DOCSLIB.ORG

Cahiers Lasalliens

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Cahiers Lasalliens Cahiers lasalliens TEXTS STUDIES - DOCUMENTS THE CONDUCT OF SCHOOLS Pedagogical Approach Brother Léon LAURAIRE, F.S.C. 62 MAISON SAINT JEAN-BAPTISTE DE LA SALLE - 476, VIA AURELIA - ROME French original; LA CONDUITE DES ÉCOLES APPROCHE PÉDAGOGIQUE English translation by Brother Allen Geppert, F.S.C. If not stated otherwise, this English translation follows the first printed French text of the 1706 man- uscript of the Conduct of Schools. French text in: Saint Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, Œuvres Complètes. Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes, Rome, 1993, pp. 1575. Parallel in Lasallian Publications are given. ABREVIATONS CE : The Conduct of the Christian Schools according to Œuvres Complète [OC], Rome 1993. OC : Œuvres Complètes by Frères des Écoles Chrétiennes – Rome, 1993. CL : Cahiers lasalliens are cited as (serial number and page). LS : Lasallian Studies are cited as (serial number and page). MF : Meditations for the principal feasts of the year. MR : Meditations for the time of retreat. LT : Lasallian Themes - 3 volumes, Rome, 1992-97: LT1 (Themes 1-32), LT2 (33-65), LT3 (66-99). RC : Règles Communes - The Rule [1705 / 1718]. FSC : Fratres Scholarum Christianarum, Latin for: Brothers of the Christian Schools. Brother Léon LAURAIRE, F.S.C. THE CONDUCT OF SCHOOLS Pedagogical Approach Translated by Br. Allen GEPPERT, FSC ROME 2006 PREFACE At a time when in France - and not only in France - the memory of fratrici- dal conflict still persists, what is the significance of commemorating the ter- centenary of the writing of the Conduct of Christian Schools which appeared in manuscript form in 1706? For John Baptist de La Salle’s disciples whose work is governed by the rule of his Institute, as for all those who cooperate in this educational undertaking, it is most certainly a family celebration, for it is a commemoration of something which unites them. At a deeper level, this return to sources is a means of understanding our present in the light of the differentness of a past which endures. Anyone who set out to find in the Conduct of Christian Schools a collection of magic formulas which could solve the present-day crisis in education would certainly be quickly disappointed. It is enough to open this book to find ourselves immediately in an unfamil- iar world: nothing corresponds to the situations we know today, even if edu- cational historians have sought to find in it the origins of popular school instruction, traces of which, they believe, can still be found in our system of primary education: these include the school calendar and class timetables, cumulative teaching programmes beginning with reading, followed by writ- ing and then by counting, arrangements making simultaneous teaching pos- sible. However, to borrow an expression from Michel de Certeau, this pre- scriptive ideal, this past historical model “appears simultaneously as our native land and a deserted country”1. We are no longer in tune with the language used by John Baptist de La Salle. Two examples will suffice. We can no longer accept his views on social hier- archy, considered as an order willed by God; and the corporal punishments he mentions would not be tolerated in our own days, even though he rec- 1 Michel de Certeau, La Faiblesse de croire, Paris, Seuil, 1987, p. 58. 6 PREFACE 62 ommends they be sparingly used, without emotional involvement, and invites the teachers in his charge to avoid all violence in administering them. So, what should we salvage from this book which has inspired generations of Brothers of the Christian Schools, if the “Lasallian” spirit we hoped to find there vanishes as we examine it from a historical point of view; and the age in which it was written seems quite alien to us? In reality, we should not be astonished by the fact that John Baptist de La Salle thinks, writes and acts according to the concepts of his time. The interpretation of the Conduct of the Christian Schools proposed by Brother Léon Lauraire is intended precise- ly to place this work in the specific context of France at the end of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th, while avoiding all anachronisms. While the initiatives and original discoveries of John Baptist de La Salle cor- respond to the historical context in which they took place, they cannot, how- ever, be reduced to the language of that context, unless we wish to reduce the past to a mere object. The passing of time enables us today to realise the dis- tance there was between what John Baptist de La Salle did and what was nor- mal practice at the time. He was a man who disturbed, who did not hesitate to upset ecclesiastical authorities: for a group of teachers, who were neither ecclesiastics nor lay persons, to set themselves up as models for their pupils, was not normal practice. By formally forbidding the Brothers of the Christian Schools to learn Latin - “Brothers who have learned it will make no use of it once they