Raising intelligent children

Linh sat under a willow looking at the vast blue sea. On a trip to investigate a case, he had taken advantage of some free time to gaze at the sea and ease his mind. His work was sometimes so tense. Cunning criminals were truly hard to catch. While he was dreamily lost in thought, someone suddenly tapped his shoulder and said:

• Meeting you here again today.
  Linh started and turned round; it was the old man who had sold drinks on the mountain pass in the north-western highlands. Linh happily shifted over to sit beside him and asked:
• Why have you come here, sir? The other day, thanks to your advice, I solved the case very quickly. My colleagues followed their parents and seized the culprits. But why, when I went back that afternoon, could I not see your thatched stall anywhere, however hard I looked?
  The middle-aged man smiled and replied:
• You were probably preoccupied with thinking about the case and passed my stall without noticing it.
  Linh searched his memory in bewilderment, because he had been perfectly alert that day, driving slowly and deliberately looking for the thatched stall without finding it. But never mind.
• And what brings you all the way to Nha Trang?
• Wherever there is an affinity I go, whoever I have an affinity with I meet. The sea is beautiful, isn't it?
  Linh understood that the owner of the thatched stall was avoiding the question, so he politely stopped questioning him like an investigator. Linh said:
• Sir, the other day you said that a tendency to commit crime forms when a person has a mindset of disrespect towards those who deserve respect. I thought about it for more than a month before I began to grasp it somewhat, and I find it very reasonable. If the education system knew how to apply this principle, society would have less crime. By the way, since I have the chance, let me ask you something: how can we raise intelligent children?
  The man smiled and replied:
• Your child must be a few years old by now.
• You guess everything right. Yes, my boy is three now.
• In truth intelligence is partly innate; people differ from one another from the moment of birth. Explaining why requires analysing many causes: scientific causes, spiritual causes, and the wrongdoing and merit of family lines and ancestors, all of them. However, with the very same child, if we know how to raise them "intelligently" then that child will become more intelligent than their innate level.
  Linh listened eagerly.
  The man went on:
• Have you noticed that some poor regions produce many talented people for the country?
• Yes, I myself was born in a poor central province, but I studied very well and graduated from the security university as the outstanding top student. My friends say it is because I come from some region of "sacred land and outstanding people".
• It has nothing to do with sacred land and outstanding people. A little hardship, a little moral principle and a little sense of shame, and children will all do well. Whether a child's brain becomes quicker or duller is determined by the period from infancy to the age of ten. With the same innate level of intelligence, if the child is raised well they will become ten times more intelligent. With the same innate level of intelligence, if the child is raised wrongly they will gradually grow duller. The decisive period is the first ten years of life. After that, whether the brain gets cleverer or duller changes slowly and it just works along steadily. In the first ten years the brain changes very fast.
  To make a child's brain more intelligent, parents must themselves be very intelligent and know how to create complicated situations that train the child to think in increasingly complex ways. For example, when a hungry child sees a bottle of milk and wants to crawl to get it, we should put a few simple obstacles in the way so that the child has to work out how to deal with them before getting the bottle.
  When the child is a little older and visitors come to the house, we make the child come out and greet them. But we ask the child what to call the visitor: uncle, elder uncle, mother's brother, elder brother... The child must think to find the answer. In general, parents must be clever enough to push the child into situations that require complex thinking, rather than let the child live at ease and grow dull. Many rich families have intelligent genes but spoil their children too much; there are always people to serve them, so the child never has to use their brain, and so a brain with intelligent genes becomes duller after the age of ten.
  Best of all is to train the child to handle questions of ethics, so that both develop evenly. For example, when we see someone poor and suffering, we ask the child why they are poor and how we should help. Of course, a child of only a few years cannot give the right answer, but the child is made to raise complex thinking about ethics.
  Then we ask the child, "If you are home alone and a visitor comes, what will you do?"
  The child will answer wrongly at first; we correct and give hints so that the child gradually reaches the best answer. The child will learn to foresee danger and guard against it.
  We ask the child what they would do if they saw money that someone had dropped. Whatever the child answers, we question it again in return.
  All day long we keep asking the child about this and that, to force the child to think in complex ways from a very early age. This method of education requires parents who are intelligent and good-hearted enough to carry it out patiently. But after a while the child is visibly more intelligent, and we are delighted and keep teaching with enthusiasm.

Linh bowed in admiration at his philosophy and suddenly asked:

• All this time I still haven't asked your name, sir. What is it?
• My name is Minh.
• Whose house are you staying at here?
• Wherever I go there's an acquaintance I can stay with.
• Have you ever been to Ho Chi Minh City?
• Of course. I have a friend named Hải in District 9. He has opened a meditation hall where people can come and practise stillness free of charge; it's very good.
• I've heard about stillness practice too, but I don't quite understand it. Stillness means not thinking about anything, making the mind light and at ease, is that right, sir?
• That's right.
• Then, if we stop thinking altogether, won't we slowly grow dull?
  Mr Minh smiled and replied:
• Making one's mind still is an extremely difficult problem. Working out how to make one's mind still is the most complex thinking on Earth, so don't worry: the more you practise stillness, the more intelligent you will become. If you go to Ho Chi Minh City, remember to look for Mr Hải's meditation hall and practise stillness there.
• Yes, I'll follow your advice.
  Then Mr Minh said goodbye and left. 👮‍♂️

Anyone with spare time to sit down and compile such techniques for teaching children from an early age would be of great benefit to society. Nurseries and kindergartens should adopt the method of making children think in increasingly complex ways from very early on, and then later generations will be very intelligent.
We press the child to weigh up, think through and choose actions in keeping with ethics and what is right. In this way we both awaken intelligence and cultivate ethics. The child's mind will be balanced, and when grown will be of benefit to society.