Question and Answer Session On:
"Instilling Love of Torah in Children" by Rabbi Nissan Kaplan, shlita

note:To hear the original audio click here
Question: How do you motivate a kid to want to learn? What motivated you when you were...

Rabbi Kaplan: You see that your parents are machshiv (consider important). This is what your parents look up to. They see that their father is happy by learning. If he sees that his father is happy by learning then he's motivated to learn. They see that the father enjoys it. The father is not stressed. The father shows enjoyment about learning.

Question: That's the key thing?

Rabbi Kaplan: This is the key.

Question: What about being moser nefesh (making big efforts)?

Rabbi Kaplan: He can be moser nefesh, but if he sees that the father is happy, the father believes in it, the father wants it.

Question: I see. But there were alot of cases like that and still the kids don't become...

Rabbi Kaplan: We don't know.This secret we don't know. You have to have siyata d'shmaya (divine help). Everybody has to have siyata d'shmaya. L'mashal tzadik v'rasha. Rasha v'tov lo. Tzadik ben tzadik, tzadik ben rasha.. There's no rules.
(To hear the original audio click here)

SUPPLEMENT
After this, I asked Rav Naftali Kaplan (Rav Nissan's father) the same question. He answered me that it's mainly two things. One the same as Rav Nissan, i.e., that the father enjoys learning and two, he added that the father is happy when his son is learning. That the son should see that his father is happy to see him learning. He emphasized though that "it's more the first".

Also, my good friend Yosef, (the 2nd webmaster) was once invited with his wife to Rav Nissan's home for a shabbos meal. Rav Nissan told him something which left a strong impression. He said about his father (Rav Naftali Kaplan): "I don't remember him ever raising his voice to my mother."