Suzuki Integration
The core philosophy of Suzuki Charter School is embedded in the philosophy of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. The following principles, used in the Suzuki Approach, provide the framework necessary to create a natural environment so that learning can occur in a way similar to that in which language development occurs; that is, the “Mother Tongue” approach.
Principle 1: Every child can learn
“…that talent is not inborn; all children have great potential. Ability must be developed. Talent is no accident of birth. Any child has the sprout of possibility to grow. If a child is left alone, his talent will wither. Nurture that sprout with overflowing love, and make the flower of hope bloom. In today’s society a good many people seem to have the idea that if one is born without talent, there is nothing he can do about it; they simply resign themselves to what they consider to be their fate. Consequently they go through life without living it to the full…never knowing life’s true joy. That is man’s greatest tragedy.”
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that all children can learn. We need staff who strongly believe that all children, staff and parents have limitless potential. We expect staff to be diligent and innovative in finding the most effective teaching methods to help support each child’s learning. Our goal is to foster personal, academic and musical excellence in each student.
Principle 2: Education begins as early as possible
Ability development begins at birth thus necessitating much participation on the part of the parent in the role of home teacher. One knows well that rice will never give a good crop if one fails to nurture a good young plant.
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that the foundation for learning needs to be introduced and developed as young as possible. We need staff who appreciate the experiences and knowledge all students bring to us. We expect staff to work with parents to understand the uniqueness of each child to best facilitate their growth and development. Our goal is to develop the strongest preschool and Kindergarten program as a vital component to the success of our program and foster the parent/child/teacher partnership as early as possible.
Principle 3: A positive environment encourages learning
Learning is encouraged when adult interest and praise are strong, the desire to imitate the adult and other children acting as good role models is powerful, and when many opportunities for success are present. Create an enjoyable, nurturing learning environment. When working with children we should remember Dr. Suzuki’s advice that we must come “down to their physical limitation and up to their sense of wonder and awe.” The self-fulfilling prophecy states that if you expect a child to act in a certain way, he will. Think of the child’s feelings and praise rather than criticize. If the child is corrected after being praised, receptiveness to the correction is beyond comparison than if given after criticism. Teacher/parent expectations must be transmitted in a loving, caring way that conveys to the child a belief in her respect for feelings. Too heavy expectations place a heavy burden on a child making him want to give up rather than strive for further goals. It is essential to find the balance of ‘wisely held’ and wisely expressed’ expectations of a student’s potential. Teachers/parents require optimism and enthusiasm. Research has shown that intellectual/artistic performances are considerably enhanced and increased in proportion to the strength of the belief of the teacher/parent in the child’s ability and potential.
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that is the job of all students, staff, and parents to build positive, inclusive and nurturing social environments to support collaboration and communication amongst all community members. We need staff who can model problem-solving strategies, teamwork, and positive interpersonal skills. We expect staff to work with other team members willingly using collaborative, problem-solving strategies to be responsible for most behavior management issues, involving the parent and principal as additional team members when circumstances warrant it. Our goal is to promote conflict prevention and management skills that help students learn many different response options to problem situations. When conflicts arise, we expect individuals to focus on the problem and not on the person and work together to resolve conflicts in a timely and respectful manner.
Principle 4: Mastery approach to learning
Children need to master each activity before it can be integrated with another for a higher stage of learning. Knowledge plus 10,000 times is skill. Learning requires waiting patiently, exerting a great control and letting the child do it for himself. Such occurrences reveal the capacity of children to become absorbed in a task and to persist. Mastery of a skill consists of three aspects.
First the learner needs to understand what he is expected to achieve; he must understand the objective and how to accomplish it.
Secondly, the learner must be given meaningful practice with appropriate feedback. Knowledge of results or feedback is one of the most significant factors in practice. The learner will improve much more quickly if he receives specific information about the relationship of his practice/performance to his goal. Assessment is ongoing and positive. Assessment must be meaningful, specific and immediate, and should endeavor to help the student recognize his own learning challenges. He should be assisted in recognizing and observing his own sensory information from the task.
Thirdly, the learner’s movement patterns should become automatic so the student can concentrate on interpretation. Technical problems and challenges should be executed automatically. The program of reviewing reinforces the principle of automatic execution. With memory as the basis of learning, each child has experiences. As a result of these experiences, he can reason. “If you rest today, yesterday’s ability is diluted.”
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that larger concepts can be broken into smaller and smaller skills to be mastered. We also believe that these skills need to be practiced in a meaningful context. We need staff who are diligent in allowing students to understand learning expectations and provide ongoing positive assessment immediately. We expect staff to provide extra practice, extension and enrichment activities when needed. Our goal is to have students master curricular objectives.
