To be just, however, we must recognize, in certain recommendations of La Salle, some desire to appeal to the judgment and the reason of the child:—
“The teacher will not speak to the scholars during the catechism, as in preaching, but he will interrogate them almost continually by questions, direct or indirect, in order to make them comprehend that which he is teaching them.”
The Frère Luccard, in his Life of the Venerable J. B. de La Salle,[162] quotes this still more expressive passage, borrowed from his manuscript Counsels:—
“Let the teacher be careful not to lend his pupils too much help in resolving the questions that have been proposed to them. He ought, on the contrary, to invite them not to be discouraged, but to seek with ardor what he knows they will be able to find for themselves. He will convince them that they will the better retain the knowledge they have acquired by a personal and persevering effort.”
290. What was learned in the Christian Schools.—Reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, and the catechism,—this is the programme of La Salle.
In reading, La Salle, agreeing in this respect with Port Royal, requires that French books be used in the beginning.
“The book in which the pupil will begin to learn Latin is the Psalter; but this lesson will be given only to those who can readily read in French.”
La Salle requires that the pupil shall not be exercised in writing till “he can read perfectly.” He attaches, moreover, an extreme importance to calligraphy, and it is known that the Brethren have remained masters in this art. La Salle does not weary in giving advice on this subject: the pens, the knife for mending them, the ink, the paper, the tracing-papers and blotters, round letters and italic letters (a bastard script),—everything is passed in review.[163] The Conduct also insists “on the manner of teaching the proper posture of the body” and “on the manner of teaching how to hold the pen and the paper.”
“It will be useful and timely in the beginning to give the pupil a stick of the bigness of a pen, on which there are three notches, two on the right and one on the left, to mark the places where his fingers should be put.”