Coffeetable Blog

Yahoo! Shine recently featured the product refund in the US for Baby Einstein videos primarily because they (quoting the article) "...did not, as promised, turn babies into wunderkinds." You can read the full article by clicking on the pic at the left.

As a parent of young kids, I am sure I have a couple of such videos at home, along with other kid staples like Barney, Sesame Street, Backyardigans, and even not so common ones like Land Before Time. These videos have always played two roles for our family: they entertain while at the same time they introduce children to educational concepts. In addition, we got tons of picture books and starter books and playboards and toys at home, all intended to spur the kids to curiosity and imagination at every turn possible. And it is implied in all these that we as parents will be there to guide and educate them. That their learning will primarily be due to our teaching them, and these materials only as tools.

It would appear then that some parents had other ideas in mind. Reading the article, it seems that the sale of Baby Einstein was anchored on a promise (or two): an easy way to educate kids that would bring extraordinary results.

In the modern world we live in, it's not really surprising to accept that promise as gospel truth. We are regularly bombarded by news of successful people who seemed to have it made it big "overnight". So, easy is not really a hard thing to accept (pun intended). But the fact is, easy is only easy when you have prepared for more than just overnight. For most of us, the only part we see of these successful people is their time in the limelight and possibly the minute before that. We do not see what they went through in the proverbial dark room before that impressive picture of them comes out in the light. I seriously doubt that anybody, other than being born into wealth or doing something illegal, could actually make it big without putting in his dues. But then again, we choose to accept what is pleasing to our senses.

To be fair, some parents are simply already overburdened. They got a job, home chores, and so many other valid and worthwhile things to do that it sounds good to have a product that can deliver as much promise. Well, any burger will taste good if you're hungry. This is one of those hungry moments for parents. It really does take willpower to decide to cut back on some things to make way for something of paramount importance as the education of our children.

And then, some are simply lazy. To the point of irresponsibility of abdicating their duty of educating their children to "experts". So the children watch these videos while the parents are on their Facebook's virtual farms, in the phone, or in some other time-wasters.

Teaching children is indeed a challenge. I have to say it's even a skill that one needs to learn and will be good at only with constant practice. But it's something that we cannot fail on. The education of our children is simply something we cannot leave to automation. After all, each one of us is unique in his or her own way. And no standardized educational tool can account for that uniqueness.

Hopefully this product refund will awaken many to the reality of what true education entails.