With the young, punishment is whatever is meant as a punishment. It has been noticed that in the case of some boys a reproachful look is more effective than a slap in the face would be. Praise of work well done and blame in the case of carelessness are already a reward or punishment.1231

Finally, so reasonableness and moderation be used in commonly inflicted punishments, did not want young teachers and assistants to inflict them on the boys. We have already seen this mentioned in the Good Night given on 21 March 1865:

To make yo u feel good, I absolutely forbid the assistants from inflicting punishments, so

that no one will ever complain.

1233

1232

Don Bosco

In the area of punishments, the one who holds the main responsibility is the Rector, even though the

execution is entrusted to the vice rector, the prefect, because reason should not destroy fatherliness and the particular position held by the Rector as the ordinary confessor of the Salesian House.

1234

6. Dismissal and expulsion

The frequent expulsion of boys should be seen within the context of Don Bosco's thinking and his times. Ideas of' equal opportunity and the right to study did not yet exist. Only those who had finance could enhance their social and cultural status.

It was considered a privilege to study for a degree or learn a professional skill in a well-organised institution. It appeared evident that whoever did not know how to appreciate either study or skills would be obliged to go back to his local area. It was not a question of going back to a place of perdition. It was only a question of going back to one's family and picking up again the 'Pondus diei et aestus', the weight of the day's work and heat', which he had left and which would have realistically re- educated him after his failed experience at school.

This attitude, some people thought, ran the risk of someone having a vocation forced on him. But this is the answer given by Don Bosco:

The choice of a state of life here in our own house is entirely free and no one is ever

admitted to the clerical habit if he doesn't possess all that is required of him. Anyone who

has these requirements has a true sign that he has a vocation. Anyhow, for anyone not

called to this state of life, given the terrible times in which we live, I think it would be

better if he got back to working his own land.1235

Don Bosco's nephew, Louis, fell into this category, even though he was undecided about what choice to

make.

Don Bosco thought the same way about another youngster,whose parents were farmers. “This has to be kept in mind”, Don Bosco added, “because if he were a young man from well-to-do circumstances, it would not be proper to have him sent back to work the land. But in regard to a young man who has been taken from that type of work and sent to study to find out if the Lord was calling him to the ecclesiastical state, if he is not so called, we would do him no wrong and it would be better for him to be sent back to work his own land”.

1231 Il sistema preventivo (1877), Una parola sui castighi, aart. 1 and 2, p. 64, OE XXVIII 442.

1232 In the circular Dei castighi...., mirrors the practice followed at the Oratory in Valdocco and in other houses; some

simple examples: J. M. Prellezzo, Dei castighi...., p. 304.

1233 G.B. Lemoyne, Cronaca 1864ff,

1234 See MB X, 1094-1095, norms from Don Bosco collected by Lemoyne; other norms from the 'conferences' for

prefects; MB 1121; cf also Prellezzo, Dei Castighi..., p. 308.

1235 Ruffino, Cronaca 1861 1862 1863, pp. 93-95.