I will say that for me, there is a whole spectrum between "child forced to practice for XX minutes every day, hates every second of it, dreads everything to do with classical music" and "child loves to practice, parents completely free of involvement with daily practice" My best friend in high school used to practice the piano with his father sitting next to him; when he hit the wrong key, his father would whack that finger with a ruler. Ghastly.
I can't speak for all Suzuki teachers and the practice of the Suzuki method of talent development in all places and in all times. Like the Montessori method, it can be used in a loving way to develop the whole child, or it can be a cold and unengaging list of rules that are never deviated from. I can speak about my own experiences with my great aunt who was one of the first Suzuki teachers in America, my own experience at workshops and in youth orchestras that were unaffiliated with that pedagogy. And I can speak about the program my daughter's in, and how her teacher is, and what his goals are for children moving through his programs.
I also think that some aspects of life require discipline. I knew plenty of kids, for example, in high school, who wanted to be in the band, but quit due to the practice requirement. They were disappointed afterward. The same is true for other kinds of learning; you may want to be in AP literature, but if you don't complete the summer homework assignment, you won't be let in. Not all parts of learning are fun and enjoyable; you do have to take some lumps with the good. I know that there are musicians who enjoy every moment they have with their music, but I think that saying that every child who doesn't look on practice as an enjoyable activity should be encouraged to quit, that any child who won't practice without encouragement from their parents shouldn't produce music but should be limited to listening to it; that would be a pity.
Each parent provides a different level of discipline and has different requirements for their kid. What I would like to add to the discussion is just my experience that music lessons can be very beneficial to kids, especially gifted kids, who can fall into the trap of seeing the easy completion of every task as somehow inherent to their self-image. And I think it's OK to expect that learning music will sometimes be a struggle, and that sometimes the parent may feel like there's just no motivation there. We keep going anyhow, and we always get back to those good feelings on the other side. Others may disagree; this is just my experience.
Thus it would be better to spent that time at something I loved doing it....
