In plain words
There are 24 hours in a day. Of these, three hours in the morning, three hours in the afternoon... in all you spend six hours in school. There are still eighteen hours left, are there not? Of these, you can use six hours for sleep and six hours for other work. You must spend the remaining six hours on spiritual sādhana and on developing the human values. Government education concerns bookish knowledge; Sathya Sai education concerns practical knowledge. This is true education. Yet you should not push it aside, thinking it is merely bookish knowledge. That too is needed. ‘For happiness in this world, the learning that brings gold; for happiness in the next, the knowledge of Brahman.’ For this world government education is needed; for the next, the spiritual principle is necessary. You should not think that these two are separate. They are like the two faces of one coin. So we must take up both.
Question: How can we understand the minds of the students?
First of all, come to know about your mind. Then you can look at the students' minds. If you develop a good mind, that goodness will enter the students too. You cannot see a student's mind. So you must watch his conduct carefully. How does he behave outside? How is he at home? How does he conduct himself at school? How does he move with his friends? You must enquire well into all of this. Only then will you be able to turn that student onto the right path. Under the influence of this modern age, parents give their children excessive freedom; they give them money as they please. In this way, ninety-nine percent of parents are themselves spoiling their children.
“I must give my boy freedom. He too has a mind. So he can behave as he likes”: so some think. But then why do such parents weep when the boy takes the wrong path? They should be glad that he behaves as he likes, should they not!