New Delhi, June 21 -- "A frog's child is a frog."

(Kaeru no ko wa kaeru)

A frog does not produce anything other than a frog. The child carries what the parent was. Habits, values, temperament, and ways of seeing the world pass quietly between generations. This is not a judgment. It is simply an observation about how human beings are shaped.

The proverb works on multiple levels simultaneously. At its most literal, it describes biological inheritance. But its deeper meaning is cultural and behavioural. Children absorb what surrounds them long before they can evaluate it critically. The home is the first and most powerful classroom any person ever attends.

What parents do consistently matters far more than what they say occasionally. The...