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I guess you can find someone to argue about virtually anything. On the face of it, who would have any problem with opera houses and orchestras trying to lure in young listeners, or with parents taking their kids to the opera or the concert hall? Worst case scenario, the kids hate it, fidget, whine that they're bored, and complain bitterly if you ever try to do that again. Best case scenario, you find kids who really respond to great music, beautifully played, and who will be the next generation of classical music players and listeners.

So what's not to like? Well, forcing a kid to do something can certainly backfire. George H. W. Bush famously said he hated broccoli because his mom made him eat it. ("I'm the President of the United States and I'm not gonna eat any more broccoli," he said, proving what a big, grown-up boy he was.) And it is certainly possible that pushing reluctant kids towards classical music on the grounds that it's "good for them" can be the kiss of death for any future plans of Carnegie Hall glory. But it's exactly that "good for you" stuff that's the problem - if you turn classical music into the aural equivalent of broccoli, you'll find your kids growing up to be completely closed to the possibility of ever liking it. (Or maybe becoming an ineffectual President of the United States. The point is, it won't be pretty.)

On the other hand, recent neuroscience has shown that the brain wires itself to accept and understand music as we grow, using connections required by the music we hear and losing those that are not. If kids grow up without at least some knowledge of what a cello sounds like, or an orchestra, or a soprano, they'll have no point of reference when they do encounter those things. They may still fall in love with them, but the odds are slimmer - not much better than if they'd heard Mongolian overtone chant or Polynesian drumming.

So the question is, how do you give kids the opportunity to fall in love with classical music without shoving it down their throats? As with all things kid-related, there is, unfortunately, no one answer. Even siblings may have completely different reactions - I tried sending my two daughters to piano lessons; one couldn't stand it and eventually refused to go; the other sort of liked it, and has picked up a taste for Bartok through playing one of his very simple, beginning pieces. But they've both heard orchestral music and bits of operatic-style singing, even if only in the background - a useful way to get kids conditioned to classical music, by the way, because there's no sense of forcing the issue. Dragging them to a concert might not be the way to do it right now, so I'm willing to do a bit of background stuff, laying the foundation so to speak, and hope they'll eventually discover the music for themselves.

Tell us: what do you think the best way to introduce kids to the concert hall is?
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