Growing up with the right resources

I don't know if other people had this kind of experience when they were growing up or maybe it was the times or maybe my family, but I was fortunate to have the resources around me to encourage me to explore and learn. I am not sure that is really done properly anymore. The worst thing to do is push small children in front of a TV or iPad for hours of visual stimulation that does not get the brain to develop. When I was 4 years old, I was put in a room of my house to entertain myself. There was no television. However, there was a large encyclopedia set and a collection of great books and a few magazines like National Geographic. There was also a phonograph (look it up) and a collection of classical and jazz recordings. Everything a small child could want!

I made it my goal to read all of it. I figured if I did I would know close to everything and have a head start on getting ahead in the world. I really did dig into those books. Every January, Collier's would send out a yearbook that was a review of everything that happened in the year we had just left behind. I was more excited to receive those each year than the toys that came from Santa. 

At 5, I was sitting there in the afternoons listening to Mozart and reading Jules Verne or Mark Twain. I didn't know if it was different. I still don't. But now I have come to appreciate that I was given that environment to develop my young brain.