Symphony of Support for Pushing the Piano

SYMPHONY OF SUPPORT FOR PUSHING THE PIANO
I came across these interesting letters to Dear Abby, first published in the Los Angeles Times:

DEAR ABBY: Your advice to force children to practice was right on the mark. Most children hate to practice, and our son and daughter were no exception. My husband got tired of all the fighting and crying, and said, "Let them quit ! it's too much of a hassle." I said: "Over my dead body!" After that, there were very few arguments. Today, our daughter, Marylou Churchill, sits principal second violin in the Boston Symphony, and our son, Paul, studied cello at Juilliard and toured with the Mantovani Orchestra.
-MARIAN SPEAKER San Mateo, California

DEAR MARIAN: Congratulations. Read on for more letters from parents who refused to cave in when their children wanted to quit:

DEAR ABBY: I?m a mother who forced her children to practice. Why not? It was for their own good. We force our children to take baths, brush their teeth, eat their vegetables, turn off the TV and do their homework, don?t we? My son wanted to quit piano when he was 10. I said ?No way ? you are not quitting!? I knew that my judgement was better than a child?s. Today he is a conductor and professor at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
-EILEEN GIOVANAZZI La Mesa, Calif.

DEAR ABBY: I grew up in a music family. Our parents had a very effective way to get my brother and me to practice. We were told, ?Either you do the dishes ? or practice.? So my brother and I practiced a lot. I?ve been playing the piano for 35 years, and today my brother is an accomplished guitarist.
-MARK ALLEN DONITCH San Rafael, Calif.

DEAR ABBY: When our children first began taking piano lessons, I was told, ?The measure of the child?s success is directly related to the determination of the mother.? It?s true. I was the one who drove our three children to their music lessons for eights years and insisted they practice. When they wanted to quit, I not only paid them to practice, I gave them a cash bonus for every outstanding lesson. (Very few children are self-motivated.) It got them over the hump, and eventually they learned to appreciate music. In retrospect, it was well worth the struggle.
PROUD MOM IN TUCSON, Ariz.

DEAR ABBY: I am a girl in the seventh grade. I?ve been taking piano since the first grade. I?ve never liked practicing and never will. There were lots of fights about practicing and I always ended up crying. My mother threatened to stop the lessons, but I?m glad she never did. I still hate to practice, but I love to play.
-A GIRL IN SPRINGFIELD, Va.

DEAR ABBY: Years ago we lived across the street from a music-loving Italian family in London, Ontario. There were four sons and one daughter. I can still see the mother chasing her kids with a hickory stick trying to get them to go take their music lessons. Their last name was Lombardo, which may ring a bell with your older readers.
R.J. CALHOUN Clearwater, Fla.