“The Childhood shows the man as morning shows the day”, so said Milton. The moment we see a child we will know what kind of a man he or she is going to shape-up. William Wordsworth has said more cryptically that “The child is the father of a man.” Both the poets emphatically said that tomorrow’s man is in today’s child, like the future tree is in today’s seed.

Many great men have displayed their future greatness in their childhood. Childhood is the reflection of future personality. The habits, traits, qualities of a man; are usually the development of the habits, traits he had as a child.  Napoleon had built forts of snow during hid childhood. Mahatma Gandhi never copied the work kettle in his school days. Thomas Edison displayed the creativeness of a scientist in his early childhood. Shivaji in his childhood loved to listen the stories of great heroes of the Ramayana and the Mahabharat and became a great warrior himself. Great scientist C.V. Raman the first Asian to win the Noble Prize was one of the most brilliant students in his Childhood. Chandra Sekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh showed their zeal to fight against any injustice in their Childhood. Many more examples like that Subash Chandra Bose, Florence Nightingale can be quoted to prove the veracity of the proverb that “The Child is the father of man”.

 Childhood is very precious. The mind of a child is like a piece of wax or clay which can be fashioned, moulded in to any shape. The teachers and parents are potters deciding what shape the clay should take. An old Chinese saying is “Give a seed to a potter and you will get a bonsai”.

What important is the school ambience. The primary purpose of a school is to guide the child in his or her discovery of herself/himself and his or her world. Each seed contains the future tree. Each child is born with infinite potential. In a good school the teacher is true guide who helps to bring out the potential already present in the child. It was Biswamitra who had produced the unparalleled archer in Lord Ram. Arjun was a great warrior only for his Guru Dronacharya. Children are the future of tomorrow. A drop of water that finds its way in the mouth of oyster will indeed become the real pearl. A gem could not shine unless it is properly polished. Hence, let us give our children freedom to truly explore life so that they will flower into a creative and sensitive human being.