[jmchuster]

It's hard to say. There are lots of things we make kids do that are good for them that they'd never want to do on their own, like go to school, do their homework, eat their vegetables.

And with something like music, it takes a lot of unpleasant effort and hard work initially before it hits a point where you really can start enjoying it. But kids would never have experienced such payoffs before, so having faith in perservering seems impossible. So one could argue that forcing a kid to commit and invest until they see the payoff, is the only way they can make a truly informed decision.

Or we can have faith that kids are a lot more mature and wise than we think. And maybe they've already seen all the way into the future and the end result. Or there is a different passion that they'd rather pursue.