The stories you hear at Suzuki Teacher-Training is such a powerful example of the Suzuki method of teaching. Yep, I've officially drank the kool-aid. I realize more and more, that you really can try as hard as you wish, but you can't teach a student (or the parent of a student in the case of the Suzuki method), without first teaching about character development. In order to do anything well, you have to apply yourself in a disciplined manner. Look at anyone who is skilled at anything...I'm learning more and more that teaching discipline, respect, perseverance, and integrity is so much more important than how far they get in the repertoire and how quickly they get there. If I'm going to teach my students that they should strive to do things well no matter what it is, I need to step up my game this year. Regardless...be prepared... Winter is coming!! (lol...I had to.) Through the week, I've been taking examples of how committing to studying a musical instrument, teaches so many life lessons. Maybe by the end of the week, I'll summarize them all into a list to hang on my studio wall. We shall see.
The inspiration for this post came from one of the days I was in training this week, and after an 'institute' lesson (4 private lessons in one), a mother came up to our teacher-trainer and began to tell how the Suzuki method impacted her own life. As a teenager piano student she worked very hard and became very good at the piano. She told us the story of how when she was 19, her mother was walking along a street in the middle of the day and got struck and killed by a drunk driver. I immediately got angry at this irresponsible driver and had a negative judgement of them without even knowing what they looked like. I said "Of course!" Her face went from a very solemn one, to one instantly filled with peace, love, and forgiveness and she stated that the woman driving was eating dinner with her family. Her husband and her got into a very serious argument, and the woman had already had a bottle of champagne prior.
Now, that still didn't take away my judgement of this person, but seeing how someone whose mother was ripped away from them with no warning at a very transitional phase of life, had forgiven that person. She had obviously worked that out over the years, but how beautiful to live a life free from our constantly judging and negative culture.
She began to explain how after the accident, she fell apart and couldn't see up from down. She completely quit piano for many years. One day, she felt the inevitable call of any musician to their muse...she sat down at the piano, and the only songs she could remember, were her suzuki songs. She began playing again because of that day. Now, she is a certified Suzuki teacher and her daughter, who is roughly 7 years old, is a fine musician herself was playing piano in that class. Wow.
It may seem like a minor detail in her unfortunate story, but the joy on her face as she said "I only remembered my Suzuki songs" followed by her honest smile. Obviously, the philosophy behind the method changed this persons life, for the better.
There are many stories like this, that I wish I could remember and re-tell to my studio, so that they understand the great impact that teaching children how to become better people, helps those children for the rest of their lives.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Behavior in the Studio
Last summer I had the great blessing of being able to study Suzuki Teacher Training with some amazing people who changed my philosophy of teaching completely. I knew it wasn't going to be easy taking on these changes, but I knew in the long run, it would completely renovate the way my studio was ran.
First, I had Suzuki Cello Book 1 training with Barbara Wampner from San Franscisco at the Chicago Suzuki Institute 2015. Barbara studied directly with Suzuki in Matsumoto, Japan many years ago. When I asked her how to deal with a troublesome student that was eroding my deep well of patience, she only had to say one sentence that would change my life. "Well... we are not here to teach music Leilah...." I felt so confused after this statement... I asked myself in my head... "wait... we're not?" She continued.... "We're here to teach character first, and then music." Her next sentances went on to discuss how without character, you cannot study music. So as suzuki teachers our main goal with the young children (and really any age) is to develop the character necessary to study music and then, and only then do we have the chance to teach them music.
A few weeks later, I got another amazing life-changing opportunity to audit a Suzuki Piano Book 1 training class with Rita Hauck. Rita Hauck was even more focused on this aspect of music lessons and would go as far as to make kids apologize for their bad behavior, even (and especially) if it was to their own parents.
At first, I found this shocking. In the world today, teachers are supposed to be careful and not make a parent feel uncomfortable... We have been trained to walk-on-eggshells and cater and spoon feed the parents. But in reality, this is not helping the child develop character at all! In fact, it is doing the opposite!! I began my professional teaching studio in the fall of 2015, and the first few times I had to ask a student to apologize to their parent, I felt like perhaps I may have been stepping over my boundaries as a teacher...but then I talked with the parent afterwards and made sure this was okay for me to do in the lessons....instead of getting the reaction I expected of "no, it is my job to discipline my child"... I got a shocking and quite opposite reaction... "Oh please do! I was so glad you did that!!".
Therefore, I have adopted the teaching philosophy that I need to develop their character first, before I can teach the kid anything about music. (Does this sound familiar?? *Cough* "Wax on, Wax off." -Karate Kid *Cough*.) I began to realize, that teaching masters of ANY discipline, have been doing this for centuries....it IS the only way to teach life-long lessons.
I have decided after re-visiting the Chicago Institute this year and taking book 2 cello with Barbara again... that I will NOT apologize for correcting bad behavior in my studio. Rather, I will further raise my standards this year and hopefully gracefully balance this discipline, with nurturing love.
First, I had Suzuki Cello Book 1 training with Barbara Wampner from San Franscisco at the Chicago Suzuki Institute 2015. Barbara studied directly with Suzuki in Matsumoto, Japan many years ago. When I asked her how to deal with a troublesome student that was eroding my deep well of patience, she only had to say one sentence that would change my life. "Well... we are not here to teach music Leilah...." I felt so confused after this statement... I asked myself in my head... "wait... we're not?" She continued.... "We're here to teach character first, and then music." Her next sentances went on to discuss how without character, you cannot study music. So as suzuki teachers our main goal with the young children (and really any age) is to develop the character necessary to study music and then, and only then do we have the chance to teach them music.
A few weeks later, I got another amazing life-changing opportunity to audit a Suzuki Piano Book 1 training class with Rita Hauck. Rita Hauck was even more focused on this aspect of music lessons and would go as far as to make kids apologize for their bad behavior, even (and especially) if it was to their own parents.
At first, I found this shocking. In the world today, teachers are supposed to be careful and not make a parent feel uncomfortable... We have been trained to walk-on-eggshells and cater and spoon feed the parents. But in reality, this is not helping the child develop character at all! In fact, it is doing the opposite!! I began my professional teaching studio in the fall of 2015, and the first few times I had to ask a student to apologize to their parent, I felt like perhaps I may have been stepping over my boundaries as a teacher...but then I talked with the parent afterwards and made sure this was okay for me to do in the lessons....instead of getting the reaction I expected of "no, it is my job to discipline my child"... I got a shocking and quite opposite reaction... "Oh please do! I was so glad you did that!!".
Therefore, I have adopted the teaching philosophy that I need to develop their character first, before I can teach the kid anything about music. (Does this sound familiar?? *Cough* "Wax on, Wax off." -Karate Kid *Cough*.) I began to realize, that teaching masters of ANY discipline, have been doing this for centuries....it IS the only way to teach life-long lessons.
I have decided after re-visiting the Chicago Institute this year and taking book 2 cello with Barbara again... that I will NOT apologize for correcting bad behavior in my studio. Rather, I will further raise my standards this year and hopefully gracefully balance this discipline, with nurturing love.
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