I am mentally preparing myself for the five-year-old mind. I want to come down to their physical limitations and up to their sense of wonder and awe.”

Dr. Shinichi Suzuki

As I mentioned last week, I am currently in an in-between-graduation-and-graduate-school phase.

I am enjoying the heck out of this noncommittal freedom, but I also have been letting my thoughts wander to the future. I’ve been letting myself think about my time in Ithaca and how I want it to prepare me for my career beyond.

Today I want to get some of those thoughts down on paper.

If I think about the phases of my learning to be a teacher so far, they break down into two major phases.

1. Years 0-16: Learning to play the violin (completely immersed in the experience of the suzuki method from the student perspective)
2. Years 17-22: Learning to think as a teacher – gathering up as much information on violin playing, communication, and sequencing as I could to be able to teach

The second phase came in my last few years when I began to work with Tim and Kristi during group classes, volunteering to teach small parts of the group class. Kristi shared with me binders and binders of information she’d received in teacher training. I read Nurtured by Love, The Practice Revolution, and Helping Parents Practice (which I toted along with me to a track meet). They encouraged me to attend and audit the workshops of Suzuki teachers when they were in Austin. I learned from Carol Dallinger, Nancy Lokken, and Ed Sprunger while I was still in high school. Perhaps most importantly, after already spending as much time as I could observing Tim and Kristi teach I reached out to Suzuki teachers in the area (Danny Gee, Shana Guidi, etc) to watch them teach.

Once at UT, my opportunities to teach and learn about teaching exploded. I observed as many classes as I could, took undergraduate and graduate level course work on string pedagogy as electives, and jumped at the opportunity to teach with String Project and Monarch Suzuki Academy. By the time I graduated from UT I had registered four units of Suzuki training, logged at least six Suzuki training workshops, taken classes with Dr. Scott and Dr. Duke, and was teaching 17 students a week (working with some of them for more than three years).

Looking at those phases from a macro perspective, I would say phase 1 was me learning how to stand up on my own as a violinist and phase 2 was me learning how to stand up on my own as a teacher. Within phase 2 I gradually transitioned between intense observation and courageous attempts to teach with more and more finesse on my own.

If I were to use surfing as an example, I would say phase 2 was me watching many pros surf and then attempting the waves on my own. By the time I finished college I was standing up on my board and perhaps even doing a few maneuvers. However, I can’t deny that my surfing (my teaching) is still quite elementary.

I listened to a podcast interview between Erik Antonson (pro stand up paddle surfer) and Joshua Waitzkin (chess, tai chi push hands, brazilian jus jitsu, and soon to be surfing master). They touched on the art of learning as it applies to parenting. Erik’s son has been on and in the water all the seven years of his life, but it is only now that he is beginning to learn to stand on a board. They described the way his son has a beautiful, intuitive ability to understand the nature of water in the ocean, the way it ebbs and flows, and the way to interact with the water’s energy.

Waitzkin went on to discuss how in this time in his life (as a parent, a learning coach, and with a foundation focused on teaching) he is cultivating his ability to be receptive to his surroundings, as Erik’s son is to the ocean water.

I believe that, like Waitzkin, I need to come to a better understanding of the water on and in which I work. The water in teaching is the complex personalities of parents and students in my studio. I want to have a nuanced, receptive, intuitive understanding of the unique ways my students and parents approach learning together.

So if I were to look forward to a new phase in my learning to be a teacher, it would be this…

1. Years 0-16: Learning to play the violin (completely immersed in the experience of the suzuki method from the student perspective)
2. Years 17-22: Learning to think as a teacher – gathering up as much information on violin playing, communication, and sequencing as I could to be able to teach
3. Years 22-24: Become receptive and attuned to the natures of children and adults

And it is clear that this path is one the Dr. Suzuki similarly followed. It is he who said, “I play with children so that I can learn from them,” and, “I cannot live without children.” I want to understand his understanding on the flip side of his complete immersion in the nature of the child’s mind.”

I can think of three ways I will work on this (following the arc of growth I used in phase 2) while in graduate school

• Observe, observe, observe. I will take advantage of the opportunity to watch Carrie Reuning-Hummel, Samford Reuning, and the other incredible teachers of Ithaca Talent Education to see how they respond to the variety of people in their school
• Meditation and more observation. I will work on my skills of receptivity through deep mediation practice. I can think of my time in zen meditation, drinking tea, being in nature, listening to my environment, and riding my bike as opportunities to practice not actively projecting my thoughts/feelings/pre-conceptions but to engage with places/people/things as they are.
• Learning about people. I will seek out the opportunity to spend time with children and their parents as often as possible (especially outside of musical experiences). This might involve me working at a local montessori school, boys and girls club, or after school program – anywhere where I can engage with many different children casually, but regularly. I will also look for scholarly research on parenting, psychology, and communication to further my understanding.

With only two years in Ithaca, I feel that having a focused approach to school and my time there will allow me to leave transformed as a teacher. Because I know I want to observe, practice mediation, and work with children/parents I can prioritize my time accordingly from the start. And because I’ve defined the bucket I want to fill — so to speak — I will end up retaining far more than if I approached school with only empty hands.

I can’t wait to update my site with the discoveries I make on this perpetual journey as I continue it in Ithaca.