Moral Education at Home - A Classic Parenting Course That Influences a Child's Whole Life

Author: Wenli / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Quality Determines the Height of Life
One morning, on the shallow waterholes of the beach, many small fish that had been washed ashore by the storm the previous night were stranded. They were trapped in the shallow water, though just a stone's throw away from the sea, yet they couldn’t return. There were hundreds, even thousands, of trapped fish. Soon, the water in the shallow waterholes would be absorbed by the sand and evaporated by the sun, and all the fish would die.
There were three children by the beach. The first child ignored the trapped fish. He thought, "There are hundreds or thousands of fish in this waterhole. With my own strength, I can’t possibly save them all. Why bother wasting my effort?"
The second child bent down by a waterhole— he was picking up the small fish and throwing them back into the sea. The first child mocked him: "There are so many fish in this waterhole. How many can you possibly save? Save your strength."
"No, I’ll do my best!" the second child replied without looking up. "What’s the point? No one will care anyway." "This little fish matters!" he said, picking up a fish and throwing it into the sea. "This one matters, and this one too, and this one, and this one."
The third child was mocking the first two for their lack of brains. "A golden opportunity is falling from the sky— why not seize it?" he thought. So, he bent down, picked up the fish, and put them into a cloth bag made from his clothes.
Years later, the first child became a doctor. Once, while on duty, he refused to admit a critically ill patient because the family brought too little money, and as a result, the patient died right in front of him due to lack of timely treatment. Under public pressure, the hospital fired him for refusing to help those in need. He felt wronged and couldn’t bring himself to admit his mistake. He often thought, "With so many fish, could I have saved them?"
The second child also became a doctor. He was highly skilled and had a noble medical ethic. Regardless of whether his patients were rich or poor, he treated them with care. Thus, he became a renowned doctor in the local community, praised by everyone who mentioned his name. He often thought of the scene on the beach years ago. "I can’t save everyone, but I can still save some. I can definitely alleviate their suffering," he would tell himself.
The third child started a business and quickly became wealthy. After making a fortune overnight, he used his money to enter the political arena and rose through the ranks. Eventually, he was sentenced to death after being exposed for corruption and bribery. On the execution ground, the scene from the beach years ago flashed through his mind: small fish struggling to death in the cloth bag he had made from his clothes, their desperate eyes fixed on him.
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