Dr. Suzuki’s 125th Birthday Celebrates Your Special Baby
Dr. Suzuki’s 125th Birthday celebrates you and your special baby. It’s totally amazing how the music education philosophy of one teacher has influenced nearly a half a million children and their parents as well as almost 10,000 teachers all over the world. I’d like to invite you and your child to celebrate with us.
Celebrate That Your Special Baby DOES NOT Have to be Born With Talent!
Well, at one time most people believed that a person was either born with talent or not. That’s just the way it was AND there wasn’t much that you could do about it. That’s why the educational philosophy of Japanese violinist, teacher, and philosopher, Dr. Shinichi Suzuki, was so revolutionary.
He believed that you can teach very young children to do anything the same way they learn to speak their own native language. Suzuki just happened to use the vehicle of music and teaching violin. He called it the Mother-Tongue Method of Education.
Now, many people mistakenly believed (and some still do) that Dr. Suzuki was only interested in producing little musical prodigies. However that couldn’t be further from the truth. He actually wanted to prove that there really wasn’t any such thing as a prodigy! But, people couldn’t believe that these very young children weren’t born with musical talent.
You know, you can hardly blame them when his very young students would perform extremely difficult music at a high level of ability. But, we also have to wonder about how many children were left to the side because parents and teachers believed that they didn’t have any talent.
Or worse yet, that they just couldn’t learn in the first place. So, we’re going to explore Dr Suzuki’s Mother-Tongue Method of Education. We’ll also find out why he believed it was a superior way to teach children compared to traditional ideas of education .
Why Should We Teach Little Kids and Babies?
Now, it can be very discouraging to go against something so ingrained as an as an educational system. Even when I first began teaching the Suzuki method in my violin studio people, especially other teachers, would ask questions and make comments like:
“What’s the point of teaching little kids?” “Why do you even want to teach little kids?” Or they’d say, “I don’t think that little kids can even do this!” Then, inevitably I would get this classic question: “How can you teach these little kids to play violin when they can’t even read words much less music?”
(Well, if I had a quarter for every time I heard that question…) But, anyway, Dr. Suzuki continued to develop and present this new way of teaching to any and all who would listen and consider it.
I’m so glad that he did!
Celebrate Your Baby’s Learning Potential
Dr Suzuki believed that every child can learn and has unlimited potential. But, he also believed that you can teach BABIES and their parents with the Mother-Tongue Method of Education. As a result, the Suzuki Early Childhood Education program (or Suzuki ECE) was developed.
The Suzuki ECE program is far different from any of the other music programs out there for babies. The main goal of the program is to guide parents and their babies to grow and learn together and to develop a deeper relationship with each other through learning musical activities.
So, that’s why we celebrate Dr. Suzuki’s 125th birthday this year.
We Celebrate Dr. Suzuki’s Birthday
Dr. Shinichi Suzuki was born on October 17, 1898. He died January 26, 1998. He was 99 years old when he died. But, he would have joked that he was only 18 years old because if you add the two digits of his age together, i.e, 9 +9 only equals 18!
As he got older, that was his joke about his age. But, joking aside, he had a deep love for children. He believed that every single child can learn and develop high ability. So, let’s find out how Dr Suzuki’s 125th birthday celebrates your special baby.
Celebrate “Character First, Ability Second”
We celebrate “character first, ability second”. Dr Suzuki pioneered the Mother-Tongue Method of Education. He believed that very young children and even babies can learn anything by repetition and example.
However, parents and teachers have to prepare themselves to be much more involved than they would be in the typical traditional education. Parents learn right along with their child. Dr. Suzuki said, “Character first, ability second.”
So through music, we are developing your child’s character traits that will help them to develop high ability in music or anything else that they want to learn. This would surely be his wish for you and your special baby to celebrate his birthday.
We Celebrate East Meets West
We also celebrate East Meets West. In the 1930s, Dr Suzuki had a startling revelation. ALL CHILDREN LEARN TO SPEAK THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE FLUENTLY. Well, people ridiculed him and said, “Of course they do! So what?”
