20 How to Foster Ability Dr Shinichi Suzuki W hat are the condiƟons and kind of guidance under which ability develops? I would like to record what I learned through my experience. The most important points for fostering ability or leƫng ability manifest itself, follow. To begin, the instructor must thoroughly understand the two approaches to educaƟon: to teach and advance and to foster ability with aƩenƟon to its gradual increase. It is necessary to clearly disƟnguish between those completely different ways of teaching. Teaching and advancing is an approach that the instructor can modify in any way they wish. Whether the student does or does not understand the content, the instructor can let them advance rapidly so that the reins of progress are completely in the hands of the instructor. On the other hand, the gradual reinforcement of ability brings about changes in the strength of the instructed. This changing strength is precisely the ability that the instructor must carefully foster. It is crucial that the instructor, recognizing the disƟncƟon between these two points, tries to instruct with careful aƩenƟon to how ability is reinforced. Although this may seem all too obvious, few in fact give successful instrucƟon recognizing the disƟncƟon. Simple as it is when summarized like this, in actual pracƟce this problem is related to the instructor’s quality of and skill in instrucƟon and makes a great difference in the demonstraƟon of the student’s power as the result of the instrucƟon. Therefore, even an instructor with superior ability can instruct without much effect if they lack understanding of this point, while an instructor who understands this, though of inferior ability, can produce much beƩer students. Here is the basis for the disƟncƟon between socalled skilful and clumsy teachers. Here too is the answer to the quesƟon: Why is that teacher with great ability so poor at teaching? That kind of teacher, since they are capable themselves, tends to rapidly teach and advance students, assuming that they understand the material taught to a certain degree and they then end up being the clumsiest instructor. Such is the difference between the teach and advance approach and the develop the ability approach. It is the clumsy teacher who thinks, as is commonly thought, that when the student understands the material, the teacher’s duty is over, and it is Ɵme to go on to the next lesson. Let me give an example in musical instrucƟon of how many instructors teach. Suppose an instructor teaches Mozart’s Turkish March in piano. The student finally learns to play the piece aŌer several lessons and can now play it by heart for the teacher. Both teacher and student think that the piece has been taught and learned. The teacher assigns a new piece; the student is happy to study it because they not only learnt one piece but has advanced to the next. However, since this is done from the standpoint of instrucƟon which teaches and advances, it is difficult for the student to develop their ability. It is the same in math or language. Suppose the instructor gives a problem, explains it and the student understands the explanaƟon and proves capable of handling the problem without a mistake. This may be interpreted as perfect comprehension and the student may be advanced to the next stage. If so, this is the same as the above case in piano, a clumsy instrucƟon which teaches and advances. To cite another similar example, suppose the acƟon of throwing and catching a ball consƟtutes a lesson. The teacher explains to the child how to throw and catch a ball, then lets them throw and catch it as pracƟcal training. The above kind of instrucƟon is the same as considering the learning completed when the child can now throw and catch the ball. This is the degree of instrucƟon of those who think instrucƟon involves only teaching and advancing. However, from the viewpoint of what strength a child can develop through this, the result is miserable for the only thing viewpoint of what strength a child can develop through this, the result is miserable for the only thing gained is knowledge. With this method, what happens to the development of ability that the person should be capable of demonstraƟng? For example, the agility children show in baseball, the human ability exemplified by their precision in pitching and catching – aren’t these examples of great strength overlooked by instructors who think that to instruct is to teach and advance? What I call instrucƟon is the fostering of true human ability, which the children are expected to demonstrate. Although the above example may not be adequate, I gave it because it is the most obvious. What underlies the best instrucƟon can be found in children’s language learning. It can be observed before our eyes every day. Why can children learn to speak so fluently? Isn’t it because the teaching method in speech is the supreme method that every child demonstrates (this human ability) so beauƟfully? I would like to describe the method based on this idea, by which I succeed in instrucƟon and have helped children demonstrate their ability beauƟfully. As I said before, in most music instrucƟon when a student can play a piece by heart in front of the teacher, the piece is regarded as finished and the student advances to the next level. However, I regard this level of playing a piece from memory as the lowest level of ability. Hence, my lesson starts when a student can play a piece from memory. My students always take my lesson without the music; I take the music, write in instrucƟons in pencil and return it. If the points remarked upon are corrected well by the next lesson, I erase those instrucƟons before returning to the music, but the points not correct-
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