has anything to add about this idea of intense specialization from an early age with an expert producing results which most people would attribute to "IQ" I'd love to hear what you are doing...By defintion one can't specialize in everything, but it still makes for fascinating reading.

[Eliana]

I haven't read the book itself, but from the description you linked it seems to be discussing preschool "education" rather than K-12 education. It seems a response to the "Baby Einstein" and 'teach your infant to read' insanity than to anything resembling classical education.

I think focusing on a rich environment and supporting the way little ones naturally learn rather than trying to cram knowledge into them is fabulous... but I was a Montessori kid and Montessori's philosophy strongly shaped how I approached infancy and little-person hood, ymmv. :)

Although TWTM advocates memorization, it does so within a rich, age-appropriate framework and during a stage in which children are often drawn to that kind of rote memory work. If TWTM advocated chanting amo-amas-amat to newborns, or holding up flashcards with images of famous historical figures and training babies to recognize Hammurabi and Henry VIII, then it would be a target of the book you linked.

Can you tell I'm appalled by the 'make your baby smarter' craze? I'll climb off my soapbox and let someone who has actually read the book opine. :)

Thank you for sharing the title and the link, I'm going to put this book on hold at the library...

[Michelle in MO]

I haven't read the book itself, but from the description you linked it seems to be discussing preschool "education" rather than K-12 education. It seems a response to the "Baby Einstein" and 'teach your infant to read' insanity than to anything resembling classical education.


and when I took a closer look at the reviews on Amazon, I think that's exactly what it's addressing.

There's another thread (http://http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41606), a spinoff from this one, discussing more on this topic.

It's funny; I learned to read fairly early, but it all came about very naturally as a result of my parents reading quite a bit to me aloud to me when I was young. And, I know from the IQ test I had to take in school that I'm certainly no genius!

I don't know if this is "early specialization" or not. My parents weren't trying to teach me how to read; it just . . . happened. I also started piano lessons pretty early (6, but not early by Suzuki standards); but I really wanted to play the piano.

I'm probably going to read the book soon, as soon as I finish The Path Between the Seas by McCollough.

I have no problem with flashcards and rote memorization; I think the key is, "When is it age appropriate?"

- Michelle, who is still trying to understand these issues better!

[Michelle in MO]

took a closer look at the book, I think they're addressing very early flashcards, etc. I definitely believe in memorization, but probably started flashcards with math at around age six.

But, on my other thread (see my response to Eliana), I'm wondering---how do we as parents properly challenge our children without being pushy, overbearing, and generally driving them nuts?

It's not like we flashcard types don't casually discuss issues with our kids at the dinner table.

I'm wholeheartedly with you on this. I think that involved parents naturally tend to discuss weightier subjects in general with our kids over the dinner table, in the car, etc.

On this:

On the topic of "early and intensive specialization in a particular subject"-- that has been my husbands motto since we began homeschooling. When people find out what our 12 year old is capable of mathwise compared to other kids his age they will say he is "mathy" implying that he has some inherent talent. I've also seen people say that he's just smart. (But we had his IQ tested before we started and we know that he's average) Other people think that it's genetic, Dad has degree in math then son got his mathiness genetically, except this isn't my husband's biological child.


and this:

And by the way, if anyone out there is a musician or artist and has anything to add about this idea of intense specialization from an early age with an expert producing results which most people would attribute to "IQ" I'd love to hear what you are doing...By defintion one can't specialize in everything, but it still makes for fascinating reading.

As you already probably know, Mozart's upbringing was very much like this, under the tutelage of his father, Leopold. He died extremely sick and very poor, however. I don't know enough about his background to say, one way or another, whether his upbringing was responsible for this. I definitely reject the notion that in order to be a genius or an artist one must have an unhappy, miserable life. I don't believe the two are intrinsically related.

I definitely believe that when you introduce a particular subject early on to your children, you very likely are setting the stage for great ability in that particular area. I also would agree with your point that what some people attribute to IQ or "giftedness" is really a great deal of study and specialization in that particular area. For the life of me I can't find this particular article I read several years ago by Jim Mullen, a humor columnist, about "gifted" children. He writes a column called "The Village Idiot" (or something like that), and I remember one particular line from a violinist friend of his went something like this: "Gifted, schmifted! I get so tired of people referring to my 'gift'. The eight hours of practicing I have to do daily isn't a gift!" His version was far funnier than my recollection! :D