The Rebbe said: "A child's character education should take priority over his academic education. All educational efforts are basically meaningless unless built on the solid foundation of good character".
A couple once visited a rabbi to seek advice about how to educate their twelve-year-old son. The rabbi answered them: "You have come to me twelve years too late. A human being is like a tree. If you make a scratch on the branch of a full-grown tree, you affect only that branch. But if you make even a minuscule scratch on a seed, the tree will never grow straight, if it grows at all."
If there is one single factor within our control that can directly determine who we are as people, it is education. There is only one way to produce healthy and wholesome adults, people who will lead selfless and meaningful lives, and that is to educate our children.
Education is not just learning the skills to make a living; it is learning to understand life itself. Life is the recognition of G-d and the mission that He has charged us with -- refining ourselves and sanctifying our world.
Imparting information is but a small and rather simple component of education. A true education -- an education for life -- consists of teaching children that they have an uncompromising responsibility to G-d to live morally and ethically, which will sustain them individually and create a better world for their children and for generations to come.
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