Another conspicuous case of early learning, especially early reading, is that of Edith Stern, described in considerable detail by her father, Aaron Stern, in two books, The Making of a Genius (1971) and The Joy of Learning (1977). A Jew born in Poland, Aaron Stern made "an impossible escape" from the Nazis and finally found his way as a war refugee to the United States, where he married and raised two children, Edith and David. The story of his constant battle against poor health, his struggle to consolidate his education in English, but, above all, his notable success in educating his daughter is told with passion in these two volumes.
Both children learned to read before age two. It is Edith’s learning that is described, for Aaron’s long stays in the hospital prevented his attending to David’s education with the same care as Edith’s. Stern’s Total Educational Submersion Method, as he calls it, consists of spending much time with the children, talking, reading, playing, answering questions, and exposing them to a great variety of experiences. For example, while the family lived in the New York area, Stern decreed that the radio should be turned on continuously to Station WQXR, which plays classical music twenty-four hours a day interspersed with news
bulletins. He specified, “Let the volume be merely audible when the baby is asleep and louder when she is awake, but by all means let the child be always exposed to fine music” (1977: 29).
By the time she was ten weeks old, her crib was filled with meaningful toys and illustrated books. Her dolls had social significance as they were of many races obtained from the gift shop of the United Nations. . . .There was also a great variety of animal pictures from the Bronx Zoo and flashcards of the numbers from one to ten. These were never removed from her crib. (p. 31)
When Edith was one and a half years old, the family acquired from a neighbor that was moving away a grand piano and an old twenty-four-volume Encyclopaedia Britannica. Edith asked for “the big book,” sat on the floor, and began leafing through the pages (p. 42). The Encyclopaedia Britannica became “an effective tool” (p. 42), and “in less than three years she had read it all from A to Z” (p. 43). Stern initiated Edith into math by means of an old abacus which cost $1. 80 (p. 43).
Concerning Edith’s reading Stern notes the following stages: “Her ability to identify letters was evident when she was twelve to thirteen months” (p. 44). She had a collection of some fifteen books, which she was very fond of leafing through and “judging by the expression on her face, [she] appeared to understand the contents at the age of one and perhaps earlier” (p. 45). When Edith was eighteen months, Stern introduced flashcards to her. “She began to read at the age of twenty-two months” (p. 44). Looking for ways to improve her reading, Stern found advertising signs to be most useful as he put her in a stroller and took his long daily walk (p. 45). This was a game that appealed to the neighborhood children, many of whom accompanied them (p.49). When the advertising messages became too objectionable, Stern turned to books and magazines (p. 51). Edith became an avid reader and while still two read better than “many children three times her age” (p. 41). Edith’s reading opened new horizons and one of her favorite books became a “children’s version of the Old Testament” (p. 5 4).
As Edith’s mind matured, “she began to interact with adults,” and Stern records an interesting interview with Albert Einstein when Edith was three (pp. 56-57).
Shortly after this time Stern was admitted to Brooklyn College to continue his education. He occasionally took Edith to class with him and involved her in his learning experiences (p. 59). Taking after his daughter, Aaron Stern “completed a four-year college program in one year and a month” (p. 68).
After graduation Stern got a teaching position and invited Edith to attend his lectures (p. 69). She was then four and was reading two or three books a day (p. 65).
" Edith, " asked Aaron one day, " how does a car run?"
“I don’t Know, Daddy.”
So Aaron used the last two dollars he had in his pocket to take Edith on one of her first automobile rides in a taxi. Circling Coney Island, he explained to her all he knew about the
dynamics of automobiles. “By the time we arrived home, Edith knew more about a car than many adults” (p.62).
At six Edith entered first grade in St. Petersburg, but her school experiences were “uneventful and boring” (p.84). Later that year the family moved to North Miami Beach, where Edith was permitted to skip a grade. “This however did not decrease her boredom” (p. 85).
When Edith was eight, her father managed to get her admitted to the fourth grade of a Far Rockaway, Long Island school, but her boredom continued (p. 95).
At age eleven Edith entered junior high school but was no longer permitted to skip grades (p. 101). “in spite of the boredom at school, Edith’s junior high school days were a period of great intelectual growth. Her thirst for Knowledge was insatiable, covering every branch of the arts and sciences. We would discuss and debate jurisprudence, semantics and philosophy” (p. 102).
When Edith was twelve and in the ninth grade, her father resolved to put an end to her public school education and sought a way to have her admitted directly to college (p. 106). Frustrated at the University of Miami, Stern succeeded, after many rebuffs, in having her admitted to Miami-Dade junior College (pp. 107-108). Asked after the first day how it was, Edith replied, “Perhaps it was less boring, but I still managed to finish a science fiction book” (p. 109). Edith finished the two year junior college sequence in a year and a
half with an A average (p. 112).
After graduation from Miami-Dade junior College Edith entered Florida Atlantic University as a junior. She was then fourteen (p. 113). Here she was much happier, was well adjusted, and enjoyed a rich and full social life (p. 128).
“The County Board of Public Instruction which had resisted my efforts to take Edith out of school suddenly decided to award her an honorary high school diploma, the first in their history” (p.130).
At age sixteen Edith received her B.A. degree (p. 149) with a concentration in mathematics, entered the Graduate School at Michigan State University and was appointed instructor in mathematics (p. 152). Within two years she was awarded her master’s degree in theoretical mathematics and completed almost all the course requirements for the Ph.D. Degree
(p. 161).
And there at age eighteen, on the threshold of a Ph.D., Stern leaves the story of Edith hanging, but it has been an inspiring story and will undoubtedly continue in the same vein. Aaron, his wife Bella, and Edith have together built a solid foundation for what will surely be a useful and satisfying life.
The foregoing accounts of early reading are far from exhaustive. Cases could be multiplied. My hope is that they will suffice, however, to help the general reader overcome the myth that young children–very young children–cannot or should not be initiated into reading as soon as they are ready and that they are often ready before parents are ready, at age four, three, two, or even earlier. I also nourish the hope that the cases cited will help professional educators to banish once and for all the myth that children are not ready to read until they have attained a mental age of six and a half.
‘’ QUOTE ENDS.