enter the Society, and they will behave as if they did not know it”2 - the Founder removed all hope they could ever aspire to the priesthood and, by doing so, he bound them to their specific vocation of teaching the poor. He also avoided the creation of off-shoots as happened in the case of congregations founded initially to run poor schools and who, like the Scolopini, at the end of the 18th century, were running highly selective boarding schools for the nobility. For John Baptist de La Salle, the commu- nity of the Brothers of the Christian Schools was composed of “lay persons, without studies, with a very average intelligence”. While not wishing to refuse entry to “persons who had studied”, they would be admitted “only on 2 Rule and Foundational Documents, chap. 26, § 1, p. 96. 62 PREFACE 7 condition they would never study again”, and this for three reasons: “studies are not necessary for them”; they can make them wish “to abandon their state”; community spiritual exercises and school-work required “a complete person”3. These rigorous admission requirements explains why, by compari- son with all the other male congregations and orders, the Brothers of the Christian Schools continued throughout the 18th century to have a much more “popular” and mostly working-class social background, which served to draw teachers closer to their pupils. The unusual dress of the Brothers, to which John Baptist de La Salle attached great importance, was intended to distinguish them from the society from which they were separated, and espe- cially from the clergy whose functions they must never be tempted to exer- cise: “As the members of this community are for the most part unrefined, unpretentious and without learning, and their behaviour is governed only by what impresses them, there is a need for something which will impress upon them that they belong to the community, both to make them join it and to remain in it, and to make them observe the Rules in it.”4 The historian will perhaps seize upon the cultural distance which separated the Founder from his brothers in religion, given that John Baptist de La Salle came from one of the best families in the city of Rheims, and had links with the great merchant and public office dynasties which ran the city. But he chose this “lack of refinement” precisely to found a new and particular religious state which could not be classified as being clerical. It was exactly this same “lack of refinement” which shocked the members of De La Salle’s family when he invited “persons of low birth and no education” to his house. According to them, as François Élie Maillefer, his biographer writes, “in this way, he would drive away all respectable people from his house, and would find himself abandoned and despised by everybody.”5 We can understand better, therefore, the importance attached to the task of “civilisation” undertaken by the Rules of Christian Decorum and Civility - rules which were intended as much for the Brothers as for their pupils. What 3 Idem, Memoir on the Habit, § 5 & 10, p. 181-82 & 183. 4 Ibid., § 36, p. 188. 5 Cf. LR - Two early biographers - François Élie Maillefer (Rheims ms 1426, of 1740), p. 42. 8 PREFACE 62 we have here is a real missionary project, which aims at inducing ordinary townspeople to become converted and to practise their faith, providing them with memorised religious knowledge, including readings, and religious prac- tices adopted in childhood. The Brothers had to be for their pupils imitable models of the Christian virtues. Hence the insistence on modesty: “The Brothers shall endeavour by their whole exterior and by their entire conduct to be to their pupils a continual example of modesty, and of all the other virtues they ought to teach them and urge them to practise.”6 External appearances reflect what is interior: the rules of decorum should be observed “through purely Christian motives, which concern the glory of God and one’s own salvation.” “Parents and teachers should avoid telling children in their care that, if they fail to act in a certain way, people will blame them, will not have any respect for them, or will ridicule them. Such remarks will serve only to inspire children with the spirit of the world and turn them away from the spirit of the Gospel. Instead, when they wish to make children adopt external practices regarding bodily care and simple modesty, they should take care to induce them to do so because of the presence of God.”7 For John Baptist de La Salle, civility is a missionary undertaking to perme- ate all behaviour with Christianity, since “Christian decorum is wise and well-regulated conduct which governs what we do and say.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Meghan Kort B.A., University of Northern BC, 2014
