In my spare time today, I got to watch a lot of lessons at the Suzuki school. There is something special in each lesson, but it was in the lesson of a 4-year-old that I saw something particularly valuable emerge. Young children have a difficult time focusing sometimes. They want to tell stories about random things, they stare off into space, or bring up anything that happens to float through their mind. But today I saw the head teacher of the cello department insist upon the focus of a 4-year-old child for the duration of the 30-minute lesson. Other teachers might allow focus to go other places and then bring it back, but she just waited and insisted (gently) that he get back on topic. At one point, while she was asking him to focus on his bow hold and he was in an entirely different world, she said to him, "Well, maybe we just have to end the lesson early today because I can't get you to focus." And the threat woke him up. The threat was not dire but it was sincere. He didn't react with fear, but pulled it together and got on topic. He was still a 4-year-old for the remainder of the lesson, but a cooperative one, and one that listened to what his teacher was asking. After doing a particular thing that required some attention, she asked him a question she often asks her students in lessons, "Now was that hard, easy, or you don't know?" "Hard." "Well sometimes that just what taking a lesson is."
It was a lesson in realizing that he does have the power to focus. That he does have the ability to turn on his attention and apply himself. And she won't let him get away with it otherwise. She spoke with him very sincerely at the end of the lesson, congratulating him on his effort and hard work and saying how well he is doing. But she is demanding of her students. And it is good to realize that this can be possible of young students, perhaps not perfect, but remembering that with tact, a teacher can be in nearly full control of the lesson. And teach an additional valuable lesson as well.
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