02 celesteshichidamethod

The Shichida Method Discoveries of Japanese Educator Dr. Makoto Shichida (Japan)

by Celeste A. Miller, Ph.D., Winona State University, USA Introducing Dr. Makoto Shichida Dr. Shichida is a participant in a worldwide revolution in education which is changing the way we understand children, their brain capabilities, and their learning styles. He is a well-known public figure in Japan, having committed the past forty years to experimenting with techniques to stimulate early development of right brain education in children beginning in the womb and continuing through adulthood.

Over the years, he has founded 330 Child Academies in Japan and one in the U.S. for Japanese nationals, where he trains parents to teach their own children to develop right brain abilities which seem almost impossible to explain. His latest book, Super Brain Revolution, is currently on the Japanese best seller list. He has written many other books about what he calls “right brain education. .Dr. Shichida's work with children builds on portions Dr. Shichida's work with children builds on portions of the work of Glen Doman, but seems to go far beyond.

Like Froebel, Montessori, Malaguzzi, and other theorists who claim to have received their inspiration directly from working with children, he is very humble about his discoveries. He gives credit to the 10,000 and more Japanese children who have shown him what they are capable of achieving. His belief is that if one child can do something, all children have the potential to do it.

Therefore, his message is a universal one. He does not believe that Japanese children are somehow different from children the world around. Dr. Shichida has explained that he uses the term “right brain education” to describe his curriculum methods because in Japan, most education is left brain-oriented. The use of this term in Japan is intended to distinguish his approach to learning as being different and distinct from traditional education which utilizes the more linear left brain approach .

However, he recognizes that the right and left brain are not so easily compartmentalized and that they work together in the many ways which he calls “hemisphere synchronization”. Dr. Shichida feels very strongly that habits of the heart should precede right brain training. Love between the parent (and teacher) and child must be present before any right brain training can be effective because love between the parent/ teacher and child is what activates the right brain functions. (Shichida, 1996, p. 23).

He writes, “The left brain is physically oriented, the right brain is spiritually oriented. The right brain education is the education of mental and affective faculties Rather than a parenting style that is concerned with scholastic scores, we would like to promote a parenting style that understand(s) the children's mind; a parenting style that can develop the capabilities of the right brain" (Shichida, 1996, p. 22).

Dr. Shichida has dedicated the past forty years of his life to understanding the amazing abilities of the right brain in young children prefaced by love between the parent/teacher and child.

What Is the Right Brain?

Dr. Shichida postulates that there are two distinct types of brain functions which result in two different types of memory and mental operation. One type of brain function belongs to the left brain which he believes operates at the Beta wave frequency (14- 30 hertz cycles per second). This is the brain we are most familiar with, having developed this brain in traditional academic settings. This is the brain wave pattern most frequently in use in our awake cycles.

However, Dr. Shichida has found that there are other types of mental operations which belong to the right brain. He has found that whereas the left brain remembers mostly with words, the right brain remembers mostly with images. He often calls the right brain the image brain. He suggests that this image brain works at Alpha wave frequency (8 to 13 hertz cycles per second). This is the frequency of the brain associated with a

relaxed alert state of mind such as in meditation, just before getting out of bed or while listening to music.

Chinese “chi gong" masters have been scientifically shown to be working with Alpha waves (Shichida, 1997).

Once the right brain ability is activated, a single image is sufficient for information storage, unlike the left brain that often needs more rehearsal of information and conscious learning. It is not the type of brain activity which determines whether something is right or left brain oriented, but rather the brain wave that is operating at the time (Alpha or Beta).

Thus the exact same activities such as listening to music can be done with the left or the right brain with very different results. The left brain, for example, would "analyze" a piece of music; the right brain would� experience the music. Dr. Shichida teaches that meditation and deep breathing are the necessary bridges to enter the right brain. In a few short minutes; children can easily shift from a Beta to an Alpha wave state and do not need as much time to make the transition.

