Chasidut zu Mischlej 22:6

King Solomon said in Proverbs (22, 6): "Teach the lad according to his way, so that also in his old age he will not turn from it." This is the core of education: that not only at the time the child is young and in the domain of his father that he will listen and do according to the commandments, rather also when he grows up and is in his own domain, even when he becomes elderly he will not turn from it. Because education is not only commands, that one should command his son or student "Do such and such," so too is it not just habit, that one accustoms his son or student to good deeds. Education is far, far beyond commands or habit, and these two things, commands and habit, are simply tools used in its implementation which the educator is forced to use, to command or to habituate, in order to educate on the path of the LORD.

As Rashi, may his memory be blessed, explains the word chinukh (education), in the verse (Deuteronomy 20:5), "who built a house but did not dedicate it (chankho) - "Chinukh is a term for beginning." But it is obvious that we would not say, chinukh, about any beginning. For example, when the Gemara (Pesachim 116a) says about the order of the Haggadah, "One begins with disgrace and ends with praise," we would not say, "One is mechanekh with disgrace, etc." And likewise regarding the Sanhedrin (Sanhedrin 32a) - that we begin from the side - we would not say that, we are mechankhin from the side. However in Parashat Lech Lecha (Rashi on Genesis 14:14), Rashi explains it further to us, as follows: Chanikhiv, etc. whom he had trained in the commandments. It is a term for introducing a person or a thing, for the first time, to some particular occupation in which it is intended that he should remain. It has a similar sense in (Proverbs 22:6), "Chanokh the lad," in (Numbers 7:84) "the dedication (chanukat) of the altar" and in (Psalms 30:1) "The dedication (chanukat) of the house."