Educating Children Takes Some Depth of Thought

This English version was translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The Chinese text is authoritative.

The story of sharing apples…… The earliest education a person receives in life comes from the family, from the mother’s early education of her child.

To study the influence of mothers on people’s lives, a famous American psychologist selected 50 successful people from across the United States, all outstanding achievers in their fields, and also 50 people with criminal records. He wrote to each of them, asking them to talk about their mothers’ influence on them.

Two replies made the deepest impression on him. One came from a well-known figure in the White House, the other from a prisoner serving a sentence. Both spoke of the same thing: how their mothers shared out apples when they were small. The prisoner wrote: When I was little, one day Mom brought several apples, some red, some green, of different sizes. At a glance I saw a big red one in the middle; I loved it and wanted it very much. Mom put the apples on the table and asked my younger brother and me: Which one do you want? I was just about to say I wanted the biggest, reddest one when my brother beat me to it and said exactly what I had meant to say. Hearing this, Mom glared at him and scolded: My child, you must learn to give good things to others; you can’t always think of yourself. So, thinking fast, I changed my answer: “Mom, I want the smallest one. Let my brother have the biggest.” Mom was delighted. She kissed me on the cheek and rewarded me with the big red apple. I got what I wanted, and from then on I learned to lie. Later I learned to fight, steal and rob; to get what I wanted, I would stop at nothing. Until now, when I have been sent to prison.

The well-known figure from the White House wrote: When I was little, one day Mom brought several apples, some red, some green, of different sizes. My brothers and I all scrambled for the big ones. Mom held up the biggest, reddest apple and said to us: “This apple is the biggest, the reddest and the tastiest. Everyone wants it. Very well, now let’s have a contest. I’ll divide the lawn in front of the house into three parts, one for each of you three to mow. Whoever does it fastest and best earns the right to it!”

The three of us competed at mowing, and in the end I won the biggest apple. I am very grateful to my mother. She taught me the simplest and most important truth: to get the best, you must strive to be first. That is how she always taught us, and how she always acted.

In our family, if you wanted anything good, you had to win it through competition. This was fair: whatever you want, and however much you want, you must pay a corresponding amount of effort and price for it! The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that moves the world. A mother is a child’s first teacher. You can teach him to tell his first lie, or you can teach him to be an honest person who always strives to be first.

Two very interesting pictures. Picture one: In small cooperation, set aside attitude and respect each other; in great cooperation, set aside self-interest and keep each other in balance; in a lifetime of cooperation, set aside temperament and help each other succeed. Always taking and never giving, or always willful and never yielding, you are bound to lose everything in the end. Growing together is the way to survive. So it is with work; so it is with marriage; so it is with friendship; so it is with a career!

Picture two: Everyone needs in life two friends like this: when he is in trouble, you hold him up; when you are in trouble, he holds you up.

Only a life like this is fearless and wonderful! This is friendship, this is solidarity, this is a team! May you be one of them.