Wikipedia indicates that their is a dispute over whether P.T. Barnum ever said, "there's a sucker born every minute" or whether it was actually "there's a customer born every minute." Perhaps both quotes are relevant to wannabe middle class parents of severely gifted children who will do anything to coach, buy, or manipulate to get that identification statuslabel - the Burberry tag of public education.I once read a gifted application "resume" for a 1st grader in which the mother included the list of classical music that her child listened to- in utero.
Of course, listening to all kinds of music, playing in sand boxes, getting messy with fingerpaint, going to science museums, talking about everything and anything, reading together, dancing in rain puddles, and building anything with any available materials all create children who come to our schools with academic background knowledge (Marzano), an interest in learning, and increased capacity to construct new knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, many capable, indeed young children with great potential, don't have parents who can afford Baby Einstein whether it worked or not, or the time, energy, or education to do the great early stimulation "stuff." And that is one great tragedy of our educational times and loss to our nation's future.
Would be nice if Disney would take its Einsten profit and put it into real educational opportunities for some inner city"baby Einsteins."