It may not be a Rock n Roll number but few baby-boomers will have forgotten that wonderful song by Crosby, Stills & Nash, Teach Your Children.

When it was first released in 1969 few of us understood much at all of its true meaning. As we have grown older we have seen the erosion of healthy-living values with drugs, violence and rampant self-focus gaining an increasingly powerful grip over the minds of our young.

Every parent has to face the awkward dilemma of how to keep their children safe, yet feeling happy and fulfilled while trying to live a rewarding life themselves. If you leave your kids 'on ice' while you pursue your own interests that's exactly how you might find them!

Keeping children close and getting them involved in an activity that they love to do is the obvious solution.

For Rock n Roll dancers with children (or grandchildren) there`s an ideal opportunity to do that. Rock n Roll dance is a great family activity. Children love music just as much as adults and they enjoy dancing if they`re given the opportunity to learn. Dance can help them to appreciate the benefits of structured activity, and since it`s very much a `spectator sport` it can help them to develop self esteem as well as learning constructive social skills within a defined community.

Being lithe and supple, the young ones can make fast, exciting dance styles like Rock n Roll look extremely good. How often do we older dancers look with envy on a pair of teenagers dancing prettily and wish to God that we could still move like they can? What a shame it is to rob young people of an opportunity to express themselves in such a meaningful and enjoyable way.

But, how can children learn to Boogie if their Mama Don't Dance and their Daddy Don't Rock 'n' Roll? What programs are available to teach those who can't learn from their families?

Bob Couch, an enthusiastic Rock n Rolling semi-retiree in Adelaide, South Australia has spent some time giving dance lessons to children in primary schools. He found the experience highly rewarding. Bob says "you get a variety of reactions from the kids when they realise it`s partner dancing. The girls are always enthusiastic. The boys over a certain age are a bit less so, but once you get them past a certain stage and they realise that they look good you can't hold them back!"

Hopefully there are plenty more kind souls like Bob who will give their time to ensure that youngsters are offered a valuable opportunity to learn among other things that there is more to life than television, X-Boxes and party drugs.

Recently I visited the website of Cairns Rock n Beat n Boogie. They are a dance club who teach Rock n Roll styles to young students with over 100 participants aged from 4 to 18. It would be a nice idea to compile a list of Rock n Roll dance schools for young students. If you know of any, please feel free to pass their details me.

Gareth Eastwood is a Rock 'n Roll dance instructor and enthusiast in Adelaide, South Australia. He maintains a premier Rock 'n' Roll dance website, http://www.rocknrolldance.com/ in which he repeatedly stresses the need for dancers to be gentle with each other rather than dancing roughly. He also created and manages Going Places With Gareth, a gigantic singles social network in Adelaide revolving around a long-established website http://www.garethevents.info/ The network has been operating since May, 2000. Since then over five thousand people have become involved in it.