Quick Reference

Definition of
Early Childhood Education

The Importance of listening

The Suzuki ECE concepts

the Suzuki Elementary School

A Model for a Suzuki Classroom

“Let us return to Mr. Tanaka and his first grade at the Hongo Primary School in Matsumoto, Japan, an experimental class which was guaranteed not to produce or allow drop-outs. The initial lessons of the first graders were recognized as of vast importance. Just as in the beginning of learning the mother tongue, the start was kept very slow. Extremely easy material was chosen at the start, and all the children accomplished what was set with no mistakes and full marks. This was a start in building confidence and enthusiasm. He made sure that every child understood the material and made no mistakes.

He stressed trained and practised this theory of ‘no mistakes’.

Further he realized, as we all know, that small children have a short attention span. Some children become bored or inattentive after five or six minutes. When this happened, say in the math lesson, he would immediately switch to language, and when the attention of a child appeared on the wane in this subject, still another was chosen. At the end of a year, these young children had developed the ability to concentrate on any one subject for some 45 minutes!”

……from Shinichi Suzuki’s The Law of Ability and the Mother Tongue Method of Education.

Dorothy Jones developed a small elementary school in London Ontario that followed this model.

Individuals and schools interested in using Suzuki concepts in presenting curriculum should contact
Dorothy Jones.