Resources for Suzuki Parents

If you Google “SAA”, this is what you find:

1. South African Airlines
2. Society of American Archivists
3. Schaumburg Athletic Association
4. I’ll let you find out the rest if you are curious.

Given that you are reading this from the WSSTE/NSS newsletter, none of these results are directly connected to your children’s experience with our schools. The SAA I want to tell you about is the Suzuki Association of the Americas.

We are a coalition of teachers, students and others who subscribe to Dr. Shinichi Suzuki’s philosophy. The SAA is a not-for-profit organization, officially licensed to support, guide, and promote Suzuki education in North, Central, and South America.

For us teachers, the SAA establishes and enforces guidelines for teacher training, standardizes audition requirements, develops new programs to further educate our teaching community so we can do the best job possible in educating your family.

For you, parents and students, the SAA offers courses such as Every Child Can, Parents as Partners Online, information about the teachers and a lot more for you to explore here.

In my experience too many people know too little about the SAA. I urge you to spend time browsing through the links above and finding out what we are about. While browsing the SAA site, please take a look at your teacher’s bio - here is mine to get you started. You may be surprised to find out that our school has five Teacher Trainers, one current and one former member of SAA’s Board of Directors, and that most of our faculty has earned the SAA’s Certificate of Achievement. Tell me if you can find another school in the US with a faculty as well educated in the Suzuki philosophy as ours! We are proud of our level of commitment and would like to share this pride with you.

Without the SAA, the Suzuki Method as we know it today would not exist.

I encourage you as a parent, student, or teacher, to become more involved with the SAA. Start by browsing the SAA website. Visit the discussion forums, the photo and video libraries. Read the current edition of the American Suzuki Journal (borrow it from your teacher). Write an article for the ASJ about your experience with the Suzuki Method. Become a member. Take your children to a Summer Institute. If you are so inclined, donate to the SAA. Get involved. Our community (that is you and us, together) will only benefit from your participation. Let’s strengthen our Suzuki Triangle!

Thank you to Rolando Freitag for contributing this article!