    The Girls Who Spoke for God: Vocation and Discernment in Seventeenth-Century France by Meghan Kort B.A., University of Northern BC, 2014 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of History ã Meghan Kort, 2016 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee The Girls Who Spoke for God: Vocation and Discernment in Seventeenth-Century France by Meghan Kort B.A., University of Northern BC, 2014 Supervisory Committee Dr. Sara Beam, Department of History Supervisor Dr. Jill Walshaw, Department of History Departmental Member iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Sara Beam, Department of History Supervisor Dr. Jill Walshaw, Department of History Departmental Member During the seventeenth century, the Catholic Reformation sparked unprecedented growth in girls' educational opportunities with the opening of over five hundred new teaching convents. Yet, the active role girls played in these institutional and social changes is often overlooked. Even though girls' autobiographical writing from the seventeenth century is rare, prescriptive, educational, and biographical sources from convent schools are rich in details about girls' lives and vocational discernment. Upon leaving school, girls were encouraged to take either marriage or religious vows. Since orthodox Catholicism taught that salvation could only be received if one's life reflected God's will this decision was weighty. In fact, reformed convents tested their entrants to ensure that their vocations were freely chosen and not forced. Seventeenth-century girls' educational theorists shared this concern, and while they debated the details of curriculum, they agreed that only girls had the authority to articulate their own God-given vocations.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a New Portrait of Madame Élisabeth De France Maria Spencer Wendeln Wayne State University
    Wayne State University Wayne State University Dissertations 1-1-2015 Princess On The aM rgins: Toward A New Portrait Of Madame Élisabeth De France Maria Spencer Wendeln Wayne State University, Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/oa_dissertations Part of the Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation Wendeln, Maria Spencer, "Princess On The aM rgins: Toward A New Portrait Of Madame Élisabeth De France" (2015). Wayne State University Dissertations. Paper 1322. This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@WayneState. It has been accepted for inclusion in Wayne State University Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@WayneState. PRINCESS ON THE MARIGNS: TOWARD A NEW PORTRAIT OF MADAME ÉLISABETH DE FRANCE by MARIA SPENCER WENDELN DISSERTATION Submitted to the Graduate School of Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 2015 MAJOR: HISTORY Approved by: ____________________________________ Advisor Date ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ ____________________________________ © COPYRIGHT BY MARIA SPENCER WENDELN 2015 All Rights Reserved DEDICATION For my sisters in French heritage and history: Alice du Puy Spencer, my grandmother; Josephine du Puy, her sister and my godmother; Mary Paulette Van Vactor Heil, my beloved friend; and Mary Joan Gills Spencer, my mother and fellow researcher. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My acknowledgements begin with a special note of gratitude to Dr. Christopher Johnson. I could have not had a better adviser for my master’s thesis and this work in part derives from his guidance on my analysis of Madame Élisabeth’s 1787 portrait by Labille-Guiard.
    [Show full text]
  • United in Division: the Polarized Nation in Restoration France
    United in Division: The Polarized French Nation, 1814-1830 Maximilian Paul Owre A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2008 Approved by: Dr. Lloyd Kramer Dr. Jay M. Smith Dr. Donald Reid Dr. Karen Hagemann Dr. Steven Vincent @2008 Maximilian Paul Owre ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii Abstract Maximilian Paul Owre: United in Division: The Polarized French Nation, 1814-1830 (Under the direction of Dr. Lloyd Kramer) This dissertation analyzes the political culture of the Bourbon Restoration (1814-1830), the first stable post-revolutionary, post-Napoleonic regime in France. It uses recent theoretical developments in cognitive linguistics and frame analysis to examine the impact of a polarized political conflict between liberals and ultraroyalists, the era’s two main factions, on French society. Drawing on published and archival sources such as formal political treatises, pamphlets, poems, popular songs, and state administrative and police records, this dissertation shows how polarized frames for understanding and participating in political life made the division between Left and Right a pervasive social metaphor. Each chapter outlines the frameworks that liberals and ultras used to understand the nation and conduct politics in a polarized public sphere. These ideas spread to diverse locations in France and among varied social classes, triggering further polarization in society. Specific case studies focus on events such as the expulsions of the Abbé Grégoire (1819) and Jacques-Antoine Manuel (1823) from the Chamber of Deputies and the 1823 military intervention in Spain to illustrate the political struggles that grew out of two mutually exclusive conceptions of the French nation.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward an Ecological Understanding of the Vendée
    TOWARD AN ECOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE VENDÉE: OLD MYTHS AND NEW PARADIGMS Paul Strietelmeier, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2011 APPROVED: Michael V. Leggiere, Major Professor Marilyn Morris, Committee Member Geoffrey Wawro, Committee Member Richard McCaslin, Chair of the Department of History James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Strietelmeier, Paul. Toward an Ecological Understanding of the Vendée: Old Myths and New Paradigms. Master of Arts (History), August 2011, 104 pp., 1 illustration, references, 54 titles. This work explores the motivations of the two major parties in the civil war in the Vendée from 1793 to 1796. It suggests that traditional understandings overemphasize simplistic notions of the idealistic crusade; the Revolutionaries fought for Republican ideals, while the locals fought to defend traditional Catholicism. This thesis suggests that the major motive for both sides was a fight for survival that was framed and expressed in political and religious terms rather than motivated by them. The reason that these motives have been confused is a long misunderstood connection between the means of discourse, the structure of social values, and their connection to any individual’s perceived sense of safety, which suggests an ecological, or holistic, rather than a Manichaean framework. Copyright 2011 by Paul Strietelmeier ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Brill.Com10/05/2021 07:00:10AM Via Free Access Vilnius Vilnius
    Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies 1.1 (2019) 1–118 brill.com/brp Jesuit Schools and Universities in Europe 1548–1773 Paul F. Grendler University of Toronto, Emeritus paulgrendler@gmail.com Abstract Paul F. Grendler, noted historian of European education, surveys Jesuit schools and universities throughout Europe from the first school founded in 1548 to the suppres- sion of the Society of Jesus in 1773. The Jesuits were famed educators who founded and operated an international network of schools and universities that enrolled students from the age of eight or ten through doctoral studies. The essay analyzes the organiza- tion, curriculum, pedagogy, culture, financing, relations with civil authorities, enroll- ments, and social composition of students in Jesuit pre-university schools. Grendler then examines the different forms of Jesuit universities. The Jesuits did almost all the teaching in small collegiate universities that they governed. In large civic–Jesuit uni- versities the Jesuits taught the humanities, philosophy, and theology, while lay profes- sors taught law and medicine. The article provides examples ranging from the first Jesuit school in Messina, Sicily, to universities across Europe. It features a complete list of Jesuit schools in France. Keywords schools – universities – education – Jesuits – Europe – France – Italy – German- speaking lands – humanities – philosophy Part 1: Schools 1 The First School: Goa, Gandía, or Messina? The Jesuits founded three schools in the 1540s. Although primacy claims have been
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Married Nuns in the French Revolution
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Married Nuns in the French Revolution: The Sexual Revolution of the 1790s DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History by Kathryn Elizabeth Marsden Dissertation Committee: Professor Timothy Tackett, chair Professor Sarah Farmer Professor Ulrike Strasser 2014 © 2014 Kathryn Elizabeth Marsden DEDICATION To my mother, Debora Marsden, who taught me that I could be whatever I wanted to be, and who has supported me every step of the way. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi CURRICULUM VITAE ix ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION xi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1: Nuns in the Old Regime: Facts and Fictions 15 CHAPTER 2: Religieuses into Citoyennes? Negotiating the Revolution, 51 1789 to 1792 CHAPTER 3: Married Nuns: A New Appraisal 90 CHAPTER 4: Married Nuns: In Their Own Words 124 CONCLUSION 146 BIBLIOGRAPHY 155 APPENDIX 164 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Le Tiers État marient les Religieux avec les Religieuses (Paris, 1790), 78 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Figure 2: La Discipline Patriotique ou le fanatisme corigé (Paris, 1791), 84 Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Figure 3: Map of Marriages by Department 104 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Number of Marriages by Year 100 Table 2: Ages of Married Nuns in 1792 105 Table 3: Married Nuns by Religious Order 108 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Throughout my graduate career I have benefited from the support of an excellent teacher, advisor, and mentor. Thank you, Tim Tackett. Everyday that I have worked with him has been a challenge and a pleasure.
    [Show full text]
  • Synarchy Movement of Empire
    SYNARCHY MOVEMENT OF EMPIRE BOOK III *************************** THE SYNARCHY INTERNATIONAL **************************** by Pierre Beaudry Leesburg Va. June 20, 2005 1 BEASTMAN FRANCO 2 DEDICATION. This book is dedicated to the LaRouche Youth Movement (LYM) worldwide, and particularly to the French LYM, who deserve to know the truth about French history and world affairs. Previous generations of French citizens had settled their accounts with their immediate past history by either going to war, or by getting involved into absurd coups d'Etat, however, they never knew why they were doing so. My generation of Bohemian Bourgeois (BoBos) has not done that; it didn't care to do anything for history, nor for the future generations. It was only interested in lying and in taking care of "Me, Me, Me!" The problem that the youth of today are face with is that the truth about the French Revolution, about Napoleon Bonaparte, about the Synarchy, about the destruction of the Third Republic, or about Vichy has never been told. So, either the truth comes out now, and finally exorcises the French population as a whole, once and forever, or else the French nation is doomed to repeat the same mistakes of the past, again and again. 3 SYNARCHY MOVEMENT OF EMPIRE BOOK III *************************** THE SYNARCHY INTERNATIONAL **************************** 1.1 HOW THE SYNARCHIST INTERNATIONAL RAN THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR………………………………………..8 1.2 INTRODUCTION 2.2 THE SPANISH CONSERVATIVE REVOLUTION. 3.2 THE POLITICAL BACKGROUND OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR. 4.2 HOW THE SPANISH SECOND REPUBLIC WAS DESTROYED. 5.2 THE SYNARCHIST LOOTING OF SPANISH RAW MATERIALS.
    [Show full text]
  • Recensement De Thèses De Doctorat Sur Le Renseignement
    Recensement de thèses de doctorat sur le renseignement Un document réalisé par l’académie du renseignement Version du 01/07/2021 Pour citer ce document Recensement de thèses de doctorat sur le renseignement. Un document réalisé par l’Académie du renseignement, Services du Premier ministre, juillet 2021. © Académie du renseignement, Services du Premier ministre 2 Version du 01/07/2021 « Tout ordre détermine […] la place de chacune des choses qu’il comprend, et la manière dont cette place est déterminée comprend la raison pourquoi telle place est assignée à chaque chose. Que l’ordre d’une bibliothèque soit chronologique, c’est-à-dire, que les livres se suivent conformément à la date de leur édition, aussitôt chacun a sa place marquée, et la raison de la place de l’un, contient celle de la place de l’autre. » D’Alembert, Boucher d’Argis, Jaucourt, Le Blond, Toussaint, Art. « ORDRE », in L’Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, texte établi par d’Alembert et Diderot, 1ère édition, Tome 11, 1765, p. 595. 3 Version du 01/07/2021 4 Version du 01/07/2021 Sommaire Présentation de la nomenclature ........................................................... 7 Action clandestine (covert action) ......................................................................... 9 Action diplomatique ............................................................................................ 12 Analyse du renseignement et perceptions stratégiques ..................................... 14 Ciblage à des fins de neutralisation
    [Show full text]
  • Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France
    Engraving from Jean Boulaese, Le Miracle de Laon en Lannoys, ed. A.H.Chaubard, Lyon: Sauvegarde Historique, 1955, (from an original in Pierre Boaistuau, Histories prodigieuses, 1575). © Bibliothèque Nationale de France Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France This is a highly original study of demon possession and the ritual of exorcism, both of which were rife in early modern times, and which reached epidemic proportions in France. Catholics at the time believed that the devil was everywhere present, in the rise of the heretics, in the activities of witches, and even in the bodies of pious young women. The rite of exorcism was intended to heal the possessed and show the power of the Church— but it generated as many problems as it resolved. Possessed women endured frequently violent exorcisms, exorcists were suspected of conjuring devils, and possession itself came to be seen as a form of holiness, elevating several women to the status of living saints. Looking towards the present day, the book also argues that early modern conflicts over the devil still carry an unexpected force and significance for Western Christianity. Sarah Ferber is Lecturer in History at the University of Queensland, Australia. She teaches early modern history, and the history of modern bioethics. She is a coeditor of Beasts of Suburbia: Reinterpreting Cultures in Australian Suburbs. Demonic Possession and Exorcism in Early Modern France Sarah Ferber LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
    [Show full text]
  • University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]