Dr. Shichida has found that even though some children may have difficulties using their left brain and be diagnosed with learning difficulties, these same children can be helped to learn by tapping the dormant abilities in their right brain. When the right brain is strengthened, often times the diagnosed left brain conditions will eventually disappear. There is some exciting evidence to indicate that certain hyperactive children can attend well when information is conveyed with a right brain approach (Shichida, 1997).

Dr. Shichida believes that when children are born their right brain abilities are present and active. With disuse they atrophy and become recessed. Based on his observations of right brain functions, Dr. Shichida postulates that the optimal time for development of right brain faculties is between the age of zero and three, because at about this age he observes that the brain begins to naturally shift from right brain to left brain dominance. He has found that if the right brain abilities are developed between the ages of zero and six they will be with a child for life.

Contrary to his earlier beliefs, he is finding that adults can also awaken right brain function with training and practice, but it: is more difficult for them than it is for young children. He maintains therefore, that the optimal time to develop right brain abilities is in very young children. As a child ages, the length of time to develop right brain abilities also lengthens proportionately (Shichida, 1993a, p. 67).

How Does the Right Brain Work?

There are five right brain senses which correspond to the senses of the left brain but can operate independently of the physical apparatus.

Similar to the theory of psychology called "covert awareness" which is being explored by brain scientists (N T Jan. 15, 199 l), Dr. Shichida believes that the skin is the receptor for information to the right brain and that often a child can "see" by processing information coming in from their skin (see automatic processing function) in addition to the five senses. Information is discerned from the vibrations emitted by objects.

This theory helps to explain why sometimes blind children can see objects in their environment. He postulates that the right brain works independently of conscious memory. Acting like a super high performance computer, it has lightning-speed calculation ability for mathematics, utilizes an image visualization function to record the environment, and when fully developed, possesses the skills of intuition, imaging, telepathy, and clairvoyance (also, called ESP functions). The right brain also has photographic memory, perfect pitch, and language acquisition ability.

The left brain is linguistic, analytical, and goes from the parts to the whole. The right brain learns through images, is intuitive, is sensitive to music, and absorbs the whole without needing to understand the parts.

Understanding the formulas to develop these right brain functions in young children, as well as adults, says Dr. Shichida, will lead to accelerated human mental capabilities.

Brain Functions Defined According to Dr. Shichida, there are five basic right brain functions that differ from those of the left brain. They are: (a) Resonance function (basic function) (b) Image visualization function (c) high speed mass memorization function (d) high speed. Automatic processinging function (e) ESP functions (Shichida, 1993a) Resonance function The resonance function is the basic function of the right brain. This function is based on the notion that all things in the world exist as subatomic particles that vibrate at an ultrahigh frequency. Thus, the physical body is continuously bombarded by frequencies which are emitted from every object, thought and feeling in our environment. The right brain is somehow equipped like a tuning fork to receive and process these frequencies which are perceived as thoughts, images, feelings and sensations, but not necessarily at the conscious level.

Dr. Shichida speculates that the brain has unconscious ways of understanding these ultra-high frequency signals in our environment. He calls this ability resonance function. This ability is the backbone of all the other right brain abilities.

Image, visualization function Image visualization function is the brain's ability to capture and hold an image in the mind exact1y as it is in the environment. A child or an adult who can visualize (with perfect representation) in their mind's eye an object that is in the physical environment and who can mentally alter this image at will, has perfected this function.

Children and adults with this ability report being able to clearly see images when they close their eyes.

Dr. Shichida teaches that: the ability to see images is fundamental to all of the other right brain skills.

This ability is trained first: and unlocks the other right brain abilities described below. To do this, pictures are shown rapidly to children. The children have one second to say what is on the picture. Dr. Shichida reports that video images can be used as easily as pictures and are easier for the teacher to manipulate. When you become adept at this skill, pictures roll through your mind like a movie.

