We decided to catch-up after a few years on the occasion of me leaving the city to pursue my next job. Almost all my friends are parents and our children and the concern of raising them correctly is dear to our hearts. We discussed how some religions indoctrinate children as soon as they are born, how can we save our children from getting influenced by them and preserve our ancient culture. People talked about ideas and by the end of our meeting it almost sounded like we devised another form of indoctrination with a different content than what we were trying to save the children from.
I wondered if we are programming computers by the language and logic of our choice or raising intelligent, curious, inquisitive youngsters who can make right choices on their own. For me, isolation is not a solution to bad influence, the ability to discriminate with intelligence is much more important.
There are just too many sources of influence in today's connected world and parents can't put a check on all of them without stunting the growth of a child. When children are too young to decide for themselves we need to build a trusting relationship where they feel empowered to communicate their dilemmas with parents. When they are mature enough they need to have the sense of right and wrong built on the values we hold important like love and humanity. This can only be imbibed by example not by words or books.
To be intelligent after all is to observe any problem or challenge without prejudice. And in the observation of the problem allow the solution to it to flower.
