“Coming Home to School”
Some reflections on
Canon Constant-Guillaume van
Crombrugghe
and their importance
St George’s College Junior
School, Weybridge
by
October 2003
This paper was written in October 2003 while staying at the
Josephite Community at
The inspiration for this paper came during the meeting of the
Headmasters of the Catholic, Christian,
This is paper is a follow-up to “Not just any old school
or
My particular thanks must go to the following people:
- Fathers Raymond, Achiel, Edwin, Willem, Joseph (Valkeners) and Joseph (Misha mi Kwet), my Josephite confreres – while not forgetting Maria and Gozi - for their warm welcome, hospitality and support during my stay at Leuven.
- Fathers Aloïs and Paul at College Melle for all their help and assistance.
- Sister Alice Nugent DMJ for her help and support.
- Professor Terry Merrigan, a former classmate at the Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven in the late 1970s, for allowing me to attend his lectures on “The Theology of Christian Doctrine” during my stay at Leuven.
- Antony Hudson, my successor at SGCJS, for taking over the baton of leadership at SGCJS.
- To Fr William and his Regional Council for allowing me to have a year off after my retirement as Headmaster before returning to work as a member of the chaplaincy team at St George’s College in September 2004.
Finally I would like to dedicate this paper to all those who
journeyed with me for better or for worse during all or part of my 18 years as
Headmaster of the
Contents
Part One Some insights into the person of Canon Constant van Crombrugghe.
Part Two “His spirit will continue to animate the schools he has founded”.
Notes:
- Extensive use has been made of footnotes in this paper. This is to keep the main body of the paper to a reasonable length allowing an initial skim reading of the paper to pick up its main thrust. A reflective and slower reading using the additional information in the footnotes can then be done at a more gentle and leisurely pace.
- Place names in
Part One Some insights into
the life of Canon Constant van Crombrugghe.
Canon Constant-Guillaume van Crombrugghe was born and baptised in
Grammont in the region of
His father, Ghislain-François (1761-1842), was a successful brewer
in Grammont and belonged to a well established and wealthy family that traced
its origin in the city of
Canon Constant van Crombrugghe was a tall man, well read and educated, shrewd and highly intelligent, a man deeply rooted in his own time. He was a man of deep prayer and possessed a singular desire to submit to the will of God throughout his life.
Constant was by temperament a gentle and patient person who could, at different times, be either very juridical and or quite charismatic. His early life was full of zeal and energy whereas his later life was characterised by a deep love for those around him.
While by natural inclination a conformist, van Crombrugghe was always open to the consideration of new ideas and willing to adapt his own views and methods to new situations and circumstances as they arose providing, of course, they did not challenge his fundamental position as a conservative, ultramontane priest.[3]
Constant’s many talents included the ability to inspire other people, to put people at their ease and to win their respect and confidence. Among his weaknesses was his appalling handwriting.[4]
Van Crombrugghe was a man of very strong principles to the point of being extremely uncompromising and intransient at times. He was usually a man of tact and diplomacy.[5]
He was a fluent and persuasive speaker who spent his entire life
trying to promote his Roman Catholic beliefs within a society which, under the
influence of
The final resting place of Canon Constant-Guillaume
van Crombrugghe in the chapel of the Josephites at Grammont.
During his life, van Crombrugghe undertook a wide variety of activities which included being:
·
A Roman Catholic Priest, Canon
and Dean of
· Secretary and special envoy to the Bishop of Gent
· A member of the Diocesan Council of Gent
· An elected delegate to the 1830 National Constitutional Congress of Belgium
· The author of several books and a newspaper columnist
· The Founder of Religious Orders
·
Headmaster of the
·
Director of Catholic Education
in
· A director of the “Le Catholique des Pays-Bas” newspaper
· A benefactor of the poor
·
Responsible for the choristers
of the Cathedral of Amiens in
· A Prison Visitor
In recognition of his services to
Today the world of education is awash with educational jargon and new Government initiatives. Consider the following list:
- School League Tables
- Interactive computer based teaching and technology
- Marketing (including Prospectuses and Advertising)
- Continuous Professional Development (including Mentoring)
- Performance Management
- Planning (including the provision for differentiated learning)
- Resources (Human and Teaching)
- Admissions (including improvement of pupil numbers and parental choice of schools)
- Problems in gaining University entrance from private schools
- Finance (including School Development Plans, Staffing levels, Fees, and Bursaries)
- Curriculum innovation (including a government imposed National Curriculum)
- Health and Safety
It may be surprising to discover that only the first two points on this list would be totally new issues for Constant van Crombrugghe (CGVC)[6], the Founder of the Josephites[7] who spent most of his working life during the first half of the 19th Century.
The letters of CGVC to the Josephites and the record kept by Guillaume (later Ignace) van den Bossche, the first Superior General of the Josephites, show how all those points mentioned in the list on the previous page, apart from those first two, were addressed and dealt with by the Founder during his life.[8]
During CGVC’s early life, present day
These events helped to form CGVC’s attitudes towards both the government and education. He became totally convinced that education could not be separated from religion. It was important for education to offer Christian morals, beliefs, practices and values so that future leaders could have the correct priorities in re-christianising an increasingly de-dechristianised society. It was hardly surprising, therefore, that CGVC should passionately champion the cause of total freedom from state control for religion and education at the 1830 National Congress.
The National Congress of 1830 was called to establish the constitution
of
The debate about the freedom of education was held on
“Gentlemen,[11] just as we desire the
freedom of worship and of the press, we also desire the freedom of education:
today one cannot exist without the other.
It was, to use the language of a
previous time, to avoid the influence of the Jesuits, that in 1825 so many fine
educational establishments were destroyed, thereby forcing parents in our
Catholic provinces to seek schools for their children abroad.
It was, under no less frivolous
pretexts, that under the name of the “Philosophical College” that the former
general seminary at Louvain was re-established and all other seminaries were
pitilessly suppressed all over our former Kingdom of the Netherlands. Let us
profit from the lessons of the past and be on our guard against such powerful
expressions of prudence, order, or public good. By reclaiming the freedom of
education, by demanding for families the quality which is guaranteed by
competition, the free right of the father to choose into whose hands he wishes
to confide his son’s future, what are we asking except to allow parents to
exercise a natural prerogative, an inalienable right which has seldom been
argued except by a “Julian the Apostate”, a “Robespierre”, a “van Maanen”.
