“The soul of a home, like that of a people, is made up of many silent fidelities.”

André Charlier (1895-1971)
Professor, headmaster of the École de Roches, then headmaster of Maslacq, writer

“(…) His joy, on the contrary, were the “roll-calls.” These roll-calls took place in the evening, after dinner, in a large stone-paved entry way at the bottom of the grand staircase. The young students sat cross-legged on the stone floor, while those of the older classes arranged themselves in little groups on the stairs. These roll-calls, as their name indicates, existed in order to verify that everyone was there. But the count for the curfew was only the preface to roll-call. When the captains had verified that there were no delinquents, André Charlier installed himself in front of the entrance table and began to speak to his young audience. This is what he loved, his vocation to form men. There he would comment on the incidents of daily life within the school. Those days, roll-call took on the solemnity of a “Court of Justice” and the table served as a tribunal for “appeals.” But, more often than not, these roll-calls were the occasion for what used to be called a “morale booster” – starting from a fact, or something he had read, André Charlier, with his rich and resonant voice, would explain its meaning and what wisdom it held. His warm and anxious words were admirably suited to the subject, and not less admirable was the fact that the young rascals seated on the floor before him listened avidly, perhaps not understanding everything he said, but finding in these familial homelies the same pleasure that the marquis of “le Grand Siècle” found in listening to Bouradaloue. (…) What he taught wasn’t written in any of our programs and yet it was the program itself, the only and all encompassing educational program. He wanted to form men. He wanted to stir up what was best in each little boy cross-legged on the stone floor of the entryway, and he wanted each boy to discover what was best in himself and to respect it. Charlier wanted that spark of courage, or of fervor, or of discipline which was smoldering under the ashes of laziness and insouciance even in the sleepiest of hearts, to break out into a fire and to illuminate their adolescence. For his students he wanted the “spirit” of his school to be more than memories of agreeable friends, more than just an education without constraint, more than a beautiful shaded park – he wanted it to be this self-discovery that he was to help them make on their own.”

Maurice Bardèche (1907-1998)
University professor, writer, literary critic, and polemist