"Teaching is pointless..."

The arguments of Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff in the book Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, and BrillBaby's response:

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff:

A number of studies indicate that children who have been taught to memorize printed words might be ahead in first grade, but by third and fourth grades many of the other children have caught up or even surpassed them.

BrillBaby's response:

According to recent scientific research, there are measurable long-term benefits to learning to read early in life. In "An illustrative case study of precocious reading ability," published in 2004 in Gifted Child Quarterly, authors Rhona Stainthorp and Diana Hughes compared the progress in school of children who began reading early with children who began reading at an average age.

According to their report, "The differences between [the early readers'] skills and those of the regular readers did not level out but continued to increase." This in turn created "an upward spiral in reading and [language acquisition] and a secondary impact on other subjects." Conclude the authors, "The study shows that the early readers and especially the precocious reader not only continue to hold their advantage in reading skills, but improve at an increasingly fast rate when provided appropriate interventions."

In fact, we have known for decades that learning to read early confers significant long-term advantages. In longitudinal studies conducted in the US in the 1960s and 70s by Dolores Durkin, it was found that, eight years on, children who had been taught to read at age three or four read better than children taught at age five or six. Those taught at age seven or eight were even further behind. Importantly, this held true even when comparing children with the same IQ and same socio-economic status.

Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff:

Is [mathematical reasoning] the kind of knowledge that can be obtained from flash cards, or even from computer games that ask children to do comparisons between sets and simple counting and addition? No. What is needed are the gritty, day-to-day experiences of exploring, manipulating, sorting, dividing, and recombining that children have as they play with objects.

BrillBaby's response:

At what point did learning to recognize quantity and perform mathematical equations, and having "gritty, day-to-day experiences" become mutually exclusive? This argument has been put forward because the authors - like so many critics of baby education - believe that lesson time will take away from playtime, meaning that babies and small children who are given lessons could miss out on everyday learning.

In fact, lessons for babies take barely any time at all. Flash card-based lessons (which are the main target of the authors' criticism) last all of 10 seconds. Give them three times per day, as Glenn Doman recommends, and that adds up to 30 seconds per day. Teach your baby both reading and math using flash cards, and the total lesson time equals one minute per day!

For those using DVDs or computer software, we recommend that lessons be kept to 15 minutes maximum. Young babies should not look at a screen for longer than 15 minutes in one sitting. However, as the child gets older and begins to interact with her parents and the lesson, it would be okay to increase the time up to 30 minutes. For information on this, go to the Babies & Television and Babies & Computers sections.

Regarding the value of play and children's "day-to-day" experiences, we couldn't agree more with the authors. Children learn not only math but just about anything you care to mention simply through playing. We recommend that your child spend as much time as possible playing. Contrast this with the half hour maximum we recommend for DVD- or software-based lessons, and it's easy to see that your child will spend more of his waking hours at playtime than anything else.

Want to join the debate about early learning?

You can share your views with other parents and teachers in the BrillKids Forum.

If there is an argument that you feel hasn't been covered on BrillBaby, please email us and we'll do our best to address your concern.