We are in fear of abuse, and it
is against this abuse that we wish to pre-arm ourselves, but is there any
divine gift which man does not abuse? He will, therefore, also abuse the
freedom of education just as he will abuse that of the press. Is that abuse a
sufficient justification for shackling the press and surrounding education with
a network of preventative measures? That is what the former government wished
to do, because it had sworn to enslave the Belgians: but a Belgian is incapable
of such enslavement; he will smash the shameful chains forged for him. In the
Provincial Estates, M. de Baillet let the calm and male voice of reason be
heard; in the Second Chamber Messrs de Sécus, de Gerlache, Le Hon. de Stassart
and many other enlightened friends of their country made clear the pressing
need that the nation has of free education. You have the joy of having in your
midst these worthy men whose eloquent words you will remember all the more
clearly. All they have been calling for has been the freedom of education, and
the entire nation repeats today the same demand.
Whatever else, I am convinced
that the supervision which is being proposed will have no other effect than to
frighten, to torture consciences, to prevent the establishment of good schools
and to prolong the ignorance of a people that loves instruction but who would
go without it rather than to see it imposed on them by the administration and
at the whim of the civil power.
The honourable previous speaker has proved
to us, strongly and at length, the need for education: we all agree on that
point. He has spread out before us the advantages of knowledge and the evils of
ignorance. All of us, without exception, share these very sentiments. But
no-one, I believe, can have concluded from that the need for the government to
monopolise public instruction; that conclusion, I am certain, would not have
come to the mind of any Belgian.
If a teacher is badly informed, if he
retains discredited and vicious methods, the number of his pupils will soon be
reduced; if he has no moral standpoint, his deserted school will serve as a
warning for those parents who might have thought of confiding the education of
their children to him.
That the courts should punish those
misdemeanours which occur within education, we agree. But nothing more; no
preventative measures; we will reject them with all our strength.”
The clear strategy CGVC had worked out to win the debate was almost
undone when one of the group, Fr de Sécus, presented an amendment representing
the group’s “fall back” position too early in the debate. In the end, by the
narrowest of margins 78-71, victory was assured and the Congress adjourned at
CGVC also made use of his political skills to help the Josephites to come through a number of difficulties with compliance to a series of local and national regulations concerning the state governance of religious orders and education which he opposed.[12] Ignace van den Bossche even recorded in his Journal the tacit acceptance by CGVC of this non-compliance with some new government rules and regulations.[13]
At one point political subterfuge employed by CGVC to protect the Daughters of Mary and Joseph is quite breathtaking.[14]
Despite his obvious political acumen, CGVC was not, by inclination, an innovator. He was much more of a revisionist and possessed a real flair for organisation. He took the best ideas he could find from others and then adapted them for his own means and ends.[15]
CGVC was also lucky enough to inherit the considerable business prowess of his parents which he further honed when running the family business during the illness of his uncle François.[16]
Within CGVC’s own family, his granduncle and godfather Jean-François-Ghislain
Huleu (1746-1815), a priest in the diocese of
Huleu, who had twice tried his own vocation as contemplative monk, had
himself established a religious congregation of sisters to educate the poor
girls of
Most important of all, however, it was under the direction of Huleu that CGVC developed his own personal spirituality[18]
The cornerstone of CGVC’s spirituality was his “active submission”
(Ignatian election) to the will of God with the result that everything CGVC did
in his adult life, he did so because he truly believed it to be God’s will.
“For the greater glory of God” was CGVC’s own personal motto in his early life.”[19]
For CGVC, the spiritual writings of St
Teresa of
As well Bishop François Fénelon’s educational writings, CGVC made great use of Fénelon’s extensive spiritual writings. CGVC would often copy out, in his own poor handwriting, the spiritual maxims and sayings of Fénelon including the following text:
“Try to savour God, never look upon Him as a
powerful and inexorable judge who constantly keeps watch in order to reprimand
us and to compel us on every occasion. See how gentle He is, how He adjusts
Himself to our needs and has pity on our weaknesses. Become familiar with Him
as a tender and compassionate Father”.[20]
For CGVC, God was “all-merciful” and “all-compassion” whose tender love surpasses that of a mother or father.[21]
It is not always appreciated how closely CGVC identified himself with both the life and the spirituality of Francis de Sales.
In a letter to his niece Clothilde, CGVC shows just how much he was drawn towards St Francis de Sales:
“Celebrate the feast of St. Francis de
Sales, very dear Child, with that moderation regarding which that saint gave
both such fine examples and such admirable precepts. You will not forget me, I hope, that
day. I have always loved St. Francis de
Sales; I ought to have imitated him? God
frequently urged me to do so, but, to my shame, I must admit that I have
not. I am going to begin again to make
efforts, although age and deep‑rooted habits no longer render the
practice of meekness as easy as it would have been in my youth.”[22]
It was from the Fathers of
the Faith and St Francis de Sales that CGVC developed his devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus.[23]
Above all, however, CGVC’s spirituality was based on St Ignatius[24]
as interpreted by the Fathers of the Faith[25]
and not by the Jesuits.[26]
It was from this Ignatian spirituality that CGVC developed the central aspect
of his own spirituality and that of his religious orders of “Being an
Instrument of God’s mercy”.[27]
For CGVC, “Being an
instrument of mercy in the hands of God” is to be free to be used in whatever
way God wishes.[28]
For CGVC to become “an instrument of God’s mercy” means:
· Abandoning oneself to the will of God
· Being poor in spirit and poor in fact
· Being open to experiencing the mercy found in the Sacred Heart of Jesus
· Listening to the Holy Spirit.
· Proclaiming God as “all-merciful” and “all-compassionate”
· Being at the service of the whole Church
CGVC wanted all his religious to be formed so they could become “Instruments of God’s mercy”. This meant his religious had always to seek and totally at the disposal of the will of God. This act of “radical obedience” corresponded identically with CGVC’s “active submission” (Ignatian election) to the will of God.
If his individual religious had to become “Instruments of God’s mercy”, then collectively their distinguishing feature was to be their family based spirituality.[29]
Among the hallmarks of this spirituality based on the family was the joy, simplicity and openness of the religious. Being cheerful was so important for CGVC that an explicit reference to it was placed in the constitutions of the Daughters of Mary and Joseph:
“Cheerfulness,
meekness and politeness are specially recommended to the Daughters of Mary and
Joseph. They should show by their frank and agreeable manner that they are
happy to belong to Jesus”.[30]
CGVC’s own personal approach
to spirituality can be best summarised as follows:
“Not looking for
extraordinary prayer experiences, going forward peacefully in confidence,
trusting in God’s love and mercy, with simplicity, joy and thanksgiving;
finding God everywhere, loving Him through those who have in turn been taught
to love Him; totally abandoned into God’s hands and at His service and that of
His Church. These are the characteristics of Van Crombrugghe’s personal
synthesis of the spiritual life. It is simple, uncomplicated, filled with
gentleness and love and at the same time capable of inspiring one with zeal and
courage in the service of the Lord”.[31]
To help inculcate this largely Ignatian-based spirituality, Jesuit
priests, following their restoration in 1814 by Pope Pius VII[32],
would often give the annual retreats both to the Josephites and to Daughters of
Mary and Joseph. CGVC was eventually to sell his own country house, “Pausipone”,
at
After CGVC had completed his secondary education in
CGVC was ordained a priest of
Just two years after his ordination, CGVC was sent to
CGVC arrived at
The success of the College is all the more remarkable given that the
“teachers” were mostly seminarians from Gent who had not been given any initial
training about how to teach before arriving at the Collège and who also had to
maintain their studies for the priesthood!
