Jon Johanning wrote:

>And what if you do take the kid, but he's already committed himself to
>liking heavy metal rock and turns up his nose at what he hears at the
>concert? I guess you just wait until he gets a few more years on his
>shoulders and comes to know what's really good.

Actually, I think kids can coexist happily in both worlds, without
turning up their nose at either.  We introduced ours to classical music
concerts (they heard tons of the stuff at home on radio and stereo anyway)
with a "try it, you might like it" approach.  At 16, our daughter, who had
followed and seemed to know every pop tune in the last decade by heart,
requested a birthday present of tickets to the opera.  We obliged with
evenings at the NYC Opera's Carmen and Magic Flute.  Twelve years later,
she happily accompanied us to Das Lied von der Erde with the Cleveland
Orchestra.  At home there is the Rachy Third (courtesy of "Shine") plus a
lot of weird (to me) pop and rock.  Our son, who sang in a cathedral choir
through the sixth grade, is an accomplished rock guitarist, enjoys the
heaviest of metal, and loves to study to Telemann!  His college graduation
present by request was a basic CD Classical collection.  Now at 25 he
and his girlfriend have taken a mini-subscription to "the symphony" in
Melbourne, Australia, where he is currently living.  At that distance,
clearly no pressure from us!

Where did we go right? I think it was because we, their parents, were
interested in lots of stuff and always took the kids with us when we could
-- to concerts, theater, museums, occasional opera and G&S whenever it was
around.  Our attitude was always "you can't say you don't like it until
you've tried it." They're on their own now and have tried a lot.  What they
finish up with is their business, but at least they got a fair exposure.
I'm not worried about them

Hope this inspires some listers to think about taking their kids along,
too.

Eric Kisch
(the optimistic pessimist: the situation is hopeless but not serious)