22 How to Foster Ability Dr Shinichi Suzuki ability starts to grow from this degree of preparaƟon. Even if they produce only one sound, that the three lessons have helped them concentrate enough for their mind to focus on playing, indicates great progress from the first lesson and as long as there is this progress, this child will certainly be able to play some day. In half a year or so, a child of this level can confidently play a gavoƩe or a minuet at Hibiya Public Hall. At the beginner stage, when the child is in the white paper state with no budding of ability, the instructor is required to use much minute care and paƟence, for this is the stage where the child needs to be trained in what is proper and easy unƟl they can do it well. If the bud of ability is fostered this way, ability gradually develops and with the increase of ability, the speed of progress increases. In any case, the instructor should always understand that this situaƟon is exactly the same as with a baby who is beginning to learn to speak. The beginning is like this in everything. It is important to think about how clumsy it is to rapidly advance in the material at this point. All children who hate math or cannot handle math, I believe can be called vicƟms of such clumsy instrucƟon. “If they can do it, they learn to love it; if they cannot do it, they begin to hate it” – this is what the instructor should be aware of concerning ability development. Let children do only what they can do, train them unƟl they can do it beauƟfully and through this foster their ability. This ought to be one of the principles of teaching. It is not a quesƟon of levels. Let me summarize these important points of instrucƟon required for fostering human ability beauƟfully. Since a beginner has not yet developed ability, use special care and nurture the bud of talent by having them repeatedly pracƟce what is easy unƟl they can do it confidently. This is where the road divides between success and failure. Always have the child train in what corresponds to the ability which is growing in them in such a way that they do not think it difficult. In accordance with the developing ability, occasionally give instrucƟon which will prompt the ability to grow faster and beƩer through effort Always help the child form a habit of making an effort unƟl they can do the assignment in an accomplished way. Do not make allowances for the degree of difficulty of the problem. If you instruct and foster a child’s ability by fully understanding the above points, you will surely achieve good results and superior human ability will be demonstrated. Long ago I read a book whose Ɵtle I no longer recall that the training method for ninja in the olden days included the exercise for learning the high jump: “Plant a young hemp and jump over it every day.” This gave me a powerful idea. I feel that the way to create extraordinary human strength is the same as this. It is said that hemp grows rapidly but I am sure it grows steadily only to the eyes of one who watches it grow every day - there is no remarkable difference between yesterday and today. One who can jump over a foot high hemp today will surely be able to do so tomorrow. One who can jump over it tomorrow will certainly be able to jump over it the day aŌer tomorrow. When this commonplace training is repeated fiŌy or sixty Ɵmes daily with aƩenƟon to correct posture and proper pacing, strength in the legs and good posture should gradually develop. While this clever method is followed of easily jumping every day over what one jumped over yesterday, the hemp grows ceaselessly and unnoƟced. Before he knows it, by the Ɵme the hemp has grown higher than human height the trainee has become a jumper who can easily jump over that tree through the daily accumulaƟon and reinforcement of strength which has been developed up to that point. Developing this outstanding ability is the purpose of the training and we should understand the many superior principles of instrucƟon from this training method. If the student skips pracƟce and sits back, thinking that anyone can jump over a hemp which is now one-and-ahalf-feet tall, the strength which has been developing within them takes a rest and with that rest, regresses. Therefore, the ability does not grow parallel to the ceaseless growth of the tree and as the tree grows to their height, it becomes difficult to jump over and so they fail to create outstanding ability. If they think it foolish to start daily training when the hemp is about one foot and starts training with another hemp which they can comfortably jump over, they hardly have enough strength to catch up with its growth. Again, if they are unaware of the excellent condiƟons for training provided by a hemp plant and instead trains daily with a sƟck or something, there will be a big difference in the growth of their ability in the end. As indicated in the method of hemp jumping, the secret of instrucƟon for the growth of ability is in grasping the great truth that human ability can be developed to an outstanding level through daily training by an extremely commonplace method. This should be called the crux of teaching.
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