propagation
Although I do believe that there are certain things that every child should be taught, it is also just as important for the individual child to be able to live according to his/her own person. For children to be allowed to follow their own path, a parent must recognize the child’s strengths and interests so that the child will be trained and led in the “way that he should go.”
I have heard it taught about the passage above, that the proverb refers to more than just the moral path that children should be taught. They must also be trained along their natural “bent”. I believe this also includes the way that the child should be trained. For some kids, just looking at them disapprovingly is enough. Others need more restraint in their training. Some will learn the first time, others will take longer.
As each child differs from another, we will do well to keep in mind each individual child’s differences so that we can indeed “train him in the way that he should go.”
When we see that a child is showing an interest in something (a new hobby, a group or club, a school subject), I think we can carefully provide more opportunities for him/her along that line; and we can show our support and offer our help.
Malcolm
yes, and it seems obvious that we would, but sometimes we parents forget to look at what our kids really want and are good at. we need to keep that in mind in providing their training