Whilst headmaster at the
It was at Alost in 1817, during the second potato blight in two years, that CGVC founded his first two religious orders; one to run a school for girls in Alost where they learnt to make lace, read, write and receive basic religious instruction - all free of charge and the other to educate poor boys in Grammont where they learnt the skills of weaving and spinning instead of lace making.
It was on
Ever since his school days, CGVC had shown a genuine concern for the
plight of poor children.[39]
CGVC had both humanitarian and religious motives for the establishment of these
two schools. He wanted to do something about alleviating the sufferings caused
by the impoverished conditions facing young boys and girls. He also wanted to
protect the “moral lives” of young children from poor homes since he was
concerned they might be forced by their parents into stealing food in order to
survive and, as a consequence, these children could then “fall away from their
religious practices”.
Later on CGVC would sometimes admit pupils into school on reduced
fees though not always.[40]
After leaving
“Finally, I want to be kept up to
date with any recent measure which have been taken to improve the instruction and
the education of the pupils
In your reply, let me know a
little about your knowledge of mathematics, book-keeping, geography, history
and Flemish. After you have gained sufficient knowledge of these primary
matters, my wish would be for you to devote yourself to the study of physics,
astronomy, chemistry and botany. If the Lord grants you health and leisure, I
will at some future date indicate some others sciences to study.”[41]
By the end 1834, the Josephites were involved in the running of four
schools.[42] CGVC had received numerous other requests to
set up schools elsewhere in
In 1837 CGVC accepted the invitation of his brother-in-law to take over the running of “Le Pensionnat de Melle”.[45] Although this move gave CGVC himself some limited opportunity to be personally involved, once again, with the running of a boarding school for middle class boys, this was not his prime motive for taking over was is now known simply as “College Melle”.
By moving three Josephites to Melle, CGVC was able to address three important issues:
- A move into the education of the new ruling, middle classes.
- The possibility of attracting better educated men to his religious order
- The long term financial solvency of the order.
Since independence in 1830 there had been a change of priorities for CGVC resulting in movement away from the emphasis on the education of the poor to the education of the middle classes.
The original rules for both the Brothers of St Joseph and the Daughters of Mary and Joseph clearly indicated in their respective opening paragraphs that the brothers and sisters were called to serve God and the Church “especially in the instruction of poor children”. In the 1830 rules which were given Episcopal approval this reference to educating the poor was changed to read “the instruction of children” with no explicit reference to the poor.[46]
After independence in 1830 CGVC had come to the conclusion that
there was a real need to education and evangelise the new ruling classes of
At the risk of over-simplification, religious who were “brothers” tended to have only a basic education and were therefore confined to teaching in primary schools while religious who were priests and had a higher level of education and tended to teach in secondary schools. By offering the chance of teaching in one of the more academic collèges, CGVC hoped to attract more academically able entrants to join his religious order of men. It is with the move to Melle that the Brothers of St Joseph are renamed as the Josephites.[47]
This change in name was a deliberate ploy by CGVC to disguise the lack of highly educated men among the Josephites being sent to teach at Melle. CGVC also allowed (encouraged?) the impression that Fr Charles Valentyns, a Jesuit priest whose services at the College had been retained by CGVC as Spiritual Director, was the Superior at the College.
CGVC and his family, particularly his mother and Uncle Jean-François had been great benefactors of his religious orders. Apart from the initial two schools in 1817, the other schools established before 1830 had been endowed by other benefactors. CGVC recognised, however, that the long term financial solvency of the Josephites and their schools could not rely forever on the generosity of benefactors. The move into the fee paying private sector of secondary education would help, therefore, to ensure the long term financial stability of his congregation.
Despite many apocalyptic warnings from the “prophets of doom”[48],
Melle not only survived, it really began to flourish. In a letter written in
April 1841 to the
At
The beginning of Section Two of the “Teachers’ Guide” summaries where the emphasis of the education offered by the teachers in Josephite schools had to be placed:
“The aim of your efforts is to make your
pupils Christian and knowledgeable to the degree that their circumstances
allow. You should spare no effort to reach this goal. Nevertheless, you should
keep constantly in mind that your first care should be the education of their
hearts and that you should direct your greatest efforts to creating virtuous
men rather than knowledgeable men. Your Institute, dedicating itself to the
growth of man's spirit, will never forget that one's humanity and one's
usefulness to others lies in the heart. It therefore values the pupils' virtue
much more highly than their knowledge, and values most highly among its
members' works those which aim to instruct the young people in the duties of
religion and to educate them in good ways (morals). However, you are also
obliged to do your utmost to give your pupils such knowledge as is within the
competence of the class you are given.” [52]
During 1939 CGVC had also began to conceive the idea of adapting the curriculum offered at Melle so that it might better suit the needs of the new ruling classes and the socio-economic needs of the country while not, at the same time, denying the pupils the benefits of a traditional Christian humanistic education.
A year later in 1840, the revised curriculum at College Melle introduced courses in Italian, German, Natural Sciences, business and commercial law.[53] At the beginning of 1841, the new Melle prospectus was published in English, German and Spanish emphasising this new curriculum[54]. In 1843 Melle was given a new title “L’Institution commerciale, industrielle, littéraire et scientifique de Melle”. This exciting and successful venture was brought to a premature end seventeen years later due to new government regulation for entry to higher education.
In 1857, this new Government regulation required all university entrants to have completed a full programme of studies in the traditional Greek-Latin humanities course. As a direct consequence of this new law, rather than risk losing its middle-class, academic pupils, the Melle prospectus of 1857 announced Melle would be offering the required course of studies for university entry.
