Dr. SuzukiThe principal and teachers should perceive themselves as generalists first (scholars in the art of teaching) and specialists second (experts in one particular discipline). Each staff member should have a sense of commitment to the entire school. April’s CES Principle
One late afternoon I sat at watching my five year old’s piano lesson. Her teacher was trained in the method of Dr. Suzuki, a musician and master teacher who wrote: "Teaching music is not my main purpose. I want to make good citizens. If children hear fine music from the day of their birth and learn to play it, they develop sensitivity, discipline and endurance. They get a beautiful heart. "
My daughter was having a hard time with a particular passage in the piece she was learning. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get her hand to play the notes smoothly with the right fingering. The more frustrated she became, the harder it was for her to play. “Here,” said her wise teacher. “Put your hand on top of mine while I play it.” I vividly remember the sight of my young daughter’s small hand on top of her teacher’s older one, feeling the correct rhythm and notes. She immediately was able to play the passage on her own.
At the time I was a High School English teacher, struggling to help my 11th graders combine logic, language, and personal voice in their persuasive and analytical essays. In a flash, I realized that I could guide my students intellectually as writers just as Mrs. Schweiger had guided my daughter. The next day in English class with a laptop and a projector I modeled the writing process word-by-word, sentence-by-sentence, for my students. They watched and listened as I wrote, and they developed a stronger feel for the steps they needed to take themselves as writers.
This month’s common principle speaks to the importance of teachers being “generalists” first and foremost, practitioners in the art of teaching. This does not mean that teachers shouldn’t be skilled and knowledgeable in their particular disciplines, but it does mean that the best educators prize the craft of teaching. They seek out new ways to teach and coach students, and find inspiration all around them. My daughter’s piano teacher was and continues to be a model to me of excellent teacher craft. She is patient, exacting, and intuitive. She has a passion for the music that inspires her students. I still sit each week and watch her teach my children, and I continue to learn from her.
Great teaching is all around us at Nathan Hale. In the Ceramics classroom, a patient teacher models the techniques of slipping and scoring. In the Math classroom, a skilled teacher gives just the right amount of wait time so that her students have time to reason through a problem. In a Science classroom, a creative teacher creates a model to show the results of a meteor impact with flour, cocoa, and different shapes, weights, and sizes of “meteors.” In a Social Studies classroom, students engage in a Socratic Seminar focused on an article they’ve read about appreciation vs. appropriation in preparation for their Harlem Renaissance projects. In each case, students are developing “sensitivity, discipline, and endurance.”
Thank you for your support, and most of all for sharing your students with us—and happy spring!
Marni Campbell, Principal
