I’m fascinated by the way our brains choose to summarize a collection of memories, a wide variety of perspectives, or wealth of facts.

What do you think of when you think of your childhood?
What do you think of when you consider the value of algebra?
What does social justice look like to you?

The images we conjure are varied. They are unique and individual to our own narratives.

I remember Carrie Reuning-Hummel asking the graduate students of our Suzuki seminar what image came to mind when we thought of the Suzuki Method.

We went around the table and shared. One person thought of a parent practicing with their child. Another person conjured up the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Yet another imagined a gymnasium full of Japanese children playing the Bach Double in unison. 

Each of us had differing, yet valid, mental images of what the Suzuki Method is.

Our images must, of course, depend on our memories. Our memory of experiences in the method– or our memory of stories shared with us or training imprinted on our minds.

Each of our collections of images which consolidates into a flashing image which represents our view of the Suzuki Method is undoubtedly narrow.

I want to expand my idea what the Suzuki Method looks like. I want to update my vision from a historic 1960’s version, even an early 2000’s vision (when I was a student of the method) to an understanding rooted in 2019.

I want to know

• how teachers in 2019 are using the Suzuki Method to build character, train mastery, and engage students of diverse backgrounds.
• how in the world parents in 2019 are navigating the 24/7 competitive, digital world and finding any time to practice with their children.
• how the Suzuki student in 2019 plays in comparison to the Japanese tour groups, and I want to understand how they understand their own practice on an analog instrument in this hyper-modern era

My project for this year is to collect  a digital representation of the Suzuki method as it looks in 2019.

I’m going to put together an archive, or a time capsule really, of Suzuki life in this modern era. I will interview parents, record lessons, and file away blog posts, articles, and recordings.

It is my hope that in capturing a broader perspective of the Suzuki Method in a variety of archived material, I will have a more realistic image of what we are working with and what we are working for as Suzuki teachers TODAY. I also hope in the future we can look back to this 2019 archive to see where we come from and what we have done, as I feel we look back to the pioneers of the method in Japan and America in the 1960s and 70s.

I’ll update the project develops as they occur throughout the year below! Happy New Year.