Speed watching, speed listening and speed speaking are basic: to developing image memory. Here is an example of beginning right brain play with a child who already has the ability to visualize an image with their eyes closed. A teacher will think of a colour and hold that image in his mind. He will mentally send the image to a child, who in turn tries to guess what the image is that the teacher is holding in his mind. With skill, children can often tell the teacher what colour and even the shape of the image that: the teacher is sending.

Children practice and develop these skills by beginning with colours, advancing to geometric shapes and then finally to more detailed objects. Children often describe the smells and tastes of objects that are being projected to them as we1t as the visual cues. Three months time is about the average time needed to progress from the initial stage to the fourth stage of visualization for a child. For an adult, this period will be longer. The ability to image is basic to all other right brain functioning. Developing the peripheral vision of the eyes is also a part of this training (Shichida, 1997)?

High speed mass memorization function Unlike the left brain memory which tries to connect information in an organized way, the right brain memory works with bits of information concurrently and can absorb and memorize mass information at high speed.

What is commonly called photographic memory, the ability to memorize something at one glance, is a function of the right brain. Systematic training of children using the high speed mass memorization function is a

fundamental part of the Shichida Child Academy curriculum following various types of image visualization lessons.

High speed automatic processing function This is a faculty which functions beyond the individual's conscious mind. The mind seems to be able to process massive amounts of information automatically. We know language acquisition for children is not a conscious process. The mind has the ability to store language that is heard from birth and then suddenly, as if by magic, about the age of one a child will begin to speak. As the child develops, language is used freely and accurately. Dr. Shichida suggests this occurs as a result of the high speed automatic processing function. He believes this automatic processing function is the explanation for why children can master foreign languages so easily and why adults have such a difficult time relative to children. The adult is learning with his left brain functions of linguistic ability, and the child learns with the high speed automatic functions of the right brain.

Because of this brain capacity, foreign languages can be learned from birth. He recommends that parents play a 20 minute tape of one (or more) foreign language conversations once a day as a background to other activities that the child is engaging in beginning at birth. After 6 months to a year of en listening to another language, he has found that children are bilingual. By age 3, 4 or 5, children develop the ability to write stories in the foreign language. His own daughter was taught to speak fluent, flawless English with this technique. He tells the story of Uma who learned to speak English by listening to stories to which her parents flashed the written words in English at the same time that the story was being told. Her parents spoke no English, but when they visited the U.S. when Uma was five, they were amazed that their daughter could speak fluent English.

Perfect pitch is another example of this automatic processing function. Children exposed to music at an early age develop perfect pitch. After the age of 6 it is said that it is not possible to acquire perfect pitch, but he has found that those who develop right brain abilities can develop perfect pitch as well. These automatic and seemingly unconscious processes are what Dr. Shichida means by the term high speed automatic processing function.

Rapid computer like calculation is another characteristic of the high speed automatic processing function.

Young infants are taught to recognize the number of dots on cards up to 100. Eventually they can learn the answers to complex arithmetic problems before they acquire any conscious understanding of mathematics.

He writes, “ Generally, people believe that infants' intellectual abilities grow as they store memories through learning, acquire logical thoughts, and learn explanatory methods. We all tend to think that recognition is a repetitive habit in which people repeat what they have experienced in their past However, when we see babies of four or five months old easily doing arithmetic [picking out correct answers with their eyes] which is not supposed to be in their memory, or, when we teach arithmetic using 'Dots' to children right after their birth, such general beliefs about experience are summarily dispelled. Man's brain inherently holds a 'super high performance computer function' which enables him to automatically manage sophisticated arithmetic at a high speedÂť Shichida, 1993a, p. 12). "This process is something 'pre designed' in the right brain, not something learned. It functions without any relation to the memory system" (Shichida, 1993a, p. 16).