Principle 5: Children learn at different rates
“Where are you going in such a hurry? There’s no finish line you know.” Students learn at different rates according to their ability. The rate of improvement on a specific task is dynamic. Refinement and growth are gradual, not necessarily perceived by the student, yet are very real, contributing significantly to skill development. Don’t push. Learn precisely and with quality. “I think all elementary schools must give education which fosters ability. Don’t be the kind of parents who insist on the immediate progress of their children. Sit back calmly with the determination to make your child great. It’s fine to be slow; handle it so your child enjoys it. All you need is to be faithful to the principle, no hurry, no rest…without stopping, without haste…carefully taking one step forward at a time will surely get you there”. In this manner a child can feel a total sense of success, and foster confidence and enthusiasm for learning.
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that all children learn at different rates according to their ability. We need staff with expertise in lesson planning and development. We expect staff to focus on the quality of learning experiences. Our goal is to foster the abilities of all.
Principle 6: Aural Immersion
The importance of taking advantage of the auditory sense to facilitate quicker learning immerses the child in good examples for future cognitive learning. Immersed in daily listening to good examples be it language, music, reading or other subject matter, is paramount.
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that auditory learning facilitates learning. We need staff who provide excellent examples of language, music, reading or other subject matter. We expect staff to immerse students in daily listening experiences. Our goal is to facilitate academic and musical success through aural immersion.
Principle 7: Group Activities
Giving opportunities for group interaction increases motivation. Older students, by joining with the younger students, provide role models making them conscious of the necessity of learning more and helping them get more. In this way, the children develop their own ability of learning for themselves. The spirit of self-betterment and collaboration prevails among them, inspiring all participants.
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that group interaction builds community and interpersonal skill development. We need staff who design and implement educational experiences for multi-aged groups representing at least two grade levels. We expect staff to provide opportunities for older students to model excellent interpersonal and leadership skills. Our goal is to build the capacity for leadership in all members of our community.
Principle 8: Quality Role Models
Dr. Suzuki states that, “The child’s first teacher is the parent. Who else fosters their own children but parents?” The responsibility and joy both belong to parents. Those who assist in it are teachers; hence teachers are supposed to be cooperators. “The teacher, if he is a teacher at all, must seriously study together with the parent and develop himself; he must be a human presence that ever continues to advance.” The better teacher brings out better ability from his students. “Teacher (sensei-consisting of two Chinese characters meaning ‘first’ and ‘birth’) does not mean living first; it means one who walks a road of constant and incessant pursuit of the higher. Children view the teacher as a tall child. He has stayed close to the little boy within, and that is the most compelling of his gifts as a teacher of children.”
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that children need quality role models. We need staff who have expertise in curriculum design and implementation around Alberta Education programs of study and the Suzuki Approach and who base their decision-making on well-grounded research considerations. We expect staff to actively engage in action research to better improve individual and collective instruction and management. Our goal is to encourage life-long learning within our community.
Principle 9: Parental Involvement
Dr. Suzuki’s approach to learning requires a strong parental commitment and involvement in the educational process. Dr. Suzuki suggests that schools have tended to take away the educational function from parents, and there is need for the re-involvement of parents in their children’s learning. The most important ingredient for success is the parent’s willingness to devote regular quality time to work closely with the child and the teacher. “The Suzuki method aims at fostering the desire to learn. This is the most important. Young children…don’t do things because they have to. They live in a natural world in which they do things they feel like doing. The challenge is to create conditions that make the child love it and want to do it by all means. Creating desire in a child is a parent’s duty.”
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that parent involvement and collaboration are essential to student success and that parents and teachers need to create the desire to learn within all children. We need staff with excellent interpersonal skills who communicate effectively with parents and welcome their participation. We expect staff to build positive parent partnerships including supporting daily homework for review and mastery. Our goal is to facilitate the Suzuki triangle of support between student, staff, and parents.
Principle 10: Fostering an attitude of cooperation
The Suzuki approach seeks to foster improvement-oriented and persistent young learners. Competition, with its likelihood of stress often eroding a student’s self-image and confidence, adds nothing of merit to the learning process. There is no need to compare your child with other children. Recognize how your family operates and motivate your child within the given environment; he will improve. Eventually each child will have a basis for developing in his own unique way. Supporting each other’s accomplishments through the Suzuki developmental process enables children to acquire confidence and self-esteem, determination to try difficult things, self-discipline and concentration as well as a lasting enjoyment of music and the sensitivity and skill for making music.
What does this mean at Suzuki Charter School?
We believe that cooperative and collaborative learning experiences are important for building positive social environments. We need staff who have expertise in collaborative instructional teaming and learning and who are able to model cooperative teamwork and positive interpersonal skills. We expect staff to function well in a team environment and actively participate in professional learning communities to further the effectiveness of our school team. Our goal is to foster respectful, responsible, and persistent learners within a cooperative learning environment.
The Suzuki principles seek to develop the whole child, to help unfold his natural potential to learn and to become a good and happy person. Every child is a worthy person and through the study of music, can attain greatness as a human being.
References
Nurtured By Love, Shinichi Suzuki,
Ability Development from Age Zero, Shinichi Suzuki Charter School
To Learn With Love, W. and C. Starr.
The Genius of Simplicity, Linda Wickes
The Suzuki Approach, Libby Dixon and Molly Johnson
An Introduction to the Suzuki Method, Zen-On Music Company, Ltd