Welcome back to the new school year!  We are so happy to see you all and to resume our Friday Upbeat newsletter. We see many new faces with new families enrolling and new programs being launched at the Suzuki School of Newton. One of our new faces is Britt Young, our registrar who joined us this past summer.

The excitement of the start of the new school year may give us lots of energy and a chance to make new friends and start afresh. Of course, we must also realize that for many of us and our children, this newness can cause added stress and also some anxiety.  Here in the Suzuki world, we really believe that we are teaching to the whole child.  We want to establish long term relationships, and this can take time for many young people to adapt and become more familiar with the new situation or new teacher.  

The Suzuki pedagogy believes in everyone learning at their own pace. Suzuki teachers undergo extensive training to learn how to observe and teach at each student's level.  As parents, you may not realize how much you are engaged in the learning process here.  We want you to ask questions and be curious about how this all works! Most of all, we want parents to understand that their student's pace may be different from other children in the same class. Parents are an integral and equal partner with the teacher in making the learning experience positive.  As parents, we all know we must have patience with our children! Allow them time to adapt to their new schedules, new friends, and new teachers. We must be sensitive to their potential anxiety with all this newness.

We are offering the Suzuki philosophy course Every Child Can! at the end of September on two days:  Sept 30th from 10-2:30 and Oct. 1 from 1:00-5:30pm.  If you are interested in learning about the elements of Suzuki teaching and the underlying thoughts behind the Suzuki pedagogy, this course is for you!   You can sign up here:  https://www.suzukinewton.org/teacher-training  While we call this a Suzuki teacher training course, parents and administrators are also welcome to take this foundational course. 

Our students and children thrive on the familiar.  Seeing our faithful and devoted teachers year after year is perhaps one of the strongest bonds that a student may have outside of family members. The Suzuki teacher has seen your child grow throughout the years and is understanding of the various developmental stages your child goes through.  We are here for you and to support our students.  Families who have been with SSN for many years and even decades can find comfort from familiar teachers and our traditional school events.  We have the upcoming Harvest Fair and our fourth Spooky Suzuki. We know that many of our families appreciated their weekly music lesson over Zoom during the most difficult shut-down period of Covid.  

Another "old and familiar" essential to our Suzuki community is the repertoire we learn.  Children thrive on this connection to the familiar.  If there is one important daily practice item for all of you to commit to--it is listening to the music they are learning!  This familiarity makes learning easier, quicker and more fun.  Students' success in playing the familiar songs they hear leads to wanting to learn more.  Parents may hesitate to always play the same recording all the time---but this sense of connection to the familiar is what makes Suzuki learning successful.

I am looking forward to this new school year and hope to see many of you in the halls and at our events.  You are the people who make our Suzuki School of Newton a community.

Sachiko

Sachiko Isihara

Executive Director

Suzuki School of Newton