ESP functions Dr. Shichida develops the concept that there are five right brain senses to correspond to the five left brain senses of sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell. They are not actually extrasensory perceptions, but rather, natural functions of the right brain which receives information from all the cells of the body. This concept is based on the theory that cells radiate energy waves and receive wave radiations from the environment (resonance function). Tactility (guessing by touching), precognition (predicting events), clairvoyance (seeing the hidden), telepathy (mental communication), and telekinesis (moving objects in space) are all considered aspects of ESP. Imaging is key to the ability to use the ESP functions. Being able to receive information in the womb is one of the abilities resulting from the ESP function of the right brain. Most of the content of the book Babies Are Geniuses is dedicated to exploring this subject. Dr. Shichida's books are replete with anecdotal examples of children who have abilities in the mental functions he calls ESP.

Here is an account of a typical homework activity as a six year o1d sends messages telepathically to her mother. "We were playing ESP one day. I was taking a turn imagining some colours and shapes and my daughter was to guess what they were. I wanted to convey the colour green, but I couldn’t produce an image of green. So I decided to imagine a square card that was painted green. My daughter said that 1 had imagined green. 'But,' she said hesitantly, 'let’s green, but its square~. Next, I tried to send a message of shapes. I sent the shape of the Star of David, which contains two triangles forming a star. My daughter answered, 'lt's a star, right?' you are right.' Tut Mommy, it's not a regular star. It looks like a star that is made up of two triangles.'"

(K.T., Tokyo) (Shichida, 1993a, p. 26). Clairvoyance is also practiced using matching cards with their faces turned over.

Eventually children are able to do this with 100% accuracy. Some children can also match cards using the soles of their feet to sense what is on each card. The other ESP functions are also systematically developed using similar types of game like activities. What is Right Brain Education like?

Shichida right brain education taught at the Shichida Child Academies in Japan consists of a number of steps beginning with adult child bonding statements and physical demonstrations, relaxation techniques, followed with breathing, suggestion and then various play activities to develop the right brain abilities. Each session follows the basic same format, with the play activities differing from week to week and age to age.

Because Dr. Shichida teaches that low speed input information goes to the left brain while high speed input information goes to the right brain, the objectives for the activities is to develop the right brain with speed speed-reading, speed watching, speed hearing. “lf you want to have output from the right brain, the input method also has to be that which is suitable to the right brain» (Shichida, 1993a, p. 56). At Shichida Child Academies, information is given to children in a rapid fire manner by flashing visual information (less than 1 second per card) and by repetitious playing of audio tapes (speed hearing). “A high speed massive input (without comprehension or conscious memorization) is the key to activate the right brain" (Shichida, 1996, p. 6). The content of the visual and auditory input is carefully orchestrated to achieve specific skill levels of right brain functioning, not to teach specific information. Image training, memory play, foreign language training, exposure to music, are just a few of the techniques used to activate the right brain.

The major initial emphasis at first is on imaging and the input of information, with no regard for the output.

Over time, the output will begin to happen. Once the pathways (processes) are established for right brain functioning, a child can learn large quantities of information.

So the first objective is to develop the pathway with the rapid input so that after the pathway is activated, massive amounts of information can easily be learned. At the initial stages then, the actual content of the input is not that important. The goal is to activate the right brain processes. Only later, after this happens, is there emphasis on learning specific subject content. This is very different from the concept of the "hothouse" approach which is associated with the use of flash cards in the U.S. The automaticity of the right brain being able to learn massive amounts of information is an important distinctive and unexplained phenomenon Dr. Shichida discovered from his children. Once the right brain is developed, learning seemingly becomes automatic. The right brain somehow has the ability to understand large amounts of information without having to serially process it. At this point, one glance and the information has entered the brain and is usable by the brain for higher order thinking. Dr. Shichida recounts many examples of children, who after rapidly glancing at pages, can locate exact information on those pages in their mind's eye and mentally read that information at will There are older, more accomplished children. Memory work is another important component of the program.

