As Professor Makarov mentioned in his lecture about Leonardo da Vinci, “a happy childhood is when your parents do not bother you too much”. Here’s a link to an excellent interview on why children want nothing. A must-read for all parents 🙂
“… Imagine a typical fifth-grader during the USSR era. He describes himself as follows: ‘I’m Vovka. I’m the neighborhood champion in knife throwing. I have one friend, Serezha, and one enemy, Petka from the adjacent yard. Sometimes, Serezha and I gang up on Petka. They say it’s wrong—two against one. But he’s in seventh grade, and we’re in fifth. When he catches us alone, he beats us. So sometimes we have to beat him together. I want to become a pilot. They told me to do gymnastics in the morning and douse myself with cold water. But I can’t keep it up: I start doing all these things and then I quit. I’ve figured out why it happens—my willpower is weak. I’m working on it. I’ve jumped off the garage onto a pile of sand twice. It’s very scary, but I overcame myself. My willpower didn’t grow. But I’m not stopping.”
You see? What can we say about the intellect and education of this boy? They are not excellent, but this kid understands his place in the space assigned to him. Note that, in his space, there are ethical issues, issues related to his personality. Issues like what he perceives as weak willpower. He has his achievements and shortcomings, friends and foes, and some sort of goal gradient he is striving towards. This is a child, frankly speaking, not very actively looked after by anyone. We don’t know about his extracurricular activities (most likely, he doesn’t attend any). Yet, I repeat, he is entirely situated in the space assigned to him by fate. And many modern children lack this sense.”
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 