On Masaaki Suzuki - Research Paper Example

The World War II was a disaster for his family, as his father’s music factory was bombed and he also tragically lost his brother in the war. Left penniless and without his teaching job, his family moved to a nearby city, where Suzuki started constructing wooden planes to raise some money. However, he continued teaching orphaned kids and later on adopted one of his students, developing teaching strategies and methodologies with his assistance. He combined the practical teaching applications of his, with traditional Asian philosophy concepts.

His contributions to the field of pedagogy are worth mentioning. Suzuki also collaborated with other thinkers of his time, like Glenn Doman, founder of The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, an organization that studied neurological development in young children. “Suzuki and Doman agreed on the premise that all young children had great potential” (jameslogancourier.org). Suzuki was also a national patron of Delta Omicron, an international professional music fraternity. For his many contributions, the Emperor of Japan appointed Suzuki to the order of the National Treasure.

He died in the year 1998 at the age of 99. His Contributions Suzuki developed his ideas through "Talent Education", a method of instruction which he developed. Basing his method on the role of mother tongue in any learning process, he remarked, “Though still in an experimental stage, Talent Education has realized that all children in the world show their splendid capacities by speaking and understanding their mother language, thus displaying the original power of the human mind”( qtd. by Behrend 3).

He believed that native language method holds the key to human development, and noted that children, whether they are born in German or Japanese households, will naturally learn to speak their mother tongue in a more effective manner. This is because, children will be mainly influenced by what they are exposed to or learn in their childhood. On the same lines, he concluded that all the children can exhibit and develop musical ability, and the environment in which they live and thrive, will mainly influence that development.

Suzuki has applied this method through Talent Education to teach music to children. That is, children were taken without previous aptitude or intelligence test of any kind, and are brought into a learning environment. Through this process, he understood that everyone will not be able to achieve same level of proficiency and achievement, however, each one can achieve developments and skill that will be equivalent of his language proficiency in other fields. With this hypothesis, Suzuki believed that talent is not something that is inborn, but that can be created or developed.

He felt that children can learn music the same way they learn their mother tongue. He called this process a Mother Tongue method. According to him, through this method, children will not only be able to learn music, but will be able to play music at high standards. His motive was not only training but also overall development of the child as an individual. His Methodologies He explained that he does not train children who are prodigies, neither are they gifted with an inherent talent nor their parents are professional musicians.

He stated that if parents adopt his approach of music learning, and keep on repeating in