Dr. Shichida's teachers tell of children memorizing many cards in a day. There are many types of cards: picture cards, pattern cards, mandala cards. "In our school, there are many children who can memorize 10 to 20 cards per class using the Image Memory Method. We start with three cards, and gradually increase the number of cards we show to the children. For example, in the class for one year olds, we teach in the following manner. We hand out one picture card at a time to the mothers. The mothers and their children say the name of the card, and then turn the card face down. When they finish three cards, we hand out the same three cards to the children and have them place the same cards [in a row] under the ones turned face down. Once the children finish placing their cards, they are asked to turn over the cards their mothers have placed face down and see if the cards match. (If a child does not talk yet, only his mother will say the names, and will have her

child place the cards). The children can easily memorize about ten cards this way even though they do this only once a week" (Shichida, 1993a, pgs. 68,69).

“In classes for older children (of two or three year o1ds), we have them memorize cards while telling a story employing the Image Linking Method which is to link pictures with stories. At first, we ask their mothers to he1p them make up a story, but later, the children are encouraged to tell a story on their own. Let's say we hand out the cards for car, flower, cat, dog, and egg. The children make stories linking the cards, placing them side by side using a visual image like 'a car is full of flowers'. We try to train the children so they can memorize 10 or 20 cards. When these children are able to memorize about 30 cards something strange happens. There will be some children who can memorize 40 or 50 cards just by glancing at them, using no word ! (Shichida, 1993a, pgs. 68, 69).

What Can Children With Right,Brain Mastery Do? Learning in the womb Dr. Shichida has found that learning can take place in the womb. He believes that babies do not think with words but with images which they do not get from their physical eyes but from their right brain ability for telepathy and clairvoyance obtained by information from the skin. Dr. Shichida maintains that a child in the womb receives information about whether it is loved and desired or not by its skin receptors. Babies Are Geniuses has considerable anecdotal testimony that infants in the womb can and do communicate with their parents. He gives an example of a baby giving his parents requested visual hand signs captured on ultrasound during a check up. He has numerous accounts of children remembering specifics from being in the womb which were communicated to their parents after the child learned to speak (Shichida 1993b). Admittedly, more research needs to be focused on these phenomena.

Infants and learning After birth, he systematically trains infants to use their ability to, image using such methods as flash cards and simple games. Flash cards are rapidly flashed before infants each day. Accounts of the results of this training are peppered throughout his books. There are reports that infants can do arithmetic at three to six months.

The following quote is typical of the types of anecdotal information found throughout Dr. Shichida's books. “ He took up the dots (math dot cards) by himself yet, I had shown the cards to him while he was lying on his back. I was not sure if he understood what: I was doing with him with 10 different cards (to test him). To my amazement, he responded by glancing at the correct answers. When he was five months old, I showed him five cards like 24+17 equals 41, 3 1 + 5 equals 36, and 27 + 52 equals 79, then tested him by showing the card of 48+29 and the cards of 77 and 78. He tapped the right card, 77. Then I showed him only five cards of subtraction problems and tested him. He gave me the correct answer again. I was totally amazed ... in this way, he was able to master the four rules of arithmetic by the age of six months old and was able to answer a problem, like (1505 divide by 5 subtract 1) divide by 30 times 8 plus 18 with ease." (E.O., Kyoto, Prefecture) (Shichida, 1993a, p. 4).

Memorizing without effort The lightning rapid calculation ability is supported by the high speed. automatic processing function and the image visualization function. The high speed automatic processing function works beyond the conscious mind. So when cards are shown rapidly to children, Dr. Shichida theorizes that the unconscious mind stores the images and then brings these images deliberately to the conscious mind when needed, or perhaps even bypasses the conscious mind and accesses them, from the unconscious mind. Because imaging is key to all right brain development, image training is used for speed reading, memorization, creative composition, ESP, and most other right brain functions.

