If children must be taught anything at all, it should be this: never learn what others try to teach you.

 A scene plays in my mind: in childhood, perhaps ten years ago, during an art class, the teacher looked at my drawing and said, “But you didn’t color the ground. Are the trees flying in the air?” Only now do I have the chance to reply: “You do not tell me how to draw. You have zero authority to chain me.” To guess what kind of person she was, that single “but” she used was more than enough. But my child mind had already grown used to seeing her as a teacher, that is, an authority. If children must be taught anything at all, it should be this: never learn what others try to teach you.