Grew up with the method, using it with my daughter
Hi,
This is actually my first post to MDC, although I have been reading it since my daughter was born two years ago. I love the fact that this whole community exists! I was really interested to see the many lively discussions regarding Glenn Doman because I am more or less a "product" of The Institutes programs. My parents attended the Institutes course in 1979, just a few years after they started giving it. Up until that time, they only worked with parents of brain-injured children. Even now, they only hold courses for parents of well kids four weeks out of the year so it actually is a very tiny facet of their overall work. My parents have said that, like most parents, they knew their kids were smart -- they just didn't know what, if anything, to do about it! I am the oldest of four kids born between 1975 and 1980, and I was 4 years old when my parents heard about Glenn Doman. Of course they had been reading to all of us since we were very small -- common sense, right? And at that time they didn't have all the video options we have now, so what else were they going to do
I can still remember the day my mother came home from the last day of the course, because she brought home a xylophone which I thought was really cool. She started showing us word cards the next week, and I read "Hop on Pop" independently the next month. Of course I had already had a great foundation because I had been read to for my entire life so far. My mother continued to teach all four of us, adding the "Encyclopedic Knowledge" Program (flash cards, or "Bits of Intelligence"), math and music in the form of Suzuki method violin. When I was 6 years old, our family was invited to attend school at The Institutes. The school was also in its infancy at that time, and was really terrific. I mainly remember having lots of fun. I attended the school there until age 9, when I went into public school for two years, then Catholic school for two years, and finally a private Catholic all-girls' high school.
My siblings and I were particularly lucky in that our parents really took Glenn Doman's primary message of fun and joyousness to heart. I can certainly see how this program -- or any teaching effort -- can produce hideous results in the wrong hands. Parents who pursue any enrichment activity with the sole aim of producing "super babies" or future Yalies are more than likely going to stress their kids and ruin the experience of learning for them. That stinks, big time.
Now I have a two-year-old daughter and I am reading to her, explaining things to her, pointing out trees and birds and dogs, speaking Japanese to her (as much as I can), playing music for her and identifying the composers, and everything else that probably most of you are doing as well in a natural way. Since the "programs" weren't necessarily natural for my mother, she had to do things in a more structured way, which I understand does not appeal to many people on this BB. Since I grew up with it, though, I find that I rely far less on cardboard materials and far more on finding the "teachable moment," which happens about every three seconds in our house! I'm not looking to stuff my daughter full of "useless" facts (and who can tell what will be useful or useless to our children in their future lives?), but I do enjoy giving her every opportunity to learn about the world around her in a relaxed and happy way. Sometimes I use my homemade materials to do this, sometimes not. It all depends on the day and the moment.
As for whether it changed my life, well, I think so but it's tough to say for sure since I can't compare the upbringing I had with the one I didn't.
Some might posit that my parents were already naturally inclined towards giving their kids unusual and extraordinary opportunities to learn and would have figured it out themselves. I know from what they have told me that without reading Glenn Doman's books they would not have known how to lend structure to this natural inclination of theirs. I definitely know there is a very slim chance that I would play the violin now if my parents had never heard of the Institutes, and an even slimmer chance that I would speak Japanese. Since both these things are very important to me, then I think it was very lucky for me personally that they did.
I guess what I'm saying is that, with the blessing of even-handed parents, Glenn Doman's philosophy worked for me as a child and is continuing to work for me as a mother.
My feeling (and this goes for every parenting decision) is that parents who are drawn to these ideas should try them out whole-heartedly and have a great time. Parents who are not drawn to the ideas should just move on and not worry about it. It's definitely not for everyone, just like co-sleeping, cloth diapering, or homeschooling (to name a few of the many, many options we have as parents -- isn't it great to be overwhelmed with choices?!). No point in arguing, really
I hope this long post adds to the discussion! Thanks!
