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The moon *is* falling towards the earth, but it's going so fast sideways that it's always missing, as the surface of the earth curves away from it at exactly the same rate as it's "falling" toward it.
Imagine throwing a ball as hard as you can horizontally (ignore air resistance and friction). It will travel maybe 30m before hitting the ground.
Ok, now imagine a bullet fired horizontally - it will go a lot further, maybe 500m.
If you could fire or throw something fast enough then it would fall toward the ground at the same rate that the ground curves away from it, and it would go all the way around the earth and hit you in the back of the head :-)
It helps to try this on the moon or somewhere that doesn't have an atmosphere to slow things down :-)
cheers, Bird
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