In the past, British children were frequently encouraged to try out their performing skills for the benefit of adults. They did this by reading aloud, acting or playing a musical instrument. as they grew up they were taken to public places of entertainment-the theatre , opera, circus or ballet they looked forward to these situations with great sensation would remember and discuss what they had seen for many weeks afterwards. But nowadays television and computer store an endless stream of easily available entertainment ,and children quickly accept these marvellous appearances as a very ordinary part of their everyday lives. For many children , the sense of witnessing a very particular live performance is gone forever
but all is lost. the being of a TV set may have encouraged a very lazy response from viewers in their own homes, but the pressure of those with ambitions to become performing artists themselves does not seem to have been at all diminished. And live performances in public are still relatively popular albeit with an older , more specialist audience