My suggestion.

...There is a well known saying that as the twig is bent, so grows the tree. What is true of plants is also true of people. The poet Wordsworth said, "The child is father of the man." He meant, of course, that our behavior and beliefs as adults are, to a large extent, determined by what happens to us when we are growing up.
http://64.233.161.104/search?

Patient Media | Family Brochure
... cone pine tree Caption: "As the twig is bent, so grows the tree." Detecting and correcting childhood problems can help avoid problems later as an adult. ...
www.patientmedia.com/previewproducts/ brochures/know/family.htm - 29k q=cache:Eriwmggl7b8J:www.nfb.org/books/books1/kj13.htm As the twig is bent, so g...


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Note added at 1 hr 56 mins (2005-02-15 22:20:26 GMT)
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Evidence suggests that the maxim \"as the twig is bent, so grows the tree,\" applies to civic engagement. One’s life-long propensity to engage civicly is generally forged in the coming-of-age years, even though the levels of engagement tend to rise over the life cycle for any given cohort. http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:LC7sFq0keaQJ:www.ksg.ha...

Whole Earth Review: For your own good. - book reviews
... Get started now. (It\'s free.). For Your Own Good. As the twig is bent, so grow the tree. A brutalized child will grow up to brutalize his own children. ...
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ mi_m1510/is_1987_Fall/ai_5185058 - 20k

... PRE SCHOOL TEACHERS In the words of the proverb, as the twig is bent, so grows the tree. ... that of the parents--in shaping the kind of adult a child will become. ...
static.highbeam.com/o/ occupationaloutlookquarterly/june221987/preschoolteachers/ - 16k