While listening to readings this evening from the new book “Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out” I was inspired by the idea that young people were given an opportunity for their voices to be heard. By providing a space for young people to give voice to their passions, perspectives and self reflections the book acted as a catalyst for further dialogue and possibly even a model for involving young people in important discussions in a very meaningful way. The theme of inter-generational understanding and dialogue started to come through during a discussion after the reading.
In our test centered schools it sometimes seems that students are given less and less time to reflect and think about their understanding of the world and their place in it. How often are our students given an opportunity to develop their own “voices” and share them with each other and their teachers? Should our music classrooms be a place where our students begin to understand more about themselves and each other? A place where music plays a role in developing a voice? How would this occur with listening, performing, composing, improvising, discussing? What would “letters from young musicians” look or sound like?