La Salle's Mission

I just read the life story of St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Before I took a bath this morning, I downloaded the article from ewtn.com, wikipedia and the mission statement from lasalle.org. All these, in preparation for the La Sallian Philosophy later tonight, my first class this term.

One thing that I disliked about St. La Salle then was the insistence from other people that he is the patron saint of teachers. Of course, the reason is that my favorite saint, Thomas Aquinas is regarded as the patron saint of teachers eversince. In my mind, that's what I hold dear. Anything less than that, was sacrilege. Anyways, there is a mistake there, I realized now. St. La Salle, is the patron saint of Teachers of the Youth. The focus is on the youth, mind you. After reading the article, I somehow realized what a noble path I have chosen. I kinda (the word is intended) admire him now. Like really.

What I don't like about myself is that whenever I get to read something about great people, I automatically apply their lives to mine. When I read about Kant, I was amazed how we got to the same example of 7 + 5 = 12 in talking about Mathematics, even before reading his book. What are the odds there? In reading Hume, I saw myself again. He was playing backgammon with friends and then find it ice cold and bland to face the typewriter in front of abstract concepts in philosophy. When I was writing One World, I was playing all day long with my bandmates, only to go home with the same abstract things of philosophy. Then, there was Locke and Berkeley and Voltaire. Now, there was St. La Salle. When I got to the part how he wrote his Manual for Teachers of Christian Schools, I saw myself writing our manual. Like he was. What a sacrilege. It's for my good though.

The opening lines were very appropriate for me - La Salle saw in his vocation the path that he will tread all his life. And he never sailed it under friendly skies. Rather, the article talked of how it was "a long and hard struggle, with few tangible rewards". I am feeling that way too in my quest for excellence in education. When I wrote my Career Goals, ultimately inspired after taking my 18 units of professional education, I was talking of how I want to innovate in education. I never read about La Salle's idea then. When I resigned with Dominican College, I wrote that there is something that calls me - to this effect - that is infinitely bigger than my existence in Dominican. I intended the word existence. Then, I was offered the Principalship of a family-run school in San Pedro, where I am staying now. I again intend the word staying. I am most of the times exasperated because I have all the ideas in the world - Andy and my mother told me that my portfolio in InLead is not a portfolio but a dissertation, 190 pages in all - and yet it is hard to explain these things to people, especially to people who are not in education. I am despaired too often because I have to always explain to (almost) everybody here how and why we should focus on academics instead of activities, and why I opted a change in the evaluation of preschool, focusing on objectives and assessment and not the grades. These things would have been immediately understood by people who are in the same wavelength as I am. But come to think of it, in the normal curve, only 2.5% would lie in that area. (The pun on being a genius, is again intended, sorry.)

Again, what I am saying is as St. Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, I see myself as trying to pursue a path less travelled. Most of our educators are merely contented in following the orthodox and tested way in pursuing education. But there have been a lot of changes already. Most of the researches flourished with the internet technology and now, with the click of the mouse, we can peruse information and learning from a site in Harvard University for example. We cannot ignore these results. Plus, we cannot also ignore the fact that most of our youths are now being unChristianized by the world especially the media. What are we going to do about it? What would St. La Salle do in the same situation?

As St. La Salle, we must give and not count the cost (ironic but this line came from St. Ignatius). We should not focus on earthly rewards because they might not be forthcoming in this world. When La Salle started he never realized how his educational reforms would come to change the world as they did. Come to think of it, it somehow made the poor in France realize how important education was. Remember that it was the educated poor in France who started the French Revolution, bringing democracy to all the world. It's a thought. I am not a philosopher of history, but it's queer that after the "revolution" of St. La Salle in education, the French Revolution came. St. La Salle, indeed, was at the right place in history. And he followed his mission to the dot.

If the saints were alive today, what would they do? Perhaps they will use all means possible in order to evangelize the world; and bring countless souls, young souls back to God. Perhaps, they too will open discussion fora, yahoo groups, chat sessions, blogspots, websites, in order to promote the Good News. Ask 100 young people what "good news" is all about and a fewer than 10 will respond something about the faith.

St. La Salle ought to be imitated in every way. He was pro-poor and lived in accordance to that dictum. When given the fortune that would have excused him and his brothers from hard work, what did he do? He went out of the ordinary - in this present world, you will call it insanity - and distributed it to the poor of Chanpagne stricken that time of harsh winter. Hey, that winter passed did it not? What were you thinking St. La Salle? But, he wasn't thinking of grand claims and future plans of greatness. He was not a business man, like the many businessmen we have now in DelaSalle. The article mentioned that he had to rely on donations from people in order to further his vocation. Perhaps, he was thinking, if this has the blessing of God, no one can stop it. Hence, he let go of the money and thought first of the poor. They were his priority. He was pro-poor and he remained that way all his life.

I will continue oh my God to do all my actions for the love of you.

St. Jean-Baptiste de la Salle, pray for us.

Live, Jesus! in our hearts forever.

Amen.