Sunday, January 10, 2010

Did You Ever Fail Out of School?

Albert Einstein as a child was a very poor student in school. His teachers said "he was to stupid to learn." How did he become one of the smartest men of the Twentieth Century?

As an 8 year old child, I was failing out of school. I was unable to read.
How did I go from failing out of school to Carnegie Hall and a Ph.D. ?


Albert Einstein as a child was an extremely poor student in school. Albert's Mother, Pauline Einstein never never gave up on him. She was a pianist and she bought Albert a violin. As he learned to play the violin his mother would accompany him on the piano. His mother introduced him to his favorite composer Mozart.

Albert studied the violin and became quite good at it. He found his inspiration to do his school work and to later solve his scientific investigations by playing on his violin.

Dr. Einstein said, "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music, I see my life in terms of music."


As an 8 year old child, I was failing out of school. I was unable to read. My Momma, Romayne Leader Frank, Never, Never gave up on me. She tried every type of reading class available, and still, I was unable to read.

One my passions at 8 years of age, was climbing trees. I was your typical tomboy and I was fearless. For me no tree was too high. The only problem was I'd wind up being rushed to the hospital several times a week for stitches.

The final time I was rushed to the hospital, after my reading class during summer camp, I had climbed a tall tree with nails and a board sticking out of the top of its trunk. As I came down the tree, I was scooped up by a camp counselor and rushed to the hospital. At the time I did not realize it, but blood was dripping down my leg.

One of the camp counselors called my Momma. She drove for over 3 hours to the hospital and by the time she arrived she had decided it was time to "get me out of those trees, on the ground and finally reading." By the time Momma arrived at the hospital she had decided that she would arrange for violin lessons for me if I would agree to give up climbing trees.

Momma knew I had wanted to study the violin for several years and at the hospital "I promised her" I would give up climbing all trees if she would arrange for violin lessons.

As soon as I began to study the violin, I learned to hold the violin,to hold the bow, to read the notes on the page, and to play music. I also learned how to take care of my violin and bow and to clean it after playing it.
That summer the light went on and I became a very good reader.

Albert Einstein's Mother, Pauline Einstein and my Momma, Romayne Leader Frank believed in two things, unconditional love for their families and education.

Our Mothers never gave up on anything and neither should you!

What are the 3 secrets Albert Einstein and I learned while studying the violin?

1) How to concentrate, be disciplined, be cooperative, and stay motivated.

2) How to take care of our violin which taught us self esteem and self-worth.

3) How to read musical notes on the page taught us to read the words in a book.

These are the same character building traits American children need to be successful students in school.

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Madeline Frank, Ph.D. business owner, teacher, researcher, speaker and concert artist. She writes a monthly newsletter "Madeline's Monthly Article & Musical Tips" and a monthly radio show "Madeline's One Minute Musical Radio Show".