MyThreeDaughters

I read this in The Washington Post the other day, about pregnant moms strapping things to their bellies to play sounds to start educating kids before they are born. My only thought was: I’m surprised all of us from previous deprived generations aren’t dumber than dirt.
Here are a couple of key passages, and I’ve taken the liberty to extend these thoughts/quotes to their obvious conclusion. Just to make the meaning a little more lucid. (My kids don’t know that word yet, because we didn’t play a books-on-tape Thesaurus to them before they were born.)
“With such names as Lullabelly, Bellysonic and FirstSounds, they offer up everything from soothing tones to foreign languages as they promise anxious parents a better, calmer baby.”
Other programs include Trigonometry, Calculus, String Theory and Arabic.
“With that in mind, makers of prenatal learning devices think that the period between 18 and 40 weeks is an opportunity to give soon-to-be-born babies a head start. (The BabyPlus slogan? “Your womb . . . the perfect classroom.”)”
For your emerging MENSA member, these sounds approximate those of Charlie Brown’s teacher. Wah-WAHWAHWAH.
“They’re much more ready for ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ or ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ than they would be,” Logan says.
And a child who is un-prepared for “Twinkle Twinkle” is a terrible thing to waste.
“I teach middle school in Montgomery County, and they focus from kindergarten on up how to get into college. I’ll take any step to get ahead of the game to help her learn basic fundamentals, to succeed and be the best she can be.”
Few know it, but during the admission interview at Harvard, they ask the candidate to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Candidates unable to do so are sentenced to community college.
I might add just one thing to this profound movement: Why stop there? Why not, soon as that baby pops out, put an iPod on her?
Life’s too short, and these days, there are far too few opportunities to be pelted with information.