But it is necessary to know the exact thought of the author of the Conduct, and this explains the following passage:—
“No corrections should be employed save those which are in use in the schools; and so scholars should never be struck with the hand or the foot.”
In other words, the teacher should never strike except with the authorized instruments, and according to the official regulations.
298. Mutual Espionage.—We may say without exaggeration that the Conduct recommends mutual espionage:—
“The inspector of schools shall be careful to appoint one of the most prudent scholars to observe those who make a noise while they assemble, and this scholar shall then report to the teacher what has occurred, without allowing the others to know of it.”
299. Rewards.—While La Salle devotes more than forty pages to corrections, the chapter on rewards comprises two small pages.
Rewards shall be given “from time to time.” They shall be of three kinds: rewards for piety, for ability, and for diligence. They shall consist of books, pictures, plaster casts, crucifix and virgin, chaplets, engraved texts, etc.
300. Conclusion.—We have said enough to give an exact idea of the Institute of the Christian Brethren in its primitive form. Its faults were certainly grave, and we cannot approve the general spirit of those establishments for education where pupils are forbidden “to joke while they are at meals”; to give anything whatsoever to one another; where children are to enter the school-room so deliberately and quietly that the noise of their footsteps is not heard; where teachers are forbidden “to be familiar” with the pupils, “to allow themselves to descend to anything common, as it would be to laugh ...” But whatever the distance which separates those gloomy schools from our modern ideal,—from the pleasant, active, animated school, such as we conceive it to-day,—there is none the less obligation to do justice to La Salle, to pardon him for the practices which were those of his time, and to admire him for the good qualities that were peculiarly his own. The criticism that is truly fruitful, is that which is especially directed to the good, without caviling at the bad.[168]
[301. Analytical Summary.—1. This study exhibits the zeal of the Catholic Church in the education of the children of the poor. The motive was not the spirit of domination, as in the case of the Jesuits, but a sincere desire to engage in a humane work.