Karl Miller wrote:

>I tend to agree with you, however, what does that say of the countless
>programs in music appreciation, etc.
>
>Sometimes I think those "appreciation programs" are designed for the
>educators and not the children (ok, a gross generalization).

Actually, the Robert Mayer Concerts for Children - probably the grandaddy
of them all, having started in the 1920s - were dropped in the 1980s for
this reason, among others.

At least in the UK there has been a huge shift towards making music
rather than "appreciating" it over the past 20 years which, in my opinion,
is a wonderful thing. I remember the horrendous "music appreciation"
classes, with an uninterested teacher and sixth-rate technology such
as film strips and scratched records, which would probably have killed
interest in classical music once and for all in about 95 per cent of the
listeners!

(At least, as I grew up in a country with very little tradition of
classical music, I was spared another horror which has often been mentioned
- a professional orchestra playing to an audience of children most of
whom were not interested).

Alastair