To Anonymous,

I repeat and stand by what I said before: the teacher makes all the difference. I would never suggest taking music out of the schools. And the idea of a string quartet doing Barbara Allan sounds delightful. I've also appreciated the Boston Pops doing the Beatles and all kinds of deviations from the usual arrangements and usual instrumentation. What I object to is bad arrangements and bad taste, foisted on defenseless students of music, and new compositions that don't give due credit to traditional sources.

I don't share your view that schools in general do a wonderful job of teaching music. Our school system is considered to have a wonderful music program, but I've seen kids in high school bands who can barely read music after having studied an instrument at the Intermediate level for several years. I've seen many, many kids who have never heard of bluegrass (not the greatest omission to some, but important to me) and have never been exposed to ballet or opera. This is not doing a wonderful job, and this is not uncommon throughout the area.

The opportunity to learn any kind of music is of tremendous value, and my intention was to encourage the original poster to stay with the music and find something she could enjoy about it. And may we all do the same, anonymously or otherwise.