At the same Melle did not want to lose the substantial number of foreign
pupils who were boarders at Melle and so it continued to offer the commercial
curriculum to these pupils and to those Belgian pupils not of university
calibre. In the short term, this decision was completely vindicated as by 1873,
the number of foreign students from as far away as
As Garçia points out,
however, 1857 marked the beginning of the eventual transformation of Le Pensionnat
de Melle into a Collège which would be completed in the 20th
Century. [56]
The story of Melle clearly
illustrates the willingness of CGVC to adapt to changing circumstances. It is
also worth noting that College Melle became just the school that CGVC had
originally sought for himself as a young man in order to further his own ambition
to follow in the business footsteps of his parents.[57]
In passing, the world was
once again reminded in 2003 of the unique place that College Melle has in the
history of
Page Seven of “Kroniek
van het Belgisch Voetball” and the introduction of football to
The third and final stage of the development of the Josephites and their
schools by CGVC came with the acceptance of the offer made in 1842 to CGVC by
Cardinal Archbishop de Sterckx of Malines to take over the school being run by
one of the Cardinal’s priests who the Cardinal wanted to move back into a
parish according to the official diocesan explanation. Van den Bossche puts a
slightly difference gloss on the reason in his notes.[59]
Although the commercial
curriculum was introduced for a while at HDC in
During 1842 CGVC had
already turned down offers from the Bishops of
The answer to this
question lies in CGVC’s desire to have Josephite priests and not just Josephite
brothers. As we have already seen, priests wishing to teach were usually
attracted to the secondary sector of education. By and large before 1842, the
majority of the Josephites, all of whom were brothers, were not academically
gifted and needed continuous “formation-on-the-move” and considerable support
to enable them to teach at secondary level.
Already in 1840 CGVC had
placed advertisements inviting potential candidates to the priesthood to
consider joining the Josephites.[62]
For CGVC, the move to
A detailed study has
already been made elsewhere of the pedagogical principles of CGVC.[63] Nonetheless it is worth pausing for a few
moments for a brief overview on a few of the key ideas of the “Ratio Atque
Institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu” which was to exert a considerable influence
on the “educational method” of CGVC.[64]
As a young man at
The purpose of Jesuit education
is clearly stated in the 1599 Ratio:
“The teacher
shall so train the youths entrusted to the Society’s care that they may acquire
not only learning but also habits of conduct worthy of a Christian. He should
endeavour both in the classroom and outside to train the impressionable minds
of his pupils in the loving service of God and in all the virtues required for
this service”.[65]
The stress was on
formation rather than information. The aim was the development of the character
as well as the skills necessary for learning through the integration of the
spiritual, moral and intellectual aspects of education.[66]
The Ratio, which has been
updated from time to time since 1599, was used by the Jesuits to establish the rules,
methods and principles which would ensure successful class management and
teaching within the secondary school and university.[67]
The attitude of the
teacher to the pupil was to be as father to son. Extra care and attention was
to be given to those who appeared to be struggling while discipline was firm
but sensitive.[68] All
learning had to be active and pupils well motivated. “Prelections”[69],
memory work and frequent repetitions were very much the order of the day.
Prizes were awarded, with
much pomp and circumstance, for the best results in Latin and Greek and for
general excellence.[70]
One of the features of the
Ratio was the stress placed on emulation. This rivalry was individual,[71]
group and inter-class and included disputations and debates. It was, however,
the teacher’s duty to prevent this rivalry degenerating into petty jealousy.[72]
The teachers themselves
were subject to regular evaluations by the “Prefect” and feedback on their
performance was also given to them.[73]
It is already clear from
this brief overview just how much of the Ratio found its way into the early
Josephite schools. Emulation and competitions were important features of Josephite
schools from the outset and the first distribution of prizes at Grammont
happened in 1819 just two years after the opening of the school.[74]
Drama was a part of the
methodology available for teachers following the Ratio.[75]
This did, however, raise all kinds of problems for CGVC. For whatever reason,
CGVC wrote to Br Athanase in 1834 stating that no more Drama was to take place
in the school as it was not the aim of the school to produce “strolling players
or actors”.[76] However,
by 1844, Drama is clearly acceptable in Josephite schools once again,[77]
Like the Jesuits, Josephites were
prepared to accept other Christians into their schools. This acceptance did
not, however, seem to have been within the current spirit of ecumenism especially
if one reads the accounts of the “conversion” to Roman Catholicism of two
protestant boys in 1841 and 1843 contained in the Journal of van den Bossche.[78]
CGVC was considerably influenced by the educational ideas of St
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle who founded the Brothers of the
There were three other people who had a significant role in the formulation of the educational ideas and practice of CGVC through their published works about education; Bishop Charles Rollin, Bishop Felix Dupanloup and, perhaps most of all, Archbishop François Fénelon.[81]
In a letter to the Reverend Brother Superior of the Convent of the “Brothers of St Joseph” at Hal, CGVC specifically encourages the reading of Rollin.[82]
“The head teacher in his school is to be
like a father in his family. He must always have the vigilance and the
gentleness of a father to ensure the health of the children which is the foundation
of everything else.”[83]
Rollin was influenced by Quintilian and quotes liberally from his “Education of an Orator”. It is through Rollin that CGVC becomes acquainted with Quintilian’s thoughts and ideas.
The last of the 129 maxims in the “Pedagogical Guide”[84] describes what is regarded as the greatest method of education in Josephite schools according to CGVC.
“Here is the greatest method of
education: All of you who have devoted yourselves to the sacred work of
education, love, love the children. But there is love and love. I am speaking
here of real, deep and enlightened love; pastoral and paternal love; this love
is everything and accomplishes everything. In a word, be like fathers to them,
and that's not enough; be like mothers. You must love the children and make
them feel that you love them; not only by avoiding, in your dealings with them,
all hardness, unjust coldness and discouraging severity, but by caring tenderly
for them and having a blessed and cordial affection for them; letting them see
that you have devoted your life to them, that you are happy to be with them and
will always be so. You must also identify with them, not only in work and
study, but in everything else and in every detail of their school life. But I
must add one thing of the greatest importance: To love the children and to
identify with them, you must love one another. Be of one heart and mind: cor
unum et anima una. Putting this into effect is as simple as it is pleasant. Out
of this is born life, strength and the powerful fruitfulness of your work for
souls, since in this is the union of souls one with another and with God in
charity. If you know these
things you will be happy, provided you put them into practice.”
This maxim is, in fact, a compilation made up of two separate quotations taken from the epilogue of Bishop Dupanloup’s “Sur l’Education”.[85]
Bishop Fénelon’s “L’Education des Filles”[86] had become a standard work concerning the education of girls. CGVC acknowledges the reliance he has placed on the work of Fénelon at the beginning of “De l’Instruction et de l’Education chez les Dames de Marie”.
The Ladies of Mary were to teach their girls:
“To love domestic life; to maintain harmony and the spirit of order and economy therein; to engrave in the hearts of children the first elements of religion and moral ideas which one compensates for later only with great difficulty; to provide (for) society a character of politeness and decency”[87]
For CGVC the education offered to girls by the Ladies of Mary had to take into account their role later in life as the mothers of future national leaders.[88] It included the teaching of household accounting and handicrafts with a strong emphasis on the inculcation of Christian principles.
