Last year I read a frightening study that showed that pre-school and kindergarten children no longer believe they can sing songs. Little children have 1 got the impression that the definition of song is “what you hear 2 singing on the radio”. And when teachers try to 3 these children that they 4 sing, the kids just don’t see the point. Why should they struggle to perform a 5 version that only their mothers could possibly love? It’s so much easier to buy a CD and hear someone do it really well! Their logic is hard to argue 6 — and it’s a direct result of our society’s 7 with competence. Pleasure is no longer the aim of our 8 activities; in fact no one even sees anything pleasant 9 doing something less than perfectly well. This is crazy. And it’s 10 a terrible toll. Not only 11 depriving ourselves of creative satisfaction and 12 our children from finding joy in 13 they can do themselves — we’re also destroying our artists. In a world 14 we expect all our art to be supplied 15 highly competent professionals, the pressure on the professionals becomes too great to bear. 16 the number of musicians and artists who suffer from drug addiction, alcoholism or even commit suicide because of the pressures of keeping 17 our demands for more and better music, art, books and movies to enjoy in our 18 time. We are 19 our artists with our refusal to entertain 20 ourselves in our own incompetent ways.