Being Caring and Kind
The Suzuki School of Newton has as its mission statement:
The mission of the Suzuki School of Newton is to instill a love and respect for music and learning in students of all ages through musical instrument instruction and preschool education using the philosophy of Dr. Shinichi Suzuki. We promote intellectual, cultural and character development, foster a spirit of excellence and empathy, and enrich the community.
As you may know, we are very focused on the long-term learning experience of our students not only for music but also building human character. Dr. Suzuki would say "beautiful tone, beautiful heart" but it also must be "beautiful heart will lead to beautiful tone." How do we build character in our students and develop a beautiful heart?
First we believe in respect for each individual. Each student learns at their own pace and sometimes in their own way. We are here to nurture self confidence by guiding the student to successful learning. With a student's confidence we also want to develop the ability to notice others. We want our students to encourage each other through group classes and performances. We want them to learn how to bring a positive spirit into our community.
Recently, we had this spontaneous experience occur in our hallway: (with permission from the parent who wrote this):
Last year, in the spring, Hadi was waiting for Ben for his private lesson. Ben was running a little bit behind, and I had Hadi take out his cello and start to warm up and practice. An older student arrived and came into the room with a cello. He introduced himself as Zack and asked if Ben was running late. I told him yes and he said that he had a lesson right after Hadi. After chatting with Zack a little bit he took out his cello and sat with Hadi and asked him. “What are you playing and where are you in book one?” Hadi had been working on the Happy Farmer, which was a bit of a challenging piece for him with all the new bowings. After a few moments to remember the song, Zack started to play Happy Farmer and helped Hadi with his piece. They played Happy Farmer together, shared some laughs and jokes, and also worked on other book one repertoire together. After they had played together for a while. Ben came in and joined them as well. They all played together for a little while before Hadi put his cello away, and we went home. It was such a beautiful experience, and Hadi learned and gained so much from playing with Zack and experiencing Ben and Zack together as well. As someone who grew up playing music, and loves it so deeply, I can share from my own experience that Suzuki is such a special place, especially this Suzuki School. It honestly feels like our second home.
Along this line of thinking, we have had from time to time a program of "practice buddies." And coincidentally the moment described above is very similar to how we have had practice buddies among our students. Not only does the less experienced student gain from practicing with a "buddy" but the experienced student builds self awareness in how far they have come. The mentor is often the one who gets as much out of the situation than the mentee.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I received this email from one of our Suzuki School violin students:
My name is Eleanor, and I have been a student at Newton Suzuki for the past 10 years with Ms. Sarah. I have always really enjoyed being at Suzuki, which is why I have been wanting to find a way to give back to the school. I talked with Ms. Sarah regarding the school's past practice buddy program, and I would like to try to bring it back. In the past, I have helped several younger kids practice their instruments and really enjoyed it.
I would like to propose offering sessions during the week, preferably in a reserved classroom. I can set up a google sheet that could be sent out to parents, who, if interested, could sign up online. If the program generates interest, I can reach out to some of my friends so we can help more students together.
Thus, we are relaunching a Practice Buddy program for which Eleanor is our first volunteer. There are other scenarios that Practice Buddies can have. This was shared by our SSN violin faculty Bekka Eowind:
A) Peers: Two (three?) students share a practice/play session to inspire and support each other. They might play a repertoire piece, alternating phrases to each other, or they might do the mute/play-along technique. They might work on reviews, current pieces, previews, or even figuring out (by ear or reading) non-Suzuki repertoire. They might compose a new piece together, or even come up with great group class games!
*Mixed-instrument peers could be peers who play different instruments but learn the same Suzuki repertoire in transposed keys. They could figure out how to match each other's learned key. Or they may not care as long as they're being together.
B) Mentor/mentee: An older, more experienced student helps facilitate the practice session of a younger student, in the parent's absence (or with parent present?)
*Notes to consider: do siblings want to share mentor-type buddies, or need their own separate relationship?
C) Listeners: Two friends are "present" for each others' practice session, taking turns while one plays and one listens, perhaps while doing homework, sketching, knitting, etc. One friend could be a non-musician, or maybe someone who is practicing a different art but could use the company. One friend may be a "grandparent".
On signing up, students and parents should specify which kind of buddy situation they want: Peer, M-I-Peer, Mentor, Mentee, or Listeners.
Musicianship classes may also be a fun way to find buddies.
As we are also developing a sense of helping others through our fundraising goal via the Playathon to support need-based scholarships, we are allowing our children to learn about helping one another and realizing that their music can provide a meaningful contribution to others. Whether through sharing the music itself through a performance or sharing the knowledge learned with a peer or less-experienced student, we are providing an opportunity for our students to grow as human beings and to connect our community together. In the end, we are learning through our music a sense of "being" and a sense of "belonging." Through this kind of experience, we believe our children can be both caring and kind.