It has to be acknowledged, however, that the experience
of his time spent as a boarder at Collège St Acheul was unquestionably the most
formative for CGVC as far as his educational vision and philosophy of a school being
a family is concerned.[89]
Little is known about CGVC’s own early childhood. When he was ten years old, CGVC’s parents had arranged for him to teach catechism to the poor children living in Grammont.
At 12 years old, he made his First Communion in Grammont on 15
August 1802 after which he was sent to a small boarding school, L’Hermitage
(or Le Pensionnat) de Wilhours near Ath - in what is now southern Belgium.
As this school only took pupils until they were 14 years old, CGVC spent the
following two years as a boarder at Le Pensionnat de M. De Wulf in
In October 1805, upon the
recommendation of friends, CGVC was sent to Le Collège St Acheul, another
boarding school, this time at
The Fathers of the Faith were
very prayerful men who sought a more contemplative dimension to their Ignatian spirituality
despite their demanding roles as secondary school teachers.[92]
The educational
methodology of the Fathers of the Faith was firmly based on the Ratio but
differed in emphasis from the Jesuits by stressing the importance of the
“family” atmosphere of their schools.
Much to the dismay of CGVC, who was looking forward to a career in business, he discovered the curriculum at Le Collège St. Acheul was based on the traditional classical Jesuit humanist lines which emphasised Latin.
Within days of arriving at
Mr Van Crombrugghe, Businessman in Grammont, Dpt. Escaut
Very dear Father and Mother.
I hope that my brother has arrived safely at home. This letter is to tell you that the school I
am in is not as we believed; the curriculum is based mainly on the Latin
language and the same plan is followed as in the Collèges. Arithmetic is only a
minor subject taught twice a week, and the remainder of the time is used for
Latin, History, etc.
As, dear Father, I do not have any inclination for Latin, I would like
to have your decision. There is, in the city, another school run by a Clergyman
where what is germane to trade is taught. Fr Sellier, one of our masters knows
it well. If you want, I could present myself for admission there. I ask you to
write me as soon as possible, because the academic year is already well
advanced.
Please present my good wishes to all the family.
Your very obedient and respectful son
C Van Crombrugghe[93]
Fr Louis
Sellier, the assistant superior, who had taken a special interest in CGVC since
his arrival at the Collège added an accompanying note to the letter of CGVC[94]
Sir,
If I might add a word to your son’s letter in order to explain the
topic of his letter. He is right to tell you that Latin is the basis of the
teaching given here, and in receiving him as one of our pupils, we did not
imagine that he was destined to follow another plan of study.
The Prospectus you were sent letting you know the nature of our
Establishment should surely have made it clear enough that our object is to
give an complete education and not only what is germane to trade.
Your son has made a good impression and although we have only had him a
few days we find him to be of intelligence, good will and docility, so we are
led to believe that he would succeed in the study of the Latin language as
everything else.
There are pupils older than him who have recently begun to study the
elements of this language and who have had success; we have had some of 24 or
26 years old and at that age were still in the fourth form. So if your son has
the inclination no time been lost. But he has declared that Latin repels him
and that he has no intention of applying himself to it. So, Sir, if you want to
follow the path that he proposes to you, of going to another school in Amiens
in where he will find help and the kind of studies that he wants to follow,
then well and good.
However, if you judge it right to make him remain with us it will be
sufficient for you to let him know your will. He is disposed to do what you
want and it is this submissiveness, joined to other good qualities that he has
already shown us, that would make us regret it if he were to leave us. I do not
need to make any claims in favour of the Latin Language; you know its usefulness
in all kinds of study.
I will only tell you that if your son had been with us since the
beginning of his education he would know everything that he already knows in
the fields of calculus, orthography and geography. Furthermore he would be in a
position to appreciate “latinity” which would have given him two inestimable
advantages; firstly in having a pure, epistolary style; secondly, he would be
ready to learn living languages such as Spanish, Italian and English in only a
few months. Without Latin these languages would take him years.
Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my esteem and that I have the
honour to be,
Your very humble and very obedient servant
Sellier
Less that three weeks after writing his letter requesting a transfer
to another school in
CGVC wrote in this letter:
“I received your
kind letter of the 17th of this month, but it is with great joy that
I am replying in a completely opposite sense to what you might expect. Fr
Sellier will be kind enough to teach me about trade and epistolary style so
that I can remain with him. I am very pleased because the arrangements in this
School please me a great deal and we are led by gentleness (douceur) and affability (affabilité).”[95]
This change of heart has to be put down to the way CGVC felt he and other pupils were being treated and cared for by the Fathers of the Faith, and particularly by the willingness of Fr Sellier to take CGVC for additional classes, very much an exception to the general rule that might prove useful for CGVC’s proposed career in business. From his initial very hesitant start, CGVC went on to spend four very happy and enjoyable years as a pupil at Le Collège St Acheul.[96]
It was while at
In 1808, CGVC wrote to his father making a tentative enquiry to see if he would support his son’s idea of allowing Sister Julie Billiart, the Founder of the Religious Congregation of Our Lady of Namur to set up an orphanage in Grammont similar to the one she was running in Montdidier.[97] In the end the idea came to nothing but it is the first real indication of CGVC’s active zeal in his concern for the poor and his pro-active willingness to try and do something to help the plight of the disadvantaged.
Having decided not to go to
“We are happy here,
my good friend; only we miss you. The children miss you a lot”.[99]
In a letter written to his parents during his last year at St Acheul, there is a first glimpse of CGVC’s excessive obsession with cleanliness:
“I have a thing
to ask you; I do not like luxury, but I do like cleanliness, and my green coat
is less than clean. I will say more, it is nearly un-wearable. I cannot wear my
light brown coat every day as I would have nothing left for the summer. I ask
you therefore to send me via Mrs Byl a coat of my brother's if he has any that
he does not wear any more. I am obliged to dress reasonably well because we
often receive His Eminence the Bishop, Vicars General or Canons, and it is not
right to appear before them with a dirty and stained coat like mine. Please
answer me as soon as possible.”[100]
The happiness that CGVC felt as part of the family of Collège St Acheul was shared by others. Alphonse Lamartine, who later became one of the early Romantic French poets, wrote about his experiences at St Acheul in his “Confidences”:
“I felt as though I had entered
another family…The teachers, my friends, rather than my professors, will remain
models of holiness, of vigilance, of fatherliness, of gentleness towards their
students….in reality, this was the beautiful ideal of a Christian boarding
school… charity and union among all”.[101]
Part of the
original handwritten notes by CGVC for the rules of the choristers at
It is this very homely and totally positive experience[102] that CGVC gained at St Acheul which became the most formative experience of CGVC’s own vision for his Josephite schools.
