How St. John Bosco Punished

Punishing a child is a serious affair! It is the most delicate responsibility of all! One day, a holy man had the courage to meditate on the essential nature of the best educational method.  The answer he gave us was drawn from his forty-five years of profound experience both as a saint and educator.  Who was this saint? His name was Don Bosco.  Father Augustin Auffray, himself a Salesian and author of the most comprehensive biography of Saint John Bosco, gives a very succinct and simple presentation of Don Bosco's method of punishment.  "Saint Gregory Mazianzen says that education is the art of arts...How to practice this art? Saint John Bosco did not invent a new method but rather spelled out one old enough to be ever young: the method of the Gospel itself - the time of judgement is not yet, the time of mercy is here...In order to form saints, you must be a saint." Here then is the advice of a saint.  Profound. Simple. Effective.  From the Foreword by Father David Sherry, Principal of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Academy, Ontario, Canada