The foundation of upbringing is religious teaching, i.e. the explanation of the meaning and purpose of life.
People consider it a crime to lie before the court and ignoble to say falsehoods when speaking to one’s peers, but to say all kinds of nonsense and lies to children is not only considered all right, but, on the contrary, is deemed almost necessary. And yet, it seems clear that it is the children with whom the adults should be especially careful about what they say to them.
Religious teaching, as an explanation of the meaning and purpose of life, which had answered the needs of people a thousand years ago, cannot satisfy the people of our time. And yet, children are taught before all else that which had answered the needs of people a thousand years ago. This is a terrible mistake.
“If only it were possible to educate children in such a way that all that which is unclear would remain to them wholly incomprehensible!” (Lichtenberg)
What these words mean is that it should not be suggested to children, as is typically done, that all improbabilities of superstition can have a basis. By accepting such reasoning, children grow accustomed to unclear semi-proofs and assume the incomprehensible to be comprehensible.
From the things which we discover too much of and prematurely in childhood we will probably know nothing afterwards even in old age, and a person who likes everything to have a sound foundation in the end becomes a sophist of his youthful delusions.
— Kant
We must communicate to children only the things that they will understand such that when they grow up they will not be able to add anything more to this understanding.
Always be truthful, and especially with a child. Fulfill your promises to him, otherwise you will teach him to lie.
— The Talmud
It would be good to study the question of whether or not it is harmful to polish children too much during their upbringing. We do not yet know enough about the human being not to leave this to chance, if I can put it this way. I am convinced that if our pedagogues were to go the whole distance—by which I mean: if they were in a position to instruct children exactly how they wanted—then we would no longer have a single truly great person. Naturally, we were never taught the most important things in life.
God forbid that a human being, whose teacher is the whole of nature, were to become a piece of wax, upon which some professor would stamp his exalted image.
— Lichtenberg
Do not tell a child whom you are bringing up things which you do not wholly believe or even things which you doubt, and especially do not present such things as sacred, indisputable truths. To do this is a great crime.
