As I developed a different approach to teaching children, influenced by mindfulness, non-violent communication and organic intelligence, I realized the more compassionate way of approaching challenging behaviors is also the more successful way. I thought of how funny it is that we value wild raspberries and wild salmon, but cringe at the thought of a wild child. And in terms of music and choral activities, the old way was discipline, suppression, perfectionism and fear of rejection, punishment, abandonment, shame.... And there’s another way toward harmony, which is through our natural, unadulterated inclinations as mammals. Our young have the very longest time as vulnerable dependent young, now 20 - 30 years in our day and age. And so adults of our species have quite advanced nurturing skills. We are a very kind and compassionate species. The violence is a scourge that perpetuates itself through intergenerational trauma that I believe goes all the way back to the agricultural revolution.
Thus not just Wild Harmony, but A Wilder Harmony…
Diverging away from domestication, lovingly cherishing the wild rather than reactively taming in fear.
