When I was a child I learned to do what was asked of me without arguing – what an immense gift I was given. But how your sons argue about everything! And they never get to the end of it! Nothing finds favor in their eyes, and they judge everything according to their instant gratification. Don’t be surprised if they never show obedience, discipline, respect or a sense of duty. And then on top of it, you filled them up so much that they no longer have any desires, and there is nothing so sad as young people without desire. The absence of desire is a strange happiness.

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

“You care about your children’s education, since you have entrusted your sons to us. But you are leaving us to do what you yourself haven’t the courage to do – abdicating your role as a parent. I’m well aware that, given the moral atmosphere of the modern world, the task of parents, if they want to fulfill it scrupulously, is an almost heroic task. Well, you have to take it as it is, without side-stepping. No one will replace you, and in the end you will still be responsible for your children. Do you know what is happening in most of our educational institutions, even religious ones? What is happening is that the educators are completely overwhelmed: they take care of the best few and leave the great mass of mediocre ones to fend for themselves. There are still a few of us here doing a job that nobody wants to do any more, and with which nobody helps us in any way. So please don’t drive us from our work altogether by making us feel like what we struggle to do on one side, is all too often completely undone on the other. Never has getting back to work after the summer vacation been more painful than this year, because over vacation they were too soft, too idle, too comfortable. And above all, when you come back after vacation, get rid of the idea that these poor children absolutely must be consoled for the misfortune of being boarders by kilos of sweets or a lavish lunch or whatever. I try to treat them like men, and I beg you to believe that it’s not easy. Being a man isn’t about arguing and questioning everything. It’s about taking courageous and generous responsibility for something that is bigger than ourselves. So do as I do. You think it’s heroic? Then be heroes. There is no other way.”

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