Bait One Hook

In his book Helping Parents Practice Edmond Sprunger makes a great analogy: if we shoot more than one arrow at a time we probably won't hit anything.  In other words, he's describing the core Suzuki principle that we should focus on one thing.

Calvin is working on review for his graduation recital.  He has 13 pieces ready to go.  Today we focused on remembering the form to the pieces.  Some of the pieces have tricky repeats or partial sections that come back and this can be an area where concentration is necessary.  So we worked on the forms today.  While we were working on making sure the form was correct and talking through it, I thought of about 37 million other things I should mention, about the tempo, his fingers, dynamics, etc.

We have to make a conscious effort not to spew all our knowledge upon the poor child.  As soon as I started thinking about all the other things to fix I knew I was off track.  He got annoyed with me.  Shoot one arrow.  Here is a great quote from Dorothy Delay in Teaching Genius, "Most of the time, I am just sitting there thinking of things to say and then stopping myself from saying them."  Amazing advice.

Most of us, especially myself, probably talk way too much.  We can't teach it all in one lesson, and when we try anyway,  the student shuts down.

It is fishing season here in Minnesota, I'm visualizing a fisherman with 10 rods and reels set up and starting to get bites on all of them at one time, running like crazy to pull in fish while some of the rigs get pulled into the lake. . .

Then I see a fisherman patiently attending his favorite fishing pole, waiting for the big one.  Focused on one thing, he gets the trophy fish.  He might have to wait a while, and maybe try a few different lures, but if he puts the time in he will get the umpteen pound walleye.

How much more important are our children than fish. . .
One thing at a time.

Not. . . the big one