Bargain Clown Mart | How to Think

album cover - front | album cover - back | liner notes

44 minutes, 41.3MB MP3 (or click the picture)

album cover - front | album cover - back | liner notes

44 minutes, 41.3MB MP3 (or click the picture)

HOW TO THINK

Story, Music, Lyrics and Narration by
STEVE ALLEN

Orchestra Conducted by
PAUL SMITH

Additional voices by
JAYNE MEADOWS & BILL ALLEN

(A word to children)
Want to hear a funny poem?

Okay. Here it is:

Roses are red
Violets are blue,
You think this will rhyme
But it won't.

Well, all right. So it wasn't the funniest thing you ever heard. But the reason it was a little bit funny is that you expected to see a rhyme with "blue" in the fourth line and so you were surprised when you didn't get it.

Only an animal with a good brain, such as you, could understand that kind of a joke, or any joke. Because to laugh at the end of a joke you have to remember the first part of it. And you have to link up the first part in your mind with the last part. Or at least try to. You see, it's often the fact that jokes "don't make sense" that makes them seem funny.

You were born with a brain that is able to "make sense" out of all sorts of dumb things, just as you were born with hands that can grab things and legs that can run around and carry the top of you with them. But do you know what would happen if you hardly ever used your arms and legs? The muscles would get very weak and you wouldn't have much strength and you'd just lie down and mope around the house all the time. That wouldn't be much fun, would it?

Well, your brain should get exercise, too. Actually it gets a certain amount all the time because it is never altogether at rest, even during the night.

When you're sound asleep your brain still dreams, doesn't it? And when you're awake, even if you're not thinking of much, your brain is still working away, helping you to see people and to smell flowers and to hear music and do all sorts of things.

But there is one other kind of thing that your brain does just once in a while and that is to think. Yes, think.

Now there are different kinds of thinking. One kind is remembering. Remember what you did yesterday? Then you're using your brain.

Another thing your brain can do is to work out problems for you. Suppose you have a quarter in your pocket and you want to buy a candy bar. But the candy bar costs thirty cents. So you figure out that you have to get five more pennies from some place if you want that candy bar. Maybe you remember that you left five cents at home. You run home, pick up the pennies, or a nickel and then you can buy your candy bar. That wasn't a very difficult problem to solve, but without a human brain you couldn't have done St. When you get a little older you'll run into much more difficult problems.

This album will give you some good tips that will help you to solve those problems, too. You won't learn the rule's for thinking by just listening to the album once. Listen to it a lot. Every few weeks, maybe. Each time you do you'll discover the strangest thing. You'll actually notice something that you didn't notice the last time.

There are some silly songs in the album, too, but they're just to help you learn the nine rules and have a little fun at the same time.

Remember, you may get tired of some things that seem like fun now. The day may come when you won't want to roller-skate any more, or to ride a bike or play baseball or stand on your head. But once you learn how to think better you'll want to do it every single day for the whole rest of your life.

Have fun!

(A word to parents and teachers)
That most people in our society have difficulty thinking about difficult social problems, much less solving them, is painfully evident. Nor can it come as a surprise that most of us are poorly equipped to wrestle with complex issues, when we are apparently no great shakes at solving much simpler problems, especially those concerning our relationships with other people.

Perhaps the natural gift for the kind of thought that solves problems in an orderly and logical way is as rare as the creative gift. Even among those who may, for whatever mysterious genetic reasons, have a special talent for reasoning, there is, I suspect, a terrible attrition during our early years, with the result that many initially sound "human computers" suffer short-circuits in that area of the brain governing the emotions. Diogenes in any age would have difficulty finding a truly honest man; he would encounter equal difficulty in locating one who thought clearly as a matter of daily practice.

Our educational processes are devoted almost entirely to teaching us what to think and rarely give us formal instruction in how to think. Although courses in logic are available at the university level, those who are usually attracted to them already seem to have the inclination. In any event, it may be too late by then to reform long-conditioned habits significantly.

This album by itself obviously cannot undo the effects resulting from hundreds of thousands of years of behavior patterns directed largely by the needs of the human animal to survive in a frequently hostile environment. There is a blind will in nature that "cares" about the survival of the species, but the survival of individuals within a species is evidently of slight concern. Within the cosmic plan, the creatures of the natural world live chiefly by devouring each other. It is no surprise, therefore, that humankind — as mammal — responds aggressively to many kinds of challenges and threats. But it is in our unique capacity as something-more-Jhan-animal that we have slowly and painfully developed those higher capacities that distinguish us from the beasts. That the transition has not been totally achieved is something of which we see daily evidence on our television news programs.

Perhaps if we had two brains — one for emotion and the other for reason — the reasoning brain could turn off the emotional brain when the individua. was faced with a situation requiring the application of dispassionate logic. In reality, however, the component pcrts of the human computer are intricately intertwined so that even the most reasonable among us can be driven to fury or depression by a seemingly infinite variety of troublesome factors.

So formidable is the problem, in my view, that nothing short of adding formal instruction in How-To-Think, beginning with our kindergarten-level processes of education, will fill the bill. It has been by no means established that even doing that much will civilize us in time to check man's self-destructive tendencies, but we have a moral obligation to go as far as possible in making the experimental attempt.

By seeming to contrast reason and emotion, I do not mean to suggest that there is necessarily a hopeless state of war between these two human faculties. What one wants is to achieve a balance between the two; life would be dreary indeed among a race of logical but emotionless beings. Subsequently I hope to write another album called "How To Feel." I believe that man's emotionality is too often a thing of blind instinctual or impulsive response — in the case of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions — which most of us go to our graves never really understanding.

The nine rules for reasonable thinking set forth in this album are by no means the only rules, but they will help to motivate the elementary school age child in learning about the fascinating workings of the human mind. The mood of the fourteen songs is light and playful to keep young ears tuned in.

STEVE ALLEN

Brought to you by ...
GIFTED CHILDREN NEWSLETTER
"How To Think" is being distributed by Gifted and Talented Publications, Inc., publishers of Gifted Children Newsletter, the award-winning monthly "for the parents of children with great promise."

The album bears the "GCN Seal of Excellence." This designation is reserved for the highest levels of originality and quality in presenting a theme or subject matter of intrinsic educational value to children — particularly bright youngsters whose special cognitive abilities require challenge and focus.

Whether played in the home or the classroom, "How To Think" can increase a child's ability to reason logically. Topics covered by the nine rules for sound thinking include: the nature of "fact" versus "opinion," how evidence is required in decision making, the difference between something "concrete" and "abstract," using words carefully, developing attitudes for logical thinking. In addition, children are treated to a basic anatomy lesson on the parts and functions of the human brain.

"How To Think" is a collectors' item that will become a treasured addition to any home or school record library. The original stories and songs interwoven among the nine rules are as delightfully entertaining as the rules are educational.

JAMES ALVINO Publisher

Gifted Children Newsletter is professionally designed, written, and edited by experts in education and journalism. Through special reports, advice columns, and the latest research finding's presented in understandable language, parents are offered vital and practical information on raising their gifted children. Included in the publication is a four-page section of challenging activities and contests for children, which is used by thousands of teachers of the gifted in school programs all over the country. Other departments include consumer tips on the best books, toys, and games to purchase for gifted youngsters.

For subscription information write:
Gifted Children Newsletter
P.O. Box 115
Sewell, N.J. 08080

album cover - front | album cover - back | liner notes

44 minutes, 41.3MB MP3

How to Think

LP by Steve Allen to MP3