Environment is the Foundation for Learning

An environment with language is vital in helping a child learn to speak. Speech may be a universal human characteristic, but in a few isolated situations where children grew up without hearing the spoken word, they were never able to develop more than a rudimentary speaking ability. Children adopted internationally learn to speak the language of their new home, not their genetic heritage. We pick up the accents, cadences and grammar of our environment. My three-year-old son sometimes repeats an annoying phrase word for word that he heard in a movie, my unpleasant reminder of the power of environment.
Suzuki understood this, and built his method on the foundation of environment. Is genius born or made? When confronted with this question, Suzuki felt confident that it was made. Most people do not share his extreme view or his certainty. We will probably never have the definitive answer, but studying a great composer like Mozart shows that nurture plays a large role. Beginning in Mozart's early childhood, his father, Leopold, surrounded him with music and trained him in both performance and composition. By his mid-twenties, Mozart had already been composing music under his father's tutelage for 20 years. Both his musical environment and his driven father helped shape him into a historic prodigy. Suzuki admired Mozart and the process that aided his achievement.
However, contrary to popular perceptions of the Suzuki Method, Suzuki did not consider the purpose of musical education to be the creation of prodigies. He repeatedly said that his method was first for the love of the child and then for the love of the music. Parents should be constantly striving to create an atmosphere for their children in which they can grow in every important way. Both parents and teachers research and implement ways to provide a better environment for development.
This quest might be overwhelming, but I usually find it empowering. Although I do think genetics plays a role in who we are and that we are the product of more than just our environment, as a parent I may have contributed to my children's genes, but I certainly can't alter them. I would also hate to assume that they are limited by heredity and have no ability to progress. When I am concerned with helping my children improve in a certain area, I can't force them to change or even be their motivation. I do, however, always have the power to improve their environment, and it may make a difference.
How can I create a better environment? Haruko Kataoka, who developed the Suzuki Method for piano, frequently ended lessons she gave piano teachers with the challenge to "research." That is my first step, followed by implementation of new things I have learned and a return to more research. According to The American Heritage Dictionary, environment is "the complex of social and cultural conditions affecting the nature of an individual or community." As I have pondered on this meaning, I have decided to focus on the following aspects that I can influence:

1. Physical surroundings
2. People and relationships
3. Ritual and tradition
4. Schedule and structure

I will focus on each of these in upcoming posts about my perpetual quest for an improved environment for learning. In all of this, I hope not to lose sight of the fact that each of my half-dozen children is an individual. Suzuki worked first for the love of the child, for each unique personality. Part of my research, then, goes beyond books and experts to the hearts of my children as I observe them one by one in daily life and contemplate what they need most.