Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.

Early influences set a direction that persists long after they are forgotten. What children are taught, and even more how they are taught to think, bends them in ways that show up decades later as instinct, taste and assumption. A young mind is pliable, which is both an opportunity and a responsibility for anyone shaping one.

If you raise or teach children, the small repeated lessons matter more than the occasional big speech. For yourself, it can help to name one habit of thought you picked up young and never examined. A grown tree cannot be straightened overnight, but it keeps growing and can still lean towards the light.