use Perl

• Re: The Mozart effect: possibly not real (Score:1)

  by domm (4030) on 2005.01.17 15:18 (#37571) Homepage Journal

  a) I've attended public schools (they only 'private' schools in Austria are 'owned' by the catholic church, and are /very/ conservative) and while stuff like this 'mozart effect' probably were discussed, they would never have been presented as a fact.
  
  b) My kids are rather bright (and not saying this because I'm their father and have to, but because other people say so, too). The never listend to Mozart. In fact they listend to Beastie Boys, Coldcut, German/Austrian HipHop and other stuff that's not targetting some Alpha waves..
  
  But they are not bright because of the music they listen to, but because they hardly ever watch TV. They are now 9 and 5 years old and are allowed to watch about one hour a week (mostly scientific stuff for kids). Plus some videos and selected stuff from time to time (eg when we're visiting grandparents). We read them a lot of stories, about half an hour a day (more when they were younger).
  
  So if you want bright kids, don't let them decline to vegetables in front of the TV but spend a lot of time talking with them, tell them stories, etc.
  
  This is more effort than playing Mozart (or Beastie Boys) to them, but IMO it works.

  Reply to This

  • Re: The Mozart effect: possibly not real (Score:2)

    by jdavidb (1361)

    a) Public schools sure vary a lot from country to country (and in the U.S., state to state and county to county). Education-wise, the main point of this journal entry is that children need to be taught to critically evaluate new ideas presented to them, and that the failure of my own excellent local schools to do so in myself reinforces my previously made decision to homeschool my children.

    b) You're absolutely right. I was once committed to starting my independent life without a television at all, but t

    --
    J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
    • Reading to your kids (Score:2)

      by jmm (276)

      Ours is a literate house, and Joseph is already responding to Daddy reading to him in the womb.

      Great. My 16 year old son, Jordan, still enjoys having me read to him. That started when he was a toddler - making up a bed-time story every night for a couple of years (he would choose the topic and I'd then have to make up the story - "The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Light Bulb"), which turned into reading from kids books (Richard Scary was a favourite), then reading "regular" books (he heard "The Hobb
      • Re:Reading to your kids (Score:2)

        by jdavidb (1361)

        He is never to be seen these days without a book available, in case there are a few moments that would otherwise be "wasted" time

        That's the way to be. :)

        --
        J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers