What does this proverb mean?

It's an old-fashioned metaphor, and the notion of catching flies is rather bizarre--did it refer to an antiquated, homemade form of flypaper? I am sure many more households regularly used honey and vinegar in the past than today. Also, in the past a proverb or a rhyme that would be memorized by children in their little schoolhouse was a reasonable way to teach various morals and rules of behavior. Today there are modern vehicles for lessons that kids are more likely to pay attention to (Facebook memes?). But one would have to be very ingenious to teach them to use sweet words and a cheerful disposition in the age of bullies, trolls, and Donald Trump. If you want your children to be sweet and kind, the best thing to do is model that behavior yourself.

This sort of thing falls more into the category of WISDOM than KNOWLEDGE.

Wisdom is taught in the home and religious settings of a person's life, not "school learnin'."

"Why isn't it taught today"? How do you know it isn't? And if it isn't, what makes you the fcuking expert on school curriculat that allows you to micromanage what specific proverbs kids get required to memorize? What part of math, science, literature, history, etc., would you eliminate from the curriculum to make room for this silly little metaphor-- which you admit you don't even fcuking understand?

Catch with sweetness rather than acid.

Receive your wish by kindness rather than scorn.

I don't know if it is or isn't taught today. I imagine it's still in use in traditional places.

It is taught today, whether intentionally or not. It means that you will be more liked if you are sweet and nice rather than bitter and angry.

Colony collapse had had a negative impact on the honeybee population . Hopefully we will find a solution to this problem, and have more honey for your goals in life ..🐝

It means that kindness usually works better than cruelty, the carrot better than the stick.

Flies will stick to honey.

Do not attempt to mistreat the people you want something.

bfdfdfbv