Compassion During Musical Engagement with Young Children

Abstract

Abstract Music educators may accept the idea that students are their equals in a humanitarian sense and likely strive toward compassionate teaching; however, truly embracing that young children (inclusive of those who are infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and of early elementary age) are in fact equivalent participants in musical expression and shaping musical interactions, may necessitate a shift in how adults conceptualize childhood. In this chapter, I discuss three commonly held deficit views of childhood and contrast them with a progressive and compassionate reconceptualization of childhood. This reconceptualization positions infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and young children as rich sources of musical knowledge, and active and equal agents in life, relationships and music-making.