The Gift of the Teacher by St. Angela Merici

St. Angela Merici’s intuitions:

1. In order to educate, first of all one has to respond to the more urgent material needs since it is not possible to preach sublime truths to those who lack even the necessities.
2. Angela recommends that material necessities and not only the spiritual needs of her "daughters" are taken care of.
3. Real education is not possible without love.
4. Education surpasses the strengths of the teacher: hence one must do one’s best to obtain from the Lord the necessary graces, which God never refuses those who believe and trust in him.
5. The teacher must respect his students because without respect there is no love and without love there is no education.
6. The love which Angela demands from those who educate is a mother’s love: this is the characteristical aspect of her charity. A teacher must love, as a mother does, naturally; they must love each and every student in particular; help each one with the same disinterest of which only a real mother is capable.
7. The love that Angela demands from the educators must also be a joyous love.
8. Educating means helping to grow; and all forms of growth need time and patience.
9. To form young people, the educator must look after them, consider each one individually and guide them according to their temperament.
10. How can all this be done? Through frequent meetings, loving motherly visits, not inspections.
11. If Angela wants her "daughters" to be educated with tenderness, this certainly does not mean weakness: those responsible for them are "mothers" but they must strive for the real good of each and all. So they will need to know how to reproach and if necessary punish, as long as the punishment is born out of love.
12. The real aim of education is to form enriched personalities and to prepare the young to a fully responsible life.

          ~From Brochure prepared by the City of Desenzano on the Life of Saint Angela Merici