Lines 9 - 16
Consider: Education is the most important element of a child's
development and we know that parents are the first and most important
element in a child's education. They must always keep in mind that what
they do influences their children and their children's future.
Indeed:
9. It is not
enough for a father to
provide materially, he must also teach his children.
Consider: If teachers understand this responsibility, and if they
understand the human tendency to want to avoid work and not to do what
is best, but only what is easy, then they will be utterly strict in
their work and in the demands they make of their students. Their
students must be constantly urged on, and their tendency toward willful
inaction in pursuits of their studies must be vigorously countered.
Indeed:
10. A teacher who is not
strict is
lazy.
Consider: As it is the built-in tendency for rice seedlings to grow to
their full height and vigor, so it is that the course of education is
the proper one for children. It is the natural way fro them to develop.
Indeed:
11. It is not right if a
child does
not learn.
Consider: When you are young you can look forward to the time when you
are grown up: what will you do? How will you behave? What will people
think of you? If you are not faithful in your studies what will become
of you?
Indeed:
12. If the young do not
learn, what
will happen to them when they are old?
Consider: You can think of many examples of things in your life that
cannot be used best in the their natural states. Food must be cooked,
rice seeds must be planted, iron must be hammered into implements.
Uncooked food or unpicked fruit or unplanted rice will rot; without
forging, iron is only dirt.
Indeed:
13. In its natural state,
jade is of
no use.
Consider: Men can leave what they have learned for others'
benefit, those men we call philosophers, who tell us about the right
way to conduct ourselves in the course of our lives. I have already
spoken of the philosopher Mencius, who owed much of his eminence to the
persistence and examples of his mother. Those who tell us what has
happened in the past we call historians; we will speak of histories
more later. Those who use words most beautifully we call poets. We do
not have to learn everything for ourselves, we have the philosophers to
guide us, but we have to work to acquire their knowledge; if we do not,
we are unpicked fruit, unplanted rice, uncorked iron.
Indeed:
14. Someone who has not
learned will
not know how to live properly.
Consider: In your life as a child you should pay attention to, respect,
and become a disciple of your teacher, you should develop good and
productive friendships with your fellows, you should learn and observe
the proper way to behave, you should love your parents and respect
those older than you.
Indeed:
15. When young one should
16. form close
friendships, become
engaged with teachers, and learn the proper way to behave in all
respects.