From Equality To Excellence

The United States government was aware that the U.S. lagged behind in personnel training and top science and technology developing since the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957. As a result, series of educational reforms started in the United States. From the equality to the excellence, early childhood education changed, and made a big progress in the research of early childhood intellectual development as well as music education. As a developed country, the U.S. became one of the best countries of early childhood music education in the world along with their explorations of brain science at the end of 20th century.This dissertation focuses on the development of early childhood music education under the entire educational background in the United States from 1957 to 2009. It discusses many aspects such as law and act, teaching method, teaching material, curriculum, teacher training, outstanding educators, and research findings. It should be mentioned, the early childhood music education in this dissertation represents the music education for zero to five year old children in order to emphasize the value of music learning in early childhood.The purpose of this dissertation is to deeply understand the developing process of early childhood music education in the United States as well as to fill the gaps. In addition, it is expected to provide more information and ideas for China to develop early childhood music education in the new era.