CGVC finally died on
“All those who knew the
headmaster of the Collège of Alost have the pleasure of rendering homage to the
gentleness of his administration. His boarding school was all about being a
family…the fraternal relationships between the pupils themselves and their filial
affection and regard for their teachers and their headmaster enabled them to
discover in a real way a gentleness within the school….The Josephites have
based their own system of education on the same ideas of their Founder…Their
boarding schools are truly like families.. the superior is the father and where
the most genuine affection unites all…Holiness flourishes there but without
affectation….the studies serious but varied, the discipline precise but without
having excessive rigour…(and finally)...his spirit will continue to animate the
schools he has founded”.[103]
Those last words of the obituary, “his spirit will continue to animate the schools he has founded”, are the subject of Part Two of this paper.
“On y revienent toujours”
The
central courtyard at College Melle
Part Two “His spirit will continue
to animate the schools he has founded”.
Some times we do not always get the answer we expect to the question we have asked.
A long time ago a traveller on his journey far
from home came across a wise person.
“Are you a god?” asked the traveller. The wise person answered “No”.
“Are you a saint? asked the traveller. The wise person answered “No”.
“Are you a prophet? asked the traveller. The wise person answered “No”.
By this time the traveller was becoming
frustrated at the lack of progress in discovering what the wise person really was.
Hoping to solve the conundrum, the traveller decided to use a more direct
approach in his next question.
“What are you then?” asked the traveller The wise man answered “I am awake!”
A head teacher went to visit the children
attending the Nursery at the school and chanced upon a child sitting quietly at
a table. Sitting next to the child, the head teacher tried to engage the young
child in conversation.
“Do you know who I am?” asked the head teacher. The child replied “Yes.”
“Do you know what I am?” asked the head
teacher. The child
replied “You’re fat”.
In one religion class, the
teacher had tackled the story of the “Prodigal Son” or “The Forgiving Father”
as it is often called. The teacher had spent the lesson trying to explain how
pleased the father had been to see the return of his younger son in marked
contrast to the attitude of the elder son. The teacher was going round the
class, as one does, to ensure the pupils had grasped meaning of the story.
Finally she turned to a young boy and asked him who was not pleased with the
return of the young son, only to be given the reply “Guess the fattened lamb
was not best pleased! Miss.”[104]
While such responses as these can be very exasperating for the questioner, the unexpected response may often be due to a lack of precision in the formulation of the original question.
For sometime there has been a quest to discover if there is something fundamentally unique about Josephite schools founded by CGVC?”
The answer has to be an emphatic “No”. The reason for this negative response stems from the fact that, as we have already seen, CGVC was very much a revisionist rather than an innovator.[105] His schools were built on the best ideas and good practice of others.
Whilst there may be nothing fundamentally unique about the education offered at Josephite schools, there are, however, several distinctive features which have been historically characteristic of the education offered at Josephite schools.
For CGVC, it was impossible to have education without religion. Even
from his earliest days as a headmaster at
“The fear of the Lord is the foundation of wisdom. There is no good
education which is not founded on religion and piety towards God. Since religion
is the foundation of the building on which we are working, it must be and
always will be the principal object of our efforts and of the care we dedicate
to our pupils”.[106]
A Josephite school must, therefore, of necessity, share the fundamental vision and mission of Catholic Christian schools including an aspiration to exhibit all the distinctive qualities found in Catholic “beacon” schools of excellence.[107] This vision and mission of a Catholic, Christian school extends well beyond the day to day teaching and learning which takes place in the classroom of those non-denominational schools which do not have a Christian affiliation.[108]
A Catholic, Christian school is foremost a community of believers belonging to the Kingdom of God in which each child is being brought to an awareness of what it means to be a “child of God” and the experience of both forgiveness and redemption in his or her life.[109]
Today
As in the days of CGVC, the challenge of the new secular age places serious obligations on the leaders of Catholic, Christian schools:
“We live in a time of revolutionary change.
Central to the postmodern situation is a rejection of all big stories that
shape the world. However, the Bible tells the true story of universal history.
That is the story that must shape our educational endeavours. If this is to
happen leaders must nurture educational communities who know that story, who
know the formative story of our culture, and know how to live at the crossroads
between the two. This means, obviously, that educational leaders themselves
must have a firm grasp on these issues. However, this is far more than a battle
of perspectives. Education, like all of human life, is caught up in that great
cosmic battle between God’s kingdom and the kingdom of darkness. Spiritual
battles are not won by worldview analysis. Educational leaders in our
postmodern setting will need to be men and women of prayer who are deeply
rooted in Jesus Christ”.[111]
Prayer and worship are fundamental to the life of the Christian since it is through these, and especially during the celebration of the Eucharist, that the unique personal relationship or spirituality between God and His sons and daughters is deepened.[112]
The “Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools” sets out the four
necessary “Areas of Study” which must be addressed in a
- Revelation God’s Self-Revelation
- Church Communion of life in Christ
- Celebration Living the Christian Mystery in worship and prayer
- Life in Christ The search for holiness and truth [113]
Catholic education cannot, therefore, be reduced just to the intellectual ascent of a series of doctrinal propositions based on scripture and tradition; nor cannot it be reduced to simply being set of moral values or a code of ethics, nor to an exclusive emphasis on academic achievement.[114] Catholic education is tasked with forming the “whole” person – heart and mind. This is something which CGVC believed in passionately[115]. The opening words of his “Règlement du Collège d’Alost” were:
“The goal which is established
for this house is to cultivate at one and the same time the minds and hearts of
young people”.[116]
The importance of the
educating the heart and mind to form the “good man” was a central theme in
CGVC’s famous 1815 Easter speech when Headmaster at the Collège of Alost:
“It is, thus the role of
education to form the good man and to prepare him to take his place in society;
as a consequence it is its role to form the heart and the spirit of the young,
to bring to perfection their reason and to embellish their imagination.”
There was nothing particularly distinctive about the “method” used in the original Josephite secondary schools since it was largely based on the methodology of the Ratio together with ideas emanating from de la Salle, Fénelon, Rollin and Dupanloup among others.
Today a better understanding of human anthropology combined with a more developed theory of educational praxis has nuanced the ideas of “prelections” and “emulation” based on the 1599 Ratio though many still believe “competition” still has its place in schools. Other ideas, such the need for learning to be active” and not “passive” and the use of positive reward systems, including prizegivings, have stood the test of time.
As we have seen, CGVC was always willing to consider new ideas and methods in the schools. Very early on, as we have already seen, CGVC took the decision to adopt the idea of “simultaneous education” being used by the Brothers of Christian Schools. All new ideas had to be considered, however, in a timely and prudent manner:
“As far as methods in general are
concerned, not being enslaved to any one (method) we will not reject any type
of improvement merely because it is a novelty. Nevertheless we will distrust
the mania for changes, for experiments … Finally, in order always to be useful,
our Institute, making itself all things to all men, will modify its means of
action according to the new needs of society. Such will be in all ages our
great rule concerning methods”.[117]
This willingness to adapt to the new needs of society has also be shown in the decision to alter the curriculum at Melle to address the “commercial, industrial and scientific” needs of the new ruling classes.
