Albert was actually not
a great student.
He was thought of as kind of
a weirdo, and so his early
learning came a lot at home.
School was not that effective for
him, but his mother would
figure out what he was
interested in, supply him materials,
provide whatever supports
were necessary.
He also did not have much
of an attention span, and she
decided that having him play the
violin would give him a
way to increase
his attention span.
The first time, I think he
was around five or six years
old, Albert's mother got
him a violin teacher.
He threw a tantrum.
He threw the chair at the
violin teacher, and the teacher quit.
His mother said that she knew
he needed the discipline of
playing a musical instrument,
particularly the violin at
this time, so she
didn't give up.
She got another
violin teacher.
His father was an engineer
during the early days of
electrical engineering and had
friends and associates who
would come by the house
to have meals together. And
Albert would be allowed to sit
at the table and speak with
these people, and sometimes
they became his tutors.
And he looked at how the
needle always pointed north, and he
was really curious that there
must be something really
mysterious and fascinating in the
universe to produce this effect.
All of these conditions that
parents set in the home
provided a rich, nurturing environment
for Einstein to grow
and flower into the person
who ultimately became to change
the world the way
that he ultimately did.
