From Which a Man Can Be Made…

Phillips Brooks once portrayed what he called “the double parentage of every child born into the world⎯the heavenly and earthly parentage. Many fathers and mothers who are eager to advance the interest of their children never recognize this dual parentage,” he said. “They treat their children as if these children were of their own making… oblivious of the fact that the child is also of God’s making… We owe to our children above all things,… room enough to let them develop,… according to… their temperament, their character,… and sometimes their genius.” “A child is not a block of marble, to be hewn out into what you will. A child… is a plant which you are to set into the right soil of truth, and then watch as it develops its own special nature.” There is increasing evidence on the importance of loving, teaching, encouraging children from the very earliest years, and all along the whole developing length of life. A child untaught, unencouraged⎯a child unloved and left too much alone⎯is likely not to have a very high opinion of himself. And a child who doesn’t have a good opinion of himself is not likely to achieve much. There is an obligation always to help every child, at every age, at every level of life, to have a sincere awareness of his priceless importance and possibilities, to extend his interests and activities, to respect himself and others, and to reach and more fully realize the limitless, everlasting possibilities of life. We must cultivate young minds, all minds, or we shall have dull men. And it is unthinkable that any should be untaught, unloved, unencouraged, or left too much alone. As so well has been said: “A boy is the only known substance from which a man can be made.”