– If children aged 9 to 12 find a venue and start socializing there, is it necessary for an instructor to participate in this process in order to guide them?
– The instructor is necessary because otherwise there won’t be any upbringing taking place. Upbringing is when an older person who knows the youths’ future states is present and helps them form that state. Also, the instructor must do it gradually, unnoticeably, such as by giving them hints.
The educator, or instructor, must be invisible. He is on their level. However, that is because he descended to this level from his own higher level in order to elevate the students to his own level. It’s like an elevator that descends in order to elevate them. This is the role of the instructor.
Nonetheless, when he descends, he is on the same level as the children. The children don’t feel that the instructor is special or a grownup. They see him as someone who’s there to help them. He doesn’t do anything special and doesn’t give out any orders or try to rule over them in any other way. They should sense him as “Nothing more than we are.”
His mastery lies in his ability to influence them gradually, from the inside, in a way that’s imperceptible to the children. In this manner, he gathers them together and leads them to the decision to rise higher. He evokes this interest in them so their inner desires, questions, and various pressures gradually transform into a desire to unite, and thus rise to the next level. He has to give them hints about how to get together. On their own, they have no idea where their desires are leading them, but he inconspicuously monitors their direction through various hints and clues, while the children don’t notice he is doing it. Then, suddenly they say, “Yes, this is exactly what we need,” and they advance, without any doubt that they achieved this progress on their own.
This approach accords with the principle, “Raise a child according to his own way.”