THE EDITH PROJECT.

The Edith project began immediately after the infant was brought home and established in her little bed. Stern announced that the family's cheap radio would be tuned to classical music twenty four hours a day. "It will beautify her soul," he said. Except for repairs the radio played for hours.

Baby talk was forbidden. Stern then perfecting his own English, read and talked incessantly. He gave her flash cards with numbers and animal pictures on them, reading off the name of each. He filled her bed with multiracial dolls. He talked. For weeks little happened and then he noticed that Edith would cry if the radio was turned to jazz or popular music. The she began to recognize the dolls.

Edith was five months old and being breast-fed by her mother when the conflict came out in the open. "This period is conducive to learning," Stern said, and announced that, from then on, he would feed the baby.

When she was eleven months old, Stern asked her how old she was. She picked up the number "10" card and held it up. Stern waited. The Edith raised her forefinger beside it. Stern kissed her many times.

At one year she spoke simple sentences and identified letters on cards. At two she knew the alphabet. When she was one-and-a-half, someone gave the family an ancient set of the Encyclopedia Britannica. "When I can read" announced Edith, "I will read the whole set". Stern placed volume one on her bed. Today he says she had read it straight through by age four-and-a-half.