The purport of the above aphorism is that the
potential and possibility of tomorrow’s man is latent in
today’s child. In other words, it is his childhood
which shows what kind of a man the child will be in
the future.
Just as the morning shows the day, so the childhood
shows the ensuing manhood.
The epigram can be interpreted in two ways. If a man
is destind to be great or notorious in future, it
can be understood by observing his childhood behaviour;
and the other possible interpretation is that,
the way a child is brought up determines what he will
become in the future. Obviously, the two
interpretation is that, the way a child is brought up
determines what he will become in the future.
Obviously, the two interpretations are based on two
completely opposite angles of view, the first
being based on the beliefe in fate, and the second on
the notion that man is the architect of his own
fate. Necessarily, we shall explore into both the
angles of view.
Examples abound, with exceptions however, in support
of the first point of view. That the greatest
prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Sm) would be a prophet in the
future had been implied by his childhood
conduct. Edison was
the inventor Edison from his very boyhood. The poet Rabindranath demonstrated
himself in his early boyhood. Mdrconi and James Watt
evinced great enthusiasm in seientific things
when they were children. The great composer Beethofen
showed his creative talent in his early
boyhood. Thus many other examples can be cited in
support of the claim that a great man begins to be
great from his very childhood.
The opposite point of view–that how a child is brought
up determines what he will be in future–seems
to be more practicable and scientific. Man is the
architect of his own fate. Not only that, what a man
will be or achieve largely depends on what input is
instilled in him in the childhood. If, for example, a
child is brought up in an educated environment, where
he is provided with all possible facilities to
exploit and flourish his talent fully, then, it may be
hoped. He will become a very valuable and big
man in the future, if not in the extreme sense. If, on
the other hand, he, instead of being brought
up
that way, would be brought up in a crude environment
full of crimes corruption haughtiness or such
inhumane situations, then most probably he would
become a not-so-good or useless or harmful man,
if not notorious in the extreme sense. In these days
of science and research, the truth of these
statements is proven, and they are not mere
theoretical hypotheses. So we may repeat with emphasis
that we can expect a good man out of a well-brougth-up
child. In fact, the child is father of the man.
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