The father’s pedagogical rhetoric aims at guiding desire: fostering the right ones, suppressing the wrong. Imparting information is not enough, for moral character cannot grow from static cognition. With the goal of moral character clearly in view, the author avoids amassing advice on most of the virtues propounded elsewhere in Proverbs, such as interpersonal skills, diligence, and even social justice. He touches on these in only a few verses (3:9–10, 27–30; 4:23–24). He strips matters down to essentials