Nurtured by Love. The Classic Approach to Talent Education

Customer Reviews

Every parent should read

2008-08-22
If every parent follows the philosophy of Doctor Shinichi Suzuki, the world will be a very pleasant place to live

Wonderful book

2007-11-24
I love this book!!! It talks about success at music as well as success in life. Very uplifting and motivational.

Creating your own family culture

2007-08-13
The book wonders between autobiography, philosophy, history of how Suzuki's philosophy developed, and technique but the message is clear. Most children's success is dependent on the culture parents create EVERYDAY at their home and for their children. The parents are the creators of culture and the culture is what is done, talked about, emphisized, supported, given time to, and encourage everyday with love. It is easier if society at large supports the culture that parents want but parents ultamately have to create their own culture for their children and the key is what is done everyday and it requires a serious investment of time.

We are what we do everyday (Suzuki is in line with Aristotle on this one). Patience, perserverance, determination shrouded in love 15 minutes a day, for a child, is better than an hour one day a week. Parents talking about it, encouraging it everyday, making it the family culture, are keys to success in music as most anything for most children. There are a lot of distractions that wish to throw our children into worshiping the vanities in this world, the best way to fight this is to create an inner dignity and harmony that comes from a serious but loving endevour everyday.

Touching and Inspiring

2006-12-23
This book should be required reading for music teachers, and for parents who would like their young children to have music lessons. I teach piano and violin to young students, and I felt it was immensely helpful to me. It was a constant reminder that patience, persistance, and a deep love of music will yeild the most profound results with even my most difficult students. It is all to tempting to dismiss the abilities of a particular child, especially one who tends to be uncooperative, instead of recognizing that each child has enormous potential. The touching stories Mr. Suzuki shares of students who overcame terrible difficulties, from blindness to infantile paralysis, to play the violin as best they could, moved me more than words can say.

Life Changing Book

2006-03-03
This book revolutionized my life. I visited a Suzuki flute instructor and fell in love with this method. I saw how excited the children were about learning and how much joy they had. When I read the book I understood why. Dr. Suzuki has a mastery over how children respond to love and encouragement. Reading the stories in here about patience, love and encouragement changed the way I taught flute and also the way I approach life in general. I now try to emulate Dr. Suzuki's teachings in all my interactions. I would recommend this book to every music instructor, whether Suzuki or traditional, every teacher, every parent, and any person who works with or has contact with children. I bought this copy to give to a former student, to help him remember his roots as he begins his music career. I hope he will choose to emulate Dr. Suzuki's love and wisdom in his teaching.

How to Convert Your Child Into a Robot

2006-01-10
This book is the cornerstone upon which to build any Suzuki-oriented library. In it the author presents the philosophy and principles of Suzuki's teaching methods. Through the examples from his own life and teaching, Suzuki establishes his case for early childhood education and the high potential of every human being, not just those seemingly gifted. Written by Shinichi Suzuki, translated by Waltraud Suzuki.

Truely a Must Read

2005-03-28
Although he boarded with a great genius (Dr. Albert Einstein), Shinichi Suzuki was a great genius himself. A must read for everyone. A combination of Dale Carnegie (the greatness in everyone) and Miyamoto Musashi (repetition to master a skill). Not only does the author understand how we learn, he sees great potential in everyone and never finds fault with the individual. As a result, he is able accomplish the seemingly impossible. On the surface this is a "music" book but it is actually a learning guide for everyone. It teaches us how we learn and he uses simple examples (parakeet page 5) to illustrate his ideas. The methods can be applied to ourselves, pets, children, students, athletes, employees, etc.

As another review states, the book tends to jump around and doesnt use an outline or chapters. It is more a scoll of "great thoughts by a genius" and progesses like his teaching style - from the basics to the advanced.

Inspirational

2003-01-20
This book by Shinichi Suzuki is part-description of the principles of his Talent Education method, part-snapshots of personal history, part-statements on his philosophy of life. It is written with great optimism and love for humane development of children into noble people. Based on his observation that all children speak their mother tongue fluently (and are thus highly capable to be educated in many disciplines) and on his belief that talent is not inherited but learned, Suzuki's method concentrates on creating the best environment for child development. His famous violin teaching method incorporates parent involvement, listening to the same piece many times and extensive practice, among others. Importance of memory training and good mentors (Einstein was one of Suzuki's) is stressed. Many real-life stories illustrate his points.

By way of criticism, while themes of compassion and developing a noble character recur throughout the book, it takes some effort to piece it all together. The book reads like a series of short improvisations on the themes of love and rearing of children. The parts of personal history, for example, with the description of illness, war and Suzuki's father's starting violin manufacturing business, while interesting, do not blend with the rest of the book. A chapter entitled "If you think of something do it" has nothing to do with its title (there is a chapter that talks about people of action in his other book, "Ability development from age zero", which repeats many of the stories verbatim). Some bits of Suzuki's take on life's truths, such as "an unfair advantage leads to evil" sound out of place.

In spite of some shortcomings, I would recommend this book. Not as a practical guide, but as an inspirational material for parents.

Excellent! Wonderful approach to life 2002-11-25
This book is required reading for the parents of students enrolled in the Suzuki string program, thank goodness! The message is profound. Several passages are thought-provoking. I found it easy reading and very beneficial. The Suzuki method is right on target for bringing out the best in our children.

Nurtured by Love: The Classical Approach to Talent Education 2001-07-13
I recomend this book to anyone raising children!! This is not only a book about talent education and music learning, but a book about life and faith in humanity and children. What Mr. Shinichi Suzuki contibuted to the world with his findings is far beyond our comprehension, if every parent out there were to follow Mr. Suzuki's philosophy the world might be a very different place! Please do read this book, is life changing.