Vincent P-P writes:

>Maybe your reflections could also apply to Latin, history, geography,
>foreign languages and a host of other subjects for which the future
>'world citizens' are made less and less prepared by their parents and
>our schools.  Or, could it be that evolution and progress make these
>field obsolete or irrelevant, replacing them by more contemporary interests
>such as computers, astronomy, etc.in which classical music plays no role?
>Enjoying classical music - besides just hearing it - requires some
>'culture' and that seems to be on the way out.

Yes, this is a very complicated issue.  The intellectual climate we live
in makes it difficult to tell children/youth to learn what is good for
>>us<<; it is difficult enough to tell them to learn what is good for
>>them<<, and their society of the future!  (in which we will be trying
to survive, of course)

The genius of the higher animals (including humans) is that they mature
late, thus making it possible to educate the young.  The human species
seems to have lost its ability to accomplish this.  Human young dictate
their own agenda; perhaps the thing to do is to tell them early that
great freedom entails great responsibility!  If they reject external
direction, they must impose internal direction.  Obviously, this won't
interest the majority of youth, but one hopes that it will grab the
attention of a few who will make the difference.  An elitist approach?
You bet:)

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