teacher gives a reprimand or an admonition he should make sure not to offend or do anything which might discourage the guilty one. Instead he should let him know that he will not stop loving him and esteeming him as a person even though he corrects him and that he does this precisely because he loves him and esteems him and really wants what is good for him”.425 The reprimand comes to the fore “when it can be clearly seen that warnings and kindly corrections prove useless”.426 Finally, once the desired results are obtained, as occasion demands, the severity of the corrections should be softened, urging the young man to correct himself”.427

Teppa devotes a longer chapter to the subject of punishments, 428 but not because they are considered the most important part of education. He rather holds the opinion that their frequency is due to the carelessness or inexperience of the educator. Punishments “should be given only out of necessity and as a medicine. The necessity and usefulness of punishment should also be the norm for determining the quality and quantity of punishments and the way of using them”. 429 As for the way to use punishments, love is presented as the basic way to be followed:

First of all, the best kind of punishment given by a teacher who is truly loved and respected

by his pupils will be by showing how sorry he is about the fault committed, either by

reprimanding them openly but seriously, or with a quieter, more serious and reserved

approach, and not giving them signs of kindness and familiarity he he normally has given

them in the past. But the teacher must make sure that the humiliation is not of such a

nature as to discourage the person430…Let a punishment be given with dignity and at the

same time with loving kindness. As much as possible, the culprit should be persuaded that

the punishment was just and necessary, and that his fault was being punished because we

love him as a person”.431

Besides using punishments, the author adds, it is also just and proper that at the proper time and place the teacher should bestow the praise due to the pupil who acts the way he should and encourage him with rewards”.432

The last two chapters deal with the educator as a whole. What is emphasised is individual good

example and harmony in the community of those educating.433 “Let them be compassionate and bear with one another with holy charity and, whenever it may be needed, let there be mutual correction”.434 Finally the charity which St. Paul writes to the Corinthians about is taken and formulated as the supreme principle of any educational activity.435

425 Ibid., 37.

426 Ibid., 38.

427 Ibid.,40.

428 A. M. Teppa, Avvertimenti per gli educatori ecclesiastici della gioventù ch. 6, Dei castighi, 41-51.

429 Ibid., 43.

430 Ibid., 43-45.

431 Ibid., 49 and 51.

432 Ibid., 51.

433 Ibid., ch. 8, Del buon esempio e della concordia tra gli educatori, 54-61-7

434 Ibid., 60.

435 1 Cor. 13:4-7; A. M. Teppa, Avvertimenti, Chap. 9, Condizioni della carità che dee avere un educatore ecclesiastico,

61-69.