Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Glenn Doman

American Early Childhood Educator, Physical Therapist, Physiotherapist, Researcher and founder of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential

"Tiny children want to learn to the degree that they are unable to distinguish learning from fun. They keep this attitude until we adults convince them that learning is not fun."

"A primary method of learning is to go from the familiar to the unfamiliar."

"The more you test him, the slower he will learn and the less he'll want to do. The less you test him, the quicker he will learn and the more he'll want to learn. Knowledge is the most precious gift you can give your child. Give it as generously as you give him food."

"The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold."

"Every child has, at birth, a greater potential than Leonardo Da Vinci ever used"

"At this moment there is a world - a world of great beauty, of great truth, an enchanting, beguiling, thrilling, bewitching, and enriching world of facts - out there in fact land. It is a land of great riches. There are riches for the soul, there are riches for the spirit, there are riches for science. It is a land beyond imagining, but strangely it is very uncrowded. It is crowded only in spots. There are lots of artists looking at great paintings, and there are lots of musicians listening to orchestras, and there are lots of scientists looking at space shuttles, and there are lots of doctors looking at hearts, and there are lots of mathematicians looking at numbers, but very, very few people are seeing it all... They're a group called "Genius"... True geniuses have always been few in number and immensely curious about everything."

"The word “learning” is not synonymous with the word “education”. Education begins at six – while learning begins at birth!"

"Every child has, at birth, a greater potential than Leonardo Da Vinci ever used."

"How sad it is that we put information into a computer with great skill and great precision and put information into our children’s brains in a hit-or-miss, slip-shod, and often untruthful way."

"Learning is not synonymous with education. Education begins at six; learning begins at birth or earlier. Tiny kids learn more fact for fact prior to three years of age than they learn for the rest of their lives."

"Education may be stressful to most children. On the contrary learning is not, especially when presented in a fun and loving way."

"Learning is the greatest game in life and the most fun. All children are born believing this and will continue to believe this until we convince them that learning is hard work and unpleasant. Some kids never really learn this lesson and go through life believing that learning is fun and the only game worth playing. We have a name for such people. We call them geniuses."