In plain words
This itself is the mistake. We must keep the children under control from the very beginning. When the road is good and there are no people about, you can go fast in a car. But where many people move about and where there are many turns, they put up “speed breakers”. What for? For the safety of all. In the same way, we must also put some brakes on the children's freedom. In what matters should we give freedom? In what matters should we not give it? We must have that discernment.
If a boy takes the wrong path, we must impose a strict punishment. There we must not give freedom. In good matters, though, we may give any amount of freedom. But we must keep watching carefully from behind. The responsibility to set children on the right path is first of all the parents'. The son is the father's responsibility, the daughter is the mother's responsibility. For the daughter always moves in her mother's shadow. So if a girl is not right, that is the mother's fault; if a boy goes bad, that is the father's fault.
At school, too, teachers must try to set the children on the right path with good words. “My dear! If your conduct is not right, you will earn a bad name. Not only that, you will become one who has spoiled the name of your parents and the name of your family too. Uphold your parents' name by good conduct; uphold the name of the school you study in”: so they must teach them. In foreign countries many children do not know what humility and obedience are. The members of our Sathya Sai organisation must gather such children and teach them humility and obedience. “My dear! You are not a beast of prey, to frighten others; you are not a beast of the herd, to be afraid of others. The beast of prey frightens; the beast of the herd is afraid. You were born a human being. So you should not frighten, and you should not be afraid”: teaching them so, they must turn them onto the good path. Life is a long journey. Man is one who must live for a long time. So he must lead a divine life. He must aspire not to a long life but to a divine life. In this way, by speaking good words, you must try to set the children right.