In Deuteronomy 6:6, known as the Shema -- which we recite every morning and evening, it is written as follows:
"And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; you shall teach them thoroughly to your children, and you shall speak of them when sitting in your home and walking on the road, when you lie down and when you rise."
Our Sages tell us that when G-d came to give the Torah to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai, He demanded a guarantee that that they will not forsake it.
Said the people of Israel: "The heaven and the earth shall be our guarantors."
Said G-d: "They won't last forever."
Said they: "Our fathers will guarantee it."
Said G-d: "They are busy."
Said they: "Our children will guarantee it."
Said G-d: "These are excellent guarantors."
This is the key to the eternity of a people, the guarantee that man's work as "a partner with G-d in creation" continues. That each generation transmit to the next all that they have learned. Education is the training of children and youngsters. It is the child who needs to be taught -- to be imparted knowledge, to be aided in the honing of faculties and skills, to be guided in the development of a moral self that distinguishes between right and wrong and never loses sight of its responsibilities towards G-d
Education, however, is a life-long endeavor. Within our own selves, too, is a perpetual need to learn, develop and grow, to cultivate the seeds and saplings of our present potential into the trees and fruits of future achievement.
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