What Children Like

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 441, 5 December 1947, Page 11

What Children Like

S an example of coincidence or coordination we had three programmes from 4YA, all in the same week, dealing with the taste of children. There was an A.C.E, talk for those with leisure to listen in the mornings, "Children’s

Taste in Books, Radio, and Films," a subject which has been sufficiently investigated for me to avoid stirring up a hornet’s nest by discussing it here, Then there was "Great Music Written for Children," which formed part of an excellent new Saturday evening series entitled Music for Pleasure (a title which expresses the main purpose of listening more aptly than many pro-gramme-labels). Listeners who heard these programmes would also be interested in the studio performance of a programme by Gil Dech and the 4YA Concert Orchestra, assisted by the Dunedin String Group of the National Orchestra; included in this programme was Quilter’s Children’s Overture, and the orchestra made a most attractive and stimulating thing of it. Whether or not it was written primarily for children doesn’t matter; it certainly does appeal to children-I know, because I’ve tried a record of it on various children of different ages, and its appeal was direct and obvious. Many adults feel themselves competent to /estimate children’s taste, when all they are esti- . mating is their own taste; modified by an adult conception of what they imagine children will like. When in doubt, try it on the child.