This is funny. I was one of those kids who didn't want to learn theory. After 5 years of lessons I quit and formed a punk band.

it wasn't until years later that someone got me interested in theory. Here's how:

This guy was teaching me songwriting lessons. He showed me a bunch of different songs that sounded different and all have i iv v as their basic progression. Because of this, I could see how songs are put together. I had no idea that all these different-sounding songs are really the same chord pattern.

Then he showed me songs with the really sad minor iv chord, songs with key changes, songs with interesting rhythmic shifts in the lyrics. Pretty soon I was hooked on theory because of this analysis of chord structure in songs. I was hooked on theory because I saw it was useful to me.

If you just teach a kid the circle of 5ths and all these italian words, he will resist because it seems irrelavent. First, teach him why it is useful.

The guy's name is Jai Josefs and he wrote a book called Writing Music for Hit Songs.

Hope this helps.

Jon