What Holly said!

As somebody who has trained as a classical musician (trained being the operative word), rigid compliance to a musical doctrine, whether it be technique or learning to read music, can be stifling to creativity and in many ways is counter-productive to developing an understanding of the concepts of melody and rhythm.

Without knowing much about the specifics of the program I may be premature in commenting, but such concern about technique in a general toddler music group, and rigidity to a teaching method suggests that they teach music by rote rather than creatively. A refusal to be flexible to accommodate the personality of a student in favour of developing technique on instruments that at this age should really only be used to give an idea of different timbres implies to me the 'play your scales right or we'll hit you over the hands with a ruler' method of teaching.