When a child is full of desires, if one could give him a desire of a higher kind… if one could awaken in him the desire to know, the desire to learn, the desire to become a remarkable person in this way, begin with that. As these things are difficult to do, so, gradually, he will develop his will for these things. Or even, from the material point of view, the desire to do something difficult, as for example, construct a toy which is difficult to make or give him a game of patience which requires a great deal of perseverance.
If one can orient them – it requires much discernment, much patience, but it can be done – and if one can orient them towards something like this, to succeed in very difficult games or to work out something which requires much care and attention, and can push them in some line like this so that it exercises a persevering will in them, then this can have results: turn their attention away from certain things and towards others.
