Just caught up to this thread; thanks to Lonesome EJ for refreshing it.

Most of the posts refer to "kids" as being tweens, young adults, adolescents; whatever you call 'em. If you mean who is PERFORMING folk, that makes sense.

But as far as growing new fans, in my professions of young people's librarian I find I am constantly gently reminding parents and other caregivers to share what they already know.

Just this morning I sang and taught "Grizzly Bear" in preschool storytime (I learned it from Doug Lipman and it is in his great book. If you have an auditorium full of wiggly preschoolers and Raffi is off in the rain forest again, call Doug.)

Last week I sang and taught "Magic Penny." It showed up in church again Sunday (UU, of course.) (I kept diverging from the leader until I realized the leader was doing it the way Malvina Reynolds wrote it; after years and years of singing along with Mr. Sing Along, Fred Holstein, in Chicago, I had to readjust.)

When we had our centennial celebration and I needed to entertain 30+ kids of all ages, I did play party games, and not one kid knew "In and out the Window," and adults kept saying "I haven't heard that since I was a kid!" (Too much electronic babysitting I guess, but that's another soapbox.)

(Play party games, by the way, are the great way to teach kids the skills for folk dancing later on; I highly recommend them).

One more memory for me; busking in Chicago subways again.

A little girl and her mother wanted to stop and listen but hadto hury for the train instead. since I was tired anyway, I headed on over to the platform myself, and the little girl asked for a song while we waited for the Northbound Howard St. line.

So I pulled out my beater and started singing, song after song. When I began "Bingo," the mother wandered over and joined in. The child stopped in amazement. "You know this song?" "Oh, everybody knows that old song." I encouraged her to sing it with her daughter, since she apparently did not know it, and was crying out for stimulation. "Oh, she'll learn it in school sometime" said the mother, as they boarded the train and I gaped in wonder.

If you worry about where the next generation of folkies is coming from, get jobs working with young people. teachers. camp counsellors. have your kids join scouts and campfire and everything else, and volunteer to do programs. (The leaders will love it.)

And check for libraries like mine, where you will find all of Fink and Marker's excellent tapes, and those great instructional vidieos from Rounder and elsewhere. Tweens looking to learn how to play will take out any genre of instruction.

Mary Ann