My dad is 85 now and has been a fiddler since he was about 8 years old; still practices and plays everyday. He's always played by ear, but also reads music. Back when he was growing up everyone learned to read music in school. It was the same when I was growing up. So, he plays both ways. This was also partly because he's played in a lot of dance bands and some of them used music to learn the tunes.

I had classical from 8yrs old through high school and am really grateful for the discipline and experience. I am equally grateful that my ear was well trained and I can play by ear, too.

Classical training can be fun with the right teacher and there is no reason a child cannot learn both, with a good teacher.