in a situation where the students might lack respect for him and he might lose authority over them.358

This is a new way of acting as a teacher. “And what should the teachers of such a tender age be like? To anyone who would like to take on such a very important and unenviable role, I say: let him be completely fatherly towards his pupils. If he does not do this, if he is unable to do it, he will never succeed in educating them reasonably. The reason is that, to be successful in such a noble undertaking, it is essential to have a father’s patience, to become a child, once again in order to meet them at the level of their intelligence, to provide lively and cheerful instruction, to respond with kindness to all their questions, to caress them from time to time in order to soften the difficulties they have with their work. Summing up, an educator should live with them like a wise friend, like a counsellor and a director, and he should love them as he loves his own children”359

The theme of love is considered so essential that Aporti stresses it even when he explains the method of teaching arithmetic.

Furthermore, what concerns me even more, according to my inner convictions, is that the

teacher should try his best to also direct his teaching towards education of the heart. As

long as a teacher restricts himself to giving knowledge and developing the intellectual

faculties of his pupil, he will be admired for his precision, for all the life he has been able

to put into his work, but I will be never be happy with him. I would also say that I feel

sorry for him because I would have only found a teacher who can teach language or the

ABC while I, society and religion expect and have the right to expect him to be an educator

who was able to warm the hearts of his pupils by enlightening their minds and while

sharing instruction was able to improve his pupils’ lives”.360

The Infant school thus becomes the school for children without a family or with an inept family. It becomes a “domestic” world, where they feel enveloped by the light of knowledge and the warmth of love….Since they have no family, which is a powerful means of doing good and restraining from evil, it is essential to create a family for them which, through wise guidance, fervent and sincere kindness, may arouse a moral sense in them and strengthen it. The purpose of this activity is to reconcile them and create strong ties with society using the sublime and generous principles of natural and religious charity”.361 Inserted into this dynamic is the intuitive, objective and demonstrative method which fosters “the gradual development of the powers of the mind and heart”.362 This development takes place within an educational context where “the studies are dealt with as though they were amusements and games”, where “occasional moderate movement”363 is favored and “where singing is promoted, also to train the vocal chords and the hearing ability of children, because children love to hum tunes”.364

Aporti describes the results of this method in a report which first came out on September 24, 1830. “Satisfaction increases when one considers that the children enrolled in this school are more cheerful,

358 Lezioni di metodica, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, Vol 2, 440-441.

359 Elementi di pedagogia, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, Vol 2, 50-51. Fear, “rigour, lack of loving kindness” are, for

Apporti, “ sufficient reason for destroying the children’s desire to go to school” (Lezioni di metodica, in F. Aporti,

Scritti pedagogici, Vol 2, 442).

360 Lezioni di metodica, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, vol 2, 450.

361 Statistica degli asili e delle scuole di infanzia 1849, in F. Aporti,Scritti pedagogici, vol 1, 376-377.

362 F. Aporti, Rapporto sull’esito degli esami sostenuti dopo il 2o semestre 1830 dagli alunni dell’Asilo a pagamento, 24

September 1830 in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili, vol 2, 21.

363 F. Aporti,Piano di educazione ed ammaestramento pei fanciulli dall’età dei 2 ½ ai 6 anni, 15 June 1830, in A.

Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili, vol 2, 11.

364Ibid.,, Vol 2, 11; cf., Rapporto sull’esito degli esami subiti dalla Scuola dei piccoli fanciulli di Cremona dopo il primo

semestre del 1830, in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili, vol 2, 18