No one understood immediately that the way children learn to speak can be applied to almost any skill. Think about it. From birth, your child is immersed in language. They listen to you and others speak. First, they begin with simple words. Next, they put the words together into sentences. Then, they talk in paragraphs!
Eventually, Dr. Suzuki’s idea began to take root in Japan. In the1960s, American instrumental teachers began to visit Japan to learn his teaching method. Then, they returned to America and began to use the Suzuki Method to teach their own students.
Now, 500,000 children and 10,000 teachers later, it is a widely accepted method of teaching Early Childhood, instrumental, and vocal music. Suzuki believed that “talent is no accident of birth” and that “talent is not inborn, it is created.”
Nurturing Environment and Parental Involvement
Dr. Suzuki taught parents to encourage their children. They were to be involved in their child’s growth and education. So, parents are the ones who create a nurturing environment for their child, not just the teacher.
But, as teachers, we celebrate Dr. Suzuki’s 125th birthday gifts to us. I count myself so fortunate to be among the teachers who had the chance to observe Dr. Suzuki as he taught and interacted with people.
I confess that, at first, the Suzuki method seemed like a good natural way to teach (which it is). However, it took me some time to realize that I wasn’t just teaching a child how to play violin.
Dr. Suzuki’s philosophy had a profound effect on my ideas about music, teaching, and playing the violin. He generously gave me the gift of seeing the world through a child’s eyes. He also taught me how important it was to teach with love in my heart for my students.
So I celebrate how Dr Suzuki has influenced my life as a teacher and a person for over 40 years now. I eventually understood that I was also responsible for teaching about character, ability, life skills, and relationships as well as how to play the violin.
“When love is deep much can be accomplished.”
Shinichi Suzuki
Celebrate “Remember the Babies”
Finally, we are celebrating “remember the babies”. I am so thankful, again, that Dr. Suzuki encouraged Suzuki ECE teacher trainer, Dorothy Jones, to “remember the babies.” She began the first Suzuki ECE Baby Class programs in London, ON Canada.
Dorothy began the teacher training programs and now there are many Suzuki ECE Baby Class programs around the world for parents and their children ages 0 to 3 years old. Thanks to Dorothy, the number of teacher trainers has also grown. Over the years, the number of Suzuki ECE teachers has has expanded greatly.
I’m proud to be one of them.
I believe that the Suzuki ECE Baby Class is the essence of the Suzuki Method. It takes all of Dr. Suzuki’s teaching ideas and simplifies early learning.
I can break down the Baby Class activities into many as many steps as needed to encourage you and your baby to be successful. All of the Baby Class activities will teach you and your baby many skills such as musical skills, listening, literacy, and life skills as well as parenting skills.
Become Lifelong Learners Together and Develop Deeper Relationships Through Music
“Your Musical Baby” is the name of the Suzuki ECE Baby Class program I teach. My goal is to help you create a more nurturing environment for your whole family by making music an important part of your life.
You will help your baby to grow into a fine human being, develop high ability, and get a beautiful heart. Dr. Suzuki’s 125th birthday celebrates you and your special baby. His greatest desire was for you to love and nurture your baby.
He believed that through music you and your baby will not only develop high ability, but beautiful hearts, too. I’d like to leave you with this thought from Dr. Suzuki:
“Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they will develop sensitivity, discipline, and endurance. They get a beautiful heart.”
Shinichi Suzuki
“Your Musical Baby” Class-Suzuki ECE Baby Class Program
I’d like for you to especially remember that “Your Musical Baby” Class is not just about learning musical skills. Suzuki never intended for his music education method to just create musicians. His main goal was for babies and children to learn to have beautiful hearts through music.
So, I’d like to invite you and your baby to observe an ONLINE “Your Musical Baby” Class for FREE on any Saturday morning.
Now, I know that you’re a busy parent! I’ve made it simple and quick for you to sign up with the link below.
After you sign up, you’ll receive an email with the details and the Zoom link to join and observe the Class.
So don’t wait! Sign up today because I would love to see you and your baby in the next Saturday morning class!
On the “Beautiful Heart Musical Journey” with you,
Susan
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