“In my class, 99% of the children see mages in the Introductory Image Training [class]. Even three, four and six year old children tell me about the clear images they see in class. » (Ryouko Sagawa, instructor at Kohama, School, Fukushima Pref.) (Shichida, 1993a, p. 46). A personal testimony from a mother of a three year old states, “M. is three years and ten months old. He can see numbers and 'Dots,' and says that the digits

increase while seeing the numbers. He says the numbers as if he were actually seeing the numbers somewhere (Shichida, 1993a, p. 52).

Foreign Language Instruction Foreign languages are taught using both a right and left brain approach. To activate the right brain, language tapes of stories are played over and over until they are memorized. Thousands of flash cards (word cards and picture cards) are used to introduce vocabulary. Flash card words are matched with the words in the story.

When the vocabulary is up to 3000 to 4000 words, small books are added to the language tapes. Children read along in their books following the tape Then children begin to write stories themselves What follows next is a more left brain approach of systematically learning these 10 basic language concepts: names of the colours; names of the shapes; words for size; words for numbers; words for quantity; words for space (up, down, etc); words for comparisons, i.e antonyms; words for sequence, Ist, 2nd, etc; words for concepts about time; and words for money. Eventually, as a result of the massive input, children are able to speak in the foreign language (Shichida, 1997).

Speed reading Speed reading is taught as a natural progression from storyboarding. First, children learn to memorize the order and placement of picture cards with one glance, beginning with three cards and working their way up to 1000 cards. Eventually, they can look at a page of text and have total instantaneous comprehension. This is different from training someone to read quickly by moving their eyes down the page. These children can look at the page and take the whole page in with a glance. They can also dictate back what they have read (imaged) (Shichida, 1997).

Down's syndrome He has found that children with brain disorders to the left brain can still activate the right brain ways of learning. He has had some notable success working with Down's syndrome children using this speed learning approach. Here is the story of one such child, Yoshiro. He came to Dr. Shichida’s class when he was 5. His IQ was that of a 21/2 year old. He was underweight and had physical disabilities. He could not use his facial muscles easily. Even though he was 5, he had a limited vocabulary and no concept of numbers. But he liked music and could sing and draw colourful pictures. Before his training could begin, he and his mother were taught to bond with eye contact and expressions of love. The teachers then began teaching him with the lessons designed for the 2 year o1ds. He was shown 500 flash cards at each school session (1 per week) with less than 1 second time spent on each card. At home, his mother flashed the same 500 cards for him five times a day for 100 days. After 30 days, results began to show. Everyone noticed that his facial muscles had begun to change. After 2 months work with the cards, he became the best in the class and got the cards right with 100% accuracy. After six months he was taken to a Tokyo university hospital for his six month check up the physicians and professors all came to see the amazing changes in Yoshiro. They wanted to know what his mother had been up to and how to account for the physical and mental differences. She attributed his recovery to the Shichida method. This is by no means a unique story.

Working with Children the Shichida Way Dr. Shichida's methods of right brain stimulation are very popular in Japan, not only for “normal" children but also for children with Down's Syndrome and other diagnosed disabilities. Dr. Shichida stresses that family dynamics are very important. The keys to working successfully with children are the eye contact and loving communication between the parent/teacher and child which must be established in the beginning of training.

Dr. Shichida reminds us there is no "bad" child and all children regardless of their disabilities need to feel unconditional love in order for the program to be successful (Shichida, 1997). His Child Academy teachers must all have fully developed right brain abilities in order to teach. Parent is who enrol their children at his Academies attend one class per week with their child and then practice for short periods of time each day at home. Many of the activities are done one on one between an adult and a child. Flash cards, music, games, and physical exercises comprise a holistic program. Storyboarding cards are used, as are vocabulary cards and guessing game cards. When flash cards are used, they are shown with a very fast: flashing action in order to stimulate the right brain. Some of the games and methods are proprietary intellectual property and shared only at the Academies. Other materials are packaged in kits; and sold commercially. These can be

used in the home for the amount of time a child shows interest. Apparently children taught in this way by their parents are able to achieve a high level of success. There has been some television coverage of his success in Japan. The idea conjured up by examples of what children can do is that they are being treated as “hothouse plants" and that this training is being forced on them by parents who are determined that their children will get a head start in life. To the contrary, observations 1 made of U.S. children doing these same types of right brain activities in a class room setting were of eager, excited children who often begged to participate on a day to day basis. The right brain activities that 1 observed were game like, took no more than a few minutes each, held the children's interest, looked like fun, and seemed to build on innate abilities.

