Saint Francis de Sales and education: a pedagogy attentive to the possibilities of each
A fruitful life
If Don Bosco chose Saint Francis de Sales as a model, it was first for a “pastoral” motive. But not only. He also had the intuition that this bishop had an educational “fibre”. In particular, he liked to teach catechism to children. These came out of curiosity but returned there out of pleasure because François knew how to captivate them, he put so much good humor and wit into this activity that grown-ups were as captivated as children.
We also find in the works of François de Sales many thoughts on how to design and practice the education of new generations. “Education, he says, is a duty that must be fulfilled with love, adapting to the needs and to the possibilities of each”. He admired the “industry” of a mother surrounded by her children, who knows how to “give to each what suits and treats them according to their physical and spiritual capacities”. “To those who are only one, two or three years old, she gives milk, she speaks while playing, with tender words; she does not make him say: my father or my mother, because he is still too small, but only: dad mom. To those who are four or five years old, she begins to learn to speak better, to eat more substantial foods; to those who are even taller, she teaches good manners and modesty”.
He is modeled on our Heavenly Father, who accompanies people in this way. Her pedagogy resembles that of a father attentive to the possibilities of each: “Like a good father who holds his child by the hand – he wrote to Jeanne de Chantal – he will adjust his steps to yours and will be happy not to walk faster than you”.
The bishop never grew impatient, difficult as his pupils were; to those who answered Well, he gave an image… Madame de Boisy came there to contemplate her son. “Madame,” he said, “you amuse me when I see you at my catechism, for it is you who learned it.” But she replied that by listening to him, she discovered the real meaning of the words at once.
The Salesian method consists in knowing how to win the heart of the young, because “he who wins the heart of man wins the whole man”. He wrote: “For my part, Philotée, I have never approved the method of those who wanted to reform man starting from the outside, the behaviors, clothes, hair. On the contrary, it seems to me that we should start from within: Convert to me, says God, with all your heart; my son, give me your heart: as the heart is the source of actions, the latter have the same characters than the heart”.
Francis de Sales is inspired by the three ways that God uses with human beings to express their own will to them. The Bible, in fact, tells us that the Father commands, the Son counsels and the Holy Spirit inspires. Parents obviously have the right and sometimes the duty to command their children for their good. When they have grown up, the usual method is to give them good advice. But the Salesian method par excellence is that of the Holy Spirit , who acts in the intimacy of conscience, destroys nothing and respects the freedom of the person.
To a lady who harbored a great desire for spiritual progress for her family, he wrote: “We must sow in them, by examples and words, with gentleness, things that can make them enter your project and, without giving them the impression of wanting to instruct and conquer them, suggest to them little by little holy thoughts and inspirations”. “A good inspiration communicate primarily by example. It is a silent teaching, but very efficient. Indeed, it is not enough to say, we must do, following the example of our Lord, who employed for thirty years doing, that is to say, acting and working, and devoted only three years to teach ; he thus showed us how doing is more excellent than saying”.
The example, in indeed, leads to imitation: “The little nightingales learn to sing by hearing the big ones”. But then, should correction be given up when necessary? Surely not ! It’s necessary “to resist evil and correct the vices of those entrusted to our care, tirelessly and with zeal, but at the same time, with gentleness and friendliness”. To a teacher who complained “of a wild and dizzy little girl”, François de Sales gave this advice: “Do not correct her, if you can, as long as you are angry; make her obey you willingly”. This way of doing things is more effective than the repressive method. Who does not know his slogan: “We catches more flies with a spoonful of honey than with a barrel of vinegar?”.
The educational concern of François de Sales applied to the entire population, with particular insistence for the priests of his diocese: “My dear brothers, I urge you to study seriously, because science, to a priest, it is the eighth sacrament of the hierarchy of the Church… I urge you to study, so that being learned and of good life, you are irreproachable and ready to answer all those who ask you about the things of faith”.
In conclusion: Education is a long journey. “Great projects only come true thanks to patience and taking the necessary time”, wrote François de Sales, who had the sense of reality and possibility. “To tame a colt and make him stay quiet under the saddle and bit, it takes years”, he recalls, he who had practiced horse riding in his youth. But slowness does not mean renunciation or passive waiting. On the contrary, we must take advantage of everything, without wasting time, knowing “to use our years, our months, our weeks, our days, even every moment”. Above all, patience must be nourished by hope: “As long as the children are at a tender age, you have to suffer a little”, but “we continue to raise them well; there is, in indeed, no ground so ungrateful that the effort of the peasant cannot make it produce