Train up children in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.”  I grew up in a religious household, and this verse from Proverbs was one of the more oft-quoted sayings around our home.  The interpretations of this idea are manifold, but the favorite one of my parents was that if they were diligent in teaching me the tenets of their faith, then, when I got older, I would be one of the faithful.

It’s a reasonable thought, but in my case, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Another way of thinking of about this verse is that, perhaps, it is speaking to discipline.  If we, as parents, set well-defined boundaries like bedtimes and dietary rules (you have to eat your vegetables, etc.) and encourage our children to be ethical little people, then one day they will grow up to be ethical big people who go to bed at reasonable hours and live relatively healthy lives.  This is another plausible concept, but I’m not convinced it works in every case. […]