Education of Children
I'm now going to discuss one last topic, and then there'll be an opportunity to ask questions. The topic is very serious. It is the issue of education. A mistake in the modern system of education lies in the fact that all childhood education is founded on training children to be specialists and not in cultivating their character traits. Therefore, an honest person will not allow himself to be strung along by this system. Parents should strive to cultivate positive character traits within their children and, at the same time, cultivate specialists within them. The child will himself, gradually become a specialist. Often a person engaging in a particular activity for many lives easily assimilates that which interests him. A person's nature always takes what's best for itself. Do you understand? If you force a profession on him, then its possible that for him, this would be a new field of little interest for which, due to lack of experience from previous lives, the child may not have deep enthusiasm. The main sphere of education, the cultivation of good character traits, has been much neglected in our society. For the most part, teachers in 90% of the places where children are brought up utterly don't care even about their own characters. They don't engage in self-improvement, they simply attempt to show a child what he should do for some sort of result. No mention is made at all of any kind of honesty, of any morality, or any love towards hard work. Or these things are spoken of with the goal of forcing children to do something. As such, since the cultivation of specialists already exists, lets not spend any time on this, since it happens in and of itself. Its necessary, first and foremost, to cultivate the qualities of an individual.
Why? Let me explain. Let's say that a person is a Professor, an academic, he has everything, he's very rich, everyone respects him. But as an individual, he's a zero. He's egotistical, he's very proud, rude, vain, a liar. Will he be happy? He won't have happiness in the family, nor at work, nor in society. And the fact that he is a scholar, from birth itself it was meant for him to be a scholar. That is why he became one. Therefore, cultivating the scholar within him was completely pointless.
In this regard, I can tell you an interesting story that I myself heard from one person whom I really respect and appreciate. And so, when he was young, he lived in a communal apartment. This was in Sakhalin. My friend didn’t yet go to school, but the son of his neighbours already finished school. He was already practically an adult. The neighbours were very good and kind-hearted. But the main problem then lay in the fact that these folks had this idea, a conception, that the most important thing in life is education. "Study, study and study"- this principle is inculcated at school, in college. You should have a post-secondary education, you should get it, and not just dig earth and burrow trenches. And, as such, there was a scornful attitude towards simple work. This was instilled at all levels. Their neighbours were educated and wanted their son to go to college. He already finished school and everyone noticed that he was a master craftsman. He could make anything you asked him to. He did everything wonderfully, he was a good person, but he didn't want to study. They thought: "We'll set him 

straight". "We'll set our son straight. He will study." And my friend remembered how the parents pressured him: "You should study, you should go to college. Or do you want to spin a steering wheel all your life?". And that was their attitude then. Either you spin a steering wheel, either you have a good job and a good place to live and be a person, or you dig trenches. That is, what that means is that you are no longer a person. And this idea was also inculcated in my friend, in childhood: study, school. Everyone thought: "Yes, that’s right that his parents are telling him that. He's so big and he doesn't understand that its essential to study. He finished school, you know." But he didn't want to study. In the end, under pressure, he did something, the pressure was very strong, but since there was no interest, he gave it up. Whatever he started, he gave up. And his parents got even angrier: "You're of no use anywhere! You can do everything, but you don't want to do anything! You're lazy!" They pressured him even more. And then he began to challenge them little by little, began to get irritated since he had a different nature. My friend and all the neighbours didn't understand this and thought: "Why is he becoming so rude?" Parents of other children said: "Well, look how children can be. Never become like that. He's already biting back at his parents. See what he's doing?"
My friend had a very good relationship with him. This guy was a cheerful and simple person. But the parents wanted something more from him. In the end, he finished school and became a driver. He didn't go to any college. He refused, and perhaps, issued a challenge.
He began to drive around in some kind of car. You know, when you only just sit at the wheel, you're not given a Mercedes, you're only given some piece of junk, all covered in grease and all shaky and falling apart. Well he had such a wreck that he worked on, and at lunch, he returned home all covered in grease. He dug around in the car more than he drove around in it. And, in the neighbourhood, everyone knew this story; they heard how his parents attempted to raise him and joked: "Well, then. How are you there? Spinning your steering wheel?" Maybe they were just saying it out of fun, as friends, but he had a problem, a trauma. That is, public opinion traumatised him. In the end, he began to drink. And the result was his dismissal from work. Then the parents started to think about what to do with him. They attempted to control him, not allow him out anywhere, an already adult person. It ended with him jumping out of the window before his parents' eyes. Fortunately, it was the second floor and nothing happened to him. Then the parents attempted to get him married, but after a week, the marriage ended in scandal. And in addition, he beat up his young wife. He began drinking heavily, he was kicked out of work everywhere. At the very end, he began to come home when his Father wasn't home and, with a knife in his hands, demanded money from his Mother. Very soon, he ended his life, drunk and frozen in a basement. And that's the sad story.

References: Dr. Torsunov - www.torsunov.com (His Grace Audarya Dhama Prabhu)