In a letter to Mr Albert, a Housemaster at Melle, CGVC wrote about these changes:
“I find in your letter, my dear
Brother, some solid opinions based on the truth which have convinced me of the
necessity of sorting out a way of adapting not only the
CGVC certainly did not want his schools to be left behind:
“We
have the greatest interest concerning methods, in not remaining behind;
everything is moving, we must also moved forward”.[119]
This need to prudently but constantly adjusting to changing times must, therefore, always be a distinctive feature of a Josephite school.[120]
This adaptation needs not only to address the curriculum; teaching styles and methods but also the on-going pastoral relationship between teacher – pupil – parents.[121]
In September 2002, the staff at SGCJS committed themselves to a certain style of teaching:
“During their time at the Junior School
Pupils will be encouraged
to fulfil their potential and will consistently achieve beyond their own
expectations.
The innovative teaching
will be tailored to individual needs and will seek to make the process of
learning fun, open, transparent and fulfilling while at the same time promoting
each pupil’s own personal self-esteem and an understanding of what it means to
be a child of God”[122]
In-service training for the teaching staff, albeit “on-the-run” and “out of necessity”, was very much a distinctive feature of the early Josephite schools.
The driving force behind this inset was always first and foremost directed to the needs of the school and not those of the individual member of staff.
Inexperienced staff would be given mentors to help in the professional development and CGVC was not adverse to offering his own frank observations and advice as well when he felt it necessary as this extract from a letter to Mr Ambrose at College Melle clearly illustrates:
To Mr Ambrose, Prefect of Studies
at the Boarding School at Melle.
Except for extraordinary matters,
you will have to see to all the needs of your pupils. Study the character of
each one of them very carefully and work together with your dear Brother Albert
to avoid mistakes which can be caused by an insufficient knowledge of classroom
subjects.
You must watch over yourself as
well as over your pupils because you have a tendency to melancholy which makes
you gloomy, tetchy and which means you have a spirit of impatience which is
totally contrary to humility, to supernatural obedience and to that air of
gentleness which is recommended to all those whose task is to lead children to
the love of religion.[123]
Josephite schools, while continuing to adapt to changing circumstances, have at the same time always remained faithful to the revised “vision” of 1830 which CGVC for his schools; “the evangelisation and education of young people” especially the middle-classes. This post-1830 vision for his schools was, of course, in many ways radically different from his original intentions when CGVC established the first school at Grammont in 1817, although the essential combination of education and religion has always been present right from the start.
The “Mission Statement” and the document “The Essence of the Junior School” make clear the style of education being offered at SGCJS. It is very much “values” driven underpinned by a spirituality based on the Josephite understanding of “family”.
The moral values which SGCJS seeks to promote are ultimately those found in Scripture and those belonging to the teaching tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. In particular, they are contained in the radical imperatives of the “Good News” of Jesus the Christ.
There are two aspects of the Josephite spirituality of “family”, Politesse and Douceur, that have been at the very heart of the education offered at Josephite schools since the time of CGVC.[124]
True Politesse is based on a love of neighbour and requires an honest, gentle and polite attitude towards all people.[125] It means being discrete and amenable in your relationships with others and, following the example of CGVC, making others feel at ease in your presence, Politesse should make you “immediately likeable”.[126]
Politesse is deeply rooted in Scripture[127]
particularly
“He had such a straightforward
and attractive manner that we see the crowd gathering round him, and children,
naturally timid, approaching him with a freedom and confidence inspired by his
air of goodness and gentleness. “Let the little children come to me”, he said
to his Apostles who wished to keep them at bay, “let them come to me as they
will share everlasting happiness with me”.[128]
Douceur is based on the example of Jesus
himself:
“The gentleness which Jesus
Christ recognises when he says “Beati mites”, “Happy those who are gentle”.[129] It is a virtue based on
Christian charity: governed by moderation, perfected by patience, sanctified by
grace.
It is an attitude of heart
acquired and polished by hard work which, through virtue, prevents us from
harming our neighbour and which leads us to seek every possible benefit for
him. It is a positive disposition of the soul, which makes us find our
happiness in that of others, which inspires us to bring joy to all hearts, to
banish their sadness, and, if one cannot succeed totally, at least to bring
comfort and to share the sadness.
This is the true gentleness of
which Jesus Christ made himself the model on earth. It is this gentleness which
he promised to reward: “Happy are the gentle for they will inherit the earth…
never did his gentleness waver for an instant; he made allowances for their
weakness with an extreme sympathy; he suffered their weakness with patience.
He always instructed them with
the same goodness, without allowing their inability to understand his teachings
to discourage Him and without showing any sign of sadness or anger. Look at how
much he had to suffer the intrigues and the open attacks of the Pharisees. Yet
they never made him lose anything of his customary gentleness; as long as they
were only attacking him he treated them with admirable moderation, and when he
was obliged to caution the people for their hypocrisy he still treated their
authority and their individuals with respect.
Jesus Christ’s horror of sin was,
without doubt, very great; it was infinite; nevertheless he treated sinners
with great kindness. He hasten to meet them, welcomed them tenderly and never
repulsed a single one.”.[130]
For CGVC there was also a direct link between Douceur
and his own devotion to the Scared Heart of Jesus going back to the days when
he was a pupil at
Douceur is not,
therefore, a “sickly sweet” gentleness but much more of a “tough love”, or as
it is often described by Josephites; “an iron fist in a velvet glove” and which,
as in Isaiah, “does not break the crushed reed or put out the wavering flame.”[132]
The quality of the very deep pastoral relationship which exists between teachers and pupils, not forgetting parents, has always been a very distinctive feature of Josephite schools. The importance of this relationship is clearly demonstrated in the “Pedagogical Guide” of CGVC.
The DMJs (Ladies of Mary) also have their own equivalent of the “Pedagogical Guide”, “The Christian Teacher”, [133] from which the following excerpts are taken:
- “You will love God through the hearts of those you have
taught to love Him”.
- “If you are filled with the spirit of prayer, your
teaching will never distract or harden hearts”.
- “Once a teacher is known to her pupils as being a person
who loves them and wishes for nothing more than their happiness in
everything, she has already gained the chief thing in education,
possessing the key to their hearts”.[134]
- “A pupil who has been hard-working and amenable does not
suddenly become lazy and unmanageable without good reason. Do you know
this reason?”
- “Make yourself understood. Put yourself and your teaching
within reach of your pupils. It is not enough for the cleverest ones to
understand you, everyone must derive some benefit from your lessons; they
have all been entrusted to your heart and conscience”.
- “Avoid developing memory at the expense of intelligence.
