Philosophy
The purpose of education in the future will not be to create people with heads crammed full of knowledge, but to rear children who know how to efficiently use the whole brain.
Rearing children with enormous ability, rich creativity, and the capability to make use of a high proportion of their brain should be the goal... - Makoto Shichida
Shichida believed that all children are born geniuses and the purpose of education is not to teach knowledge but to develop a child's abilities at a young age.
According to Shichida, we are all born with the potential to develop certain capabilities. This potential can be tapped into easily during the first few years of life, when brain growth is at its most rapid. Shichida centers encourage teaching multiple languages from birth, and training children to develop photographic memory and perform rapid mathematical calculations, among other skills.
The Shichida method requires that parents carry out course-related activities with their child at home, usually amounting to 30 minutes a day of practice. Parents are encouraged to focus on their child's brain development rather than academic performance.
Method
The Shichida method focuses on the right hemisphere of the brain, which develops before the left hemisphere and which Shichida calls "the genius brain." Shichida says that children usually fall out of the habit of using the right side of the brain some time between 4 and 6 years of age.
Because of this, the Shichida Method is best used between ages 0 and 3.
The idea of the method is that by stimulating the right brain, the whole brain will benefit. Shichida centers promise to teach children many useful abilities, including:
Multilingualism
Intuition and ESP
Musicality and other artistic talents
Positive emotional and personality traits
Photographic memory
How the method works is best explained by understanding the following key words:
Imaging: the right side of the brain is the "image" brain, meaning it works through visual stimulation.
Stimulation: the right brain is activated by repeated sensory stimulation.
Subconscious: the right brain enables the child to learn subconsciously.
Rapidity: the right brain can process large amounts of information at high speeds.
Whole-brain: educating the right brain enables you to educate the whole brain to its fullest potential.
Shichida said of his students, "These children are tapping powers we never knew existed, as if they are perfectly normal. Watching them rapidly memorize enormous amounts of information and recall it with precision and understanding, predict future events, and improve their athletic ability serves as a guide for education that will revolutionize conventional approaches to child rearing in the 21st century."