The Vilna Gaon's reading of חנוך לנער על פי דרכו turns on a fundamental premise about human nature: a person cannot break his inborn character or the constellation under which he was born, as הגר"א, משלי כב ו makes explicit, drawing on the Gemara in Shabbat — one born under Mars will inevitably be a shedder of blood, yet free choice allows him to channel that nature toward being a mohel (righteous), a slaughterer (intermediate), or a bandit (wicked).
The practical directive of the verse, on this reading, is therefore not to override the child's nature but to work within it: הגר"א, משלי כב ו states plainly that one should educate the child according to his mazal so that he performs mitzvot, because if you force him against his nature he will comply now out of fear but will later throw off the yoke, since it is impossible for him to break his mazal.
Even Sheleimah 1:7 applies this same principle directly, explaining that even one whose nature is bad should not try to go completely against it, since that will not endure; rather, he must be educated to walk in the right path in accordance with his own nature — illustrated again by the Mars example, where the correct education steers the child toward shochet or mohel rather than bandit.
Even Sheleimah 6:6 adds that diligence in learning from youth prevents the evil inclination from gaining later dominance, and that parents who are told a child has no need of such early formation should ignore that counsel — the verse חנוך לנער על פי דרכו is itself the answer, making early, nature-attuned education the foundation of lasting character.
Tzitz Eliezer (Tzitz Eliezer 21:32) rules that each person is naturally suited for a particular vocation or path according to his own inborn aptitude, and that the responsibility to identify and cultivate that aptitude belongs to educators and guides who are themselves grounded in Torah and fear of Heaven — giving this classical educational principle a contemporary halakhic application.