Initial results with these children paralleled those of the Japanese children.

Conclusion Dr. Shichida emphasizes that the purpose of right brain education is to develop the, faculties of the heart. His children are told that: these abilities should be used for the advancement of love and not to harm others. An avid reader, Dr. Shichida keeps his antennas out in all directions looking for scientific explanations to explain what he observes children doing in his schools every day. He has attempted to find documentation in brain research to explain the educational processes he has worked with over the past forty years, but there is little there. He is courageously accounting for the behaviours of children which are mind boggling and revolutionizing the ways Japanese are understanding education. Many of his beginning children are now adults with phenomenal abilities. lt behoves us to keep an open mind and to further investigate these phenomena.

I have found that Dr. Shichida is a loving, compassionate man. He deeply loves children and has been willing to keep an open mind to make these unanticipated discoveries about learning the right brain way. He speaks to future generations: lt is said that human beings die having used only three to four percent of the ability they possess during their lifetime. The people who are capable of using the remaining ability as extra potential are called geniuses and extrasensory perceptive persons. These persons are merely making use of a brain system not used by ordinary persons. He sees in the human brain is a latent facility for evolution. Man has become aware of this fact in step with the progress of his intellectuality and as ways of developing this facility for evolution have become known little by little. Such intelligence appears here and there in the world. If this is accumulated, and [al system is constructed, it becomes possible to rear a new race having a totally different way of making use of the brain. The purpose of education in the future will not be to create people with heads crammed full of knowledge, but to rear children who know how to efficiently use the brain system. Rearing children with enormous ability, rich creativity, and the capability to make use of a high proportion of their brains should be the goal of child rearing (Shichida, 1993b, p. 120).

Dr. Shichida’s right brain theory is controversial at best but challenges current American ideas about developmentally appropriate practice. It forces us to look at infants with a totally new perspective and to understand the brain in new ways. On the one hand, a scientific explanation would be reassuring. Research studies in Japan seem warranted. The Japanese educational tradition does not historically support rigorous research, so it may be that U.S. University trained scholars will need to conduct the research. Anecdotal information is sufficient for dissemination of concepts in Japan, but the U.S. educational community will want these studies co-opted. Some American teachers and parents who do not care about verifiable research are already using Dr. Shichida’s methods with similar results.

On the other hand, recent results from infant brain studies do indicate that there may be “windows" of development when learning is optimal for certain human skills and abilities. Might right brain abilities be one of these windows? How will neuroscientists explain the brain abilities of these children?

I hope this paper will spark further interest in and knowledge about Dr. Shichida's work with children and adults in Japan. It is hard to ignore the magnitude of this evidence, whatever the scientific explanations may turn out to be.

References Shichida, M., (1993a). Rk,’’ Brain Education in Infancy. Theory and Practica. Japan: Shichida Child Education. Shichida, M., (1 ~).

Babies Are Geniuses. Japan: Shichicb Child Education. Shichida, M., (1994).

Science of Intelligence and Creativty. Japan: Shichida Child Education. Shichida, M., (1996). Rk,’’ Brain Educacation» The Education of Mind end Affection. Japan: Shichida Child Education. Shichida, M., (1997), Minnesota, November 1997 Celeste A. Matthews, Ph.D. is a professor of early childhood and elementary education at Winona State Univ., Minnesota. She is dedicated to educational reform based on applying brain research to early childhood curriculum innovation. Dr. Matthews has been training under Dr. Shichida in right brain education techniques for three years. Dr. Matthews is fluent in Japanese and hopes to do research in Japan some day soon.