Parents are primary teachers. The profound formative influence of the first six years of life is universally recognized. During these preschool years the primary teaching function of the family is not the elevating of the I.Q. but the nurturing of emotional maturity. Its work is to temper emotions, to order the emotions to proper ends, and to lay the foundation for cultivating the cardinal virtues. ....
Because love holds together the delicate membranes of human society and is the basis of our relationship with God, the chief need of the child is to experience love leading to a healthy self-love and to be able to love others as he has learned to love himself. Since love is taught essentially through a one-to-one relationship, nature sees to it that the vast majority of babies come one at a time, so that each child has his or her private tutor of love.
Kierkegaard said: "the trouble with life is that we understand it backwards but have to live it forwards." Our goal should be to educate the young so that they understand life as they live it forward and thereby help them make prudential judgments
From the introduction to the article at EWTN:
Dr. Ratner, recently departed, had one great message for his large circle of friends and clients: learn from nature. One of his pithy observations is that good doctors do not over-prescribe medical interventions, preferring to allow nature to do its work well: "There is a world of difference between a good doctor and a bad doctor but very little difference between a good doctor and no doctor at all"
Wow, I've never heard of this guy! How wise!
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