This subject is very important. The mistake of present day education system is educating children to become professionals but do not educate them to have good qualities. Therefore, an honest man will not go on about this system. Parents should try to cultivate positive qualities in children and besides train them as professionals. Later on he himself will become a professional. Usually, person being engaged with some particular thing for several life times easily learns that what is interesting for him. Nature always takes from a person its own. Do you understand? If you try to push him to do some profession which he does not like and that he is not interested in because of lack of power and experience child won’t be able to do that in a best way. 90% of present day institutions do not care of cultivating good qualities in themselves. They do not study how to become self realized but they just tell the child to do something and then get result of that. No words about honesty, no words about morality, no words about love for the work at all. Or else they use them in order to make child to do something. There is need for cultivating good qualities of a person first of all.

Why? I will explain. For example, professor, academic, he has everything, he is rich, and everyone respects him. But as a personality he is zero. He is very proud, selfish, angry, liar. Will he be happy? He won’t be happy neither in his family nor in the job. And the fact that he is a scientist, then it is his destiny to be a scientist. Because of that he became so. Because of that to try to make him a scientist is useless.

Concerning this I will tell a very interesting story which I heard from a person who I respect and value much.

In his childhood he used to live in communal apartment. This was in Sakhalin. My friend did not go to a school yet, but son of their neighbor already was completing the school. He was already a mature person. Neighbors were very kind and good people. But the main problem of people for that time was is that everyone should have higher degree. “Study, study and study” this idea was involved into schools and institutions. You have to have higher degree; you should not work hard on the land. In this way the value of simple work was neglected. This was inculcated at all levels. Parents had degrees and they wanted their son also to have degree. He was already going to complete the secondary school and everyone noticed that he has golden hands. He was able to make whatever one requests to make. He used to make handcraft very nicely, everyone was pleased but he did not wanted to study. They though: “we will fix him”. “we will fix our son and he will study”. My friend used to tell me how his parents were forcing him: “you have to study. You have to enter into the university or do you want to turn the wheels for whole life?” This was the understanding. You will turn wheels or else you will have a job and become a person. And my friend also was affected by this right from childhood: to study and school. Everyone used to tell: “yes, parents are telling correct. He is already grown up but does not understand that he has to study…” But he did not want to study. At least because force he used to study somehow then throw and again study again throw. No matter he used to start he used throw. And parents used to become angrier: “You are useless. You can do many things but you do not want to do. You are lazy!” They put him under more pressure. Slowly he started to counter attack and become nervous. Because his nature was different. My friend and other neighbors did not understand it and thought: “why he is becoming so angry?” Parents used to say: “See, what kind of kids can be. Never become like this. He started to fight with parents already. See, what is he doing?”

With my friend he had nice relations. That person was simple and funny person. But parents wanted some other thing from him. After all he completed his school and sat for wheels. He did not go to any institution and left this idea.

He started to use some simple car. Do you understand when you do work concerned wheels nobody will give you Mercedes but only such type of simple cars where one will have dirty cloth out of car oils. In this way he had such type of job and for the lunch he used to come home in that dirty state. And in their yard those neighbors who used to hear his parents’ requests of his education used to tell him: “oh, how are you now in your job with wheels?” Maybe they used to tell it jokingly but he had a bad injury in his heart. So in this way the opinion of society used to injure him. Later on he started to drink. As a result was kicked out of his job place. Then parents thought what to do with him now. They used to try to keep him under the control not allowing him – a grown up man to go anywhere. It ended with that before the eyes on his parents he jumped over the window. Fortunately it was the second floor so nothing happened to him. Later on parents married him but that marriage ended with fights plus he beat his wife. He started to drink more and more. And everyone used to kick him out.

Eventually he used to come home with knife when there was no father and attack his mother and force her to give money. Very soon he left his body in a drunken state frozen in some underground floor.

This type of sad story.

This text was translated from Russian book written by Devotee psychologist.