Every Bunny Can

I haven't taken the SAA course Every Child Can yet.  Still, I do believe this to be true and base my own teaching philosophy upon this belief.  Every child can learn to play an instrument in the same way in which he learns his mother tongue.

In my training, it was suggested that we only ever say positive things to the child. This is quite easy when you have a shy three year old blond girl who doesn't talk much and listens and follows directions.  She is so sweet, you only ever have wonderful things to say and compliments flow easily and success leads to success. Next thing you know you have an 17-year-old who is quite lovely and is still quite easy to teach and you only really ever have to give small positive corrections.

The flip side is when you have a precocious three-year-old little blond boy who is interested in everything BUT doing the task at hand.

Every child can.

I have had a child bite me.

How are you supposed to only say positive things when you get bit.

But, I do believe that when we can say only positive things it does work.  Dr. Suzuki was right.  It's just that sometimes you have a wait a long time for some acceptable behavior or playing in order to "say something positive."

This is how we taught Flopsy to throw the ball.  Months went by with the ball in his kennel.  Then one night he picked it up and threw it. We praised him and gave him a cheerio. A few minutes later he happened to throw it again. Same response. Guess who's throwing the ball over and over and over. . .

I didn't threaten Flopsy. I didn't have a power struggle with him to throw the ball. I didn't use guilt or humiliation. I just happened to catch him throwing the ball and made a big deal of it.

I wonder if Flopsy will throw the ball on his own in the middle of the night.  (See Dolphin Tricks. . .October 2011) Eventually those Dolphins from Sea World did all their tricks in the middle of the night, even without the little fish treat. They just loved doing the trick.

I don't have all the answers on how to motivate kids.  I just think it's a work in progress and worth reflecting upon.  Enjoy the eleven second video!


Flopsy's Trick--click to link