should treat people as they come. He would have to treat gentle people gently and tough people tough.
As a good father that he was, Abraham Lincoln desired his son to develop the same attribute. He did not want to have a weak son. He wanted his son to rise to his capability rather than being brushed aside by others who were less capable that he is. He had to rise and challenge those persons that think they can intimidate him. He needed to be tough with tough people. He also wanted him to know that though people may be tough and he has to be tough with them, toughness should not be the norm. Some persons are gentle, and he would have to produce a gentle endearment towards them. In his words, “teach him to be tough with tough people and gentle with gentle people.”
Children should learn the need to develop a tough side to tough situations. They should not be cowards. They should learn to develop attributes of bravery in situations however daunting it may seem.
Heroic status is accorded, only to brave people. Daunting persons or situations should not intimidate them. Rather they are to see themselves equal to the task of challenging the challenge before them. They have to develop a tough mane as the lion would.
Some persons may be acclaimed tough and try to seize on their toughness against others. Children are prone to such attributes. Maybe because of their size, they could seize on that to intimidate their peers. Children should learn to stand up to what is out rightly wrong however tough the person may seem to be.
Teachers at school have the responsibility of developing courage in their wards. Students should have the courage to speak out on issues that affect them. They should not just stand and watch while others abuse them.
Teachers should open a forum for discuss on matters affecting their wards so that there is a channel of interaction. This will develop in them the sense that someone hears them. There should be a conscious effort to help children get through their tough moments by helping them develop tough attributes knowing that it is in them is the power to challenge their tough moments and win.
Having to be tough does not mean having to fight. It means standing up to what is unwholesome or wrong. Children know when something is wrong and though they would love to say, they feel encumbered by their size and the fear that others may consider them not mature enough to know what is right. They should know that when something affects them they have a right to speak out.
Parents have an overall duty to input in their wards as they grow the need not to cower when something affects them but to rise and speak against it. Children copy their mates. And when they do see their mates act, they copy. Tough parents often influence their wards to be tough.
The need to develop a gentle mane should be encouraged. Children should be gentle. Children should know that though fast as life may seem, and speedy as the race may be, the slow and steady often win the race. They have to develop the virtue of gentleness learning not to fight for everything.
While some things will have to be fought for, most require gentleness to push them through. The world need gentle but not fearful people, people who will, though gentle, stand, and defend themselves and others, people though gentle but revered.
Abraham Lincoln survived through his political career because he was tough when he had to be. His heroics remain today heralded because he stood up to people that he should have stood up to. He was considered a threat for his heroics and he was assassinated but his conquests continue to this day to be the inspiration many the world over rely on. Lincoln and his son are long gone but they remain in the good history books