It is easy to believe in success because children can recite what they
have been taught, whereas their judgment has not be trained.
- “Severity without love is harshness, love without severity
is weakness. In education, the one is as disastrous as the other.[135]
- “Never reveal a child’s faults to her without giving her
some means of overcoming them”.
- “What spoils everything is the changeable mood of a
teacher who tolerates everything one day and pushes all another; who puts
up with some and forgives nothing in others”.
The world is not a perfect place and there are times when a real strain is put on the school family by the repeated, inappropriate behaviour of an individual pupil or member of staff. These situations can develop into a real test of the fundamental spirituality of family which must always remain paramount even when disciplinary action if necessary, is taken. Unlike families, however, schools do retain the ultimate sanction of expelling a member from its own community. Even for CGVC, this action may be necessary course and even, at time, a decision worthy of praise as shown in his letter from CGVC to van den Bossche:
Reverend Father Superior
“You did well to dismiss the rebellious
pupil. I want the Brothers to do what they can, so that they are loved by the
pupils and that they carry out their duties with greater certitude, for God and
for the children. Politesse and gentleness are always essential.” [136]
The Josephites, through their formation programme, always learnt the “Josephite” way of doing things, including the spirituality of family, from their older, more experienced confreres. There will always be a need to educate new staff into the distinctiveness of SGCJS which will include an articulation of this founding spirituality of Josephite schools in a way which is appropriate and relevant for the 21st century.[137] The difficulties in sustaining the distinctive Josephite spirituality of family is not just the lack of an active presence of Josephites in schools but more importantly the changing understanding of what is meant by “family” and “fatherhood” for many young people. Some attempts have been made to address these two issues.[138]
However, with the ever increasing absence of Josephites, it is going to be necessary to develop a Josephite “lay spirituality” which can exist in the Josephites and which can be:
- Articulated in such a way as to successfully transcend the radical shift both from religious to lay administration and from being single sex all boys boarding schools to becoming a fully co-educational day schools with a much more ecumenical perspective.
- Adopted by the entire Georgian family being: the teaching and bursarial staff, pupils, parents, Governors, Josephites and former pupils which will then allow them to go on supporting and sustaining the special distinctiveness of SGCJS and the College for the years to come.
This Josephite “lay spirituality” will need to address the following aspects among others:
- What is means to be “an instrument
of God’s mercy” at the
- The importance of family in Josephite spirituality including Politesse and Douceur.
- The virtues of integration, inclusiveness, empathy, vision and, of course, adaptability.
- Hospitality.[139]
- The current ecumenical situation
especially given the large percentage of Christians at the
And is not just the traditional Josephite spirituality which needs to be addressed.
As we have seen, CGVC had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart. It
is perhaps surprising, given CGVC’s own devotion to the Sacred Heart, emanating
from his time at St Acheul, that some form of spiritually associated
with the Sacred Heart of Jesus has not evolved with time among the Josephites
and their schools. The other two devotions to
In the meantime, the Junior School should always be a happy and
enriching experience:
·
A
place where the pupils can learn what it is to be a child of God within the
Catholic, Christian and Josephite tradition.
·
A
place where the children not only listen to the Good News of Jesus but live out
and celebrate the Good News in their daily lives.
·
A
place where pupils can experience love, forgiveness and redemption as a child
of God.
·
A
place where pupils do not have to surrender their childhood to the god of
academia.
·
A
place where value of friendships and qualities such as Politesse, Douceur, compassion,
honesty become truly embedded into the culture of the School.
·
A place where children can be children and really enjoy
just being children.
·
A place where the children can “Search for the hero inside
themselves”.
All lived out in the traditional Josephite “family spirit” with the Headmaster as the “father figure”.
Henri Nouwen, who spent a lot of his life working with handicapped people, once wrote about the fundamental relationship of parents and their children in these terms:
“Children
are their parents’ guests. They come into the space that has been created for
them; stay a while – fifteen, twenty or twenty-five years. Although parents
speak about “our son” and “our daughter”, their children are not their
property. In many ways children are strangers. Parents have to come to know
them, discover their strengths and their weaknesses, and guide them to
maturity, allowing them to make their own decisions. The greatest gift parents
can give their children is their love for each other. Through that love they
create an anxiety-free place for their children to grow, encouraging them to
develop confidence in themselves and find the freedom to choose their own ways
in life”.
These very perceptive words apply equally as well to a school steeped in the Catholic, Christian and Josephite tradition. It needs to be remembered all education has to be founded on the closest of relationship between home and school to derive its maximum benefit.
CGVC said in the opening paragraph of his “Manuel de la Jeunesse Chrétienne”:
“All education is, strictly speaking, the
art of cultivating the minds and forming the hearts of young people in
knowledge, in good habits, or even in the ways of the world, and in civility of
manners, it cannot come about naturally, or as a result of a number
instructions, poorly digested, or given without order and without skill. Time,
care and method are necessary in the bringing up of young people. There is, it
seems to me, no more universal or significant skill, since it also aims at
everything which contributes to the formation of the honest man and the perfect
Christian.”[141]
This fundamental vision of the nature of education emanating from CGVC still remains the task for all schools formed in his legacy.
Such schools cannot be content with just an academic emphasis, since for CGVC education is about the whole person, with priority being given to the heart (moral values) over intelligence. Without religion, there cannot be any true education and religion itself cannot be simply reduced to pupils knowing and learning the doctrinal creeds of the Christian faith, it needs to lead pupils, staff, parents from knowing about God into a personal relationship with Him as a loving, tender “all-merciful” and “all-compassionate” father.
On
“Late on a Thursday evening, as noisy groups
of university students brushed past her, a visitor pauses near the Gambrinus
and gazes at the Old Market. An amber spotlight, like so many of those
illuminating monuments across the country each evening, focuses on a building
at the other end. As she approaches it the word “fortress” comes to mind. Its
doors are firmly shut against the restless wave of merry makers sweeping into
and out of the many cafes surrounding it.
Early Sunday morning our visitor again
wanders through the now almost deserted city and stops once more before the
building. The façade that impressed her the other evening now seems to gaze
nostalgically on the quiet square recalling other times and other neighbours.
As our visitor prepares to leave the city on
Monday morning she comes again to have a final look. This time the building
appears to have an indefinable welcoming air about it. Its gates now stand
proudly open allowing another, a younger and even more restless wave of
youthful energy to sweep into and through it. In a few minutes the wave
disappears and the building radiates satisfaction. Adolescents and youngsters
have come home, they are now “at home” on the Old Market and the building has
come to life”.
There are many different paradigms and models for describing what goes on inside a vibrant, dynamic school.
The Catholic, Christian and Josephite paradigm is one of family and, therefore, pupils attending St George’s College Junior School should always feel they are
Coming
home to school!
