When it comes to influencing him, the teachers will have a role, his friends and other sections of society will also have some influence upon him. You can't help it. You can't build a sanatorium for your child. Still, as a parent, you can play a very important role in allowing the child's intelligence to grow. Firstly if you think that when a child is born it is time to teach, then, you will ruin the child. When a child comes into your life, it is time to learn because you have missed much in your life. So much of your life has become distorted.
Now a child is just there looking at life fresh. You sit with him and look at life fresh. The only thing that you can do to your child is to give him love and support. Create a loving atmosphere for him where intelligence will naturally flower. That's the only thing that you can do. Your child need not do what you did in life. Your child should do something that you did not even dare to think in your life. Only then this world will progress and something will happen.
People think that to bring up a child lovingly means to get him everything that he asks for. It is very stupid and disgusting. If you look at your child with intelligence, can you not see that to get him everything that he asks for is sheer stupidity? But to this, you have given the name "love." How should you bring up a child? In whichever situation he is put, he should be able to live joyously, isn't it? That is the way he should be brought up.
If you want to bring up your child well, the first thing is, you should be happy. But you, by yourself, do not know how to be happy. In your house everyday there is a demonstration of tension, anger, fear, anxiety and jealousy. Only these things are being demonstrated to your child. What will happen to him? He will learn only these. If you really have the intention of bringing up your child well, you must first change your way of being. You should change yourself to be a loving, joyous and peaceful being. If you don't know how to keep yourself as a joyous, peaceful and loving human being, what can you do for your child? Your child will only imbibe your tensions, anger, anxiety and every other nonsense.
If you are really concerned about your child, first you must be willing to transform yourself. If you are incapable of transforming yourself, where is the question of you bringing up your child?
