"The reason why the youth of the present age are not more religiously inclined is that their education is defective. True love is not exercised toward children when they are allowed to indulge passion, or when disobedience of your laws is permitted to go unpunished. As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined. You love your ease too well. You are not painstaking enough. Constant effort is required, constant watchfulness and earnest, fervent prayer. Keep the mind in a praying mood, uplifted to God; be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. 2T 701.2"
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
EGW directly alludes to the proverb 'As the twig is bent, the tree's inclined,' which is a paraphrase of Proverbs 22:6, and uses it in the context of child-rearing, which is the same context as the original proverb.