From Sister Marie-Dosithée Guérin to Mme Martin. February‑March 1863. Extract.
.... . . . You ask me if you should teach your little girl to read (Marie, who just turned 3 on February 22): if it were mine I would start, but without tormenting and boring her. There are very amusing little alphabets, the children learn to read while playing, and without forcing her we encourage her to read to please baby Jesus. I urge you to firmly root the love of God in his little heart and to give him a truly strong and Christian education. Today's children are so badly brought up that we don't know how to train them in virtue when they are given to us (At the boarding school run by the Visitandines of Le Mans). The parents have piety but as one cannot deny anything to one's children, they assume independent manners so full of themselves and of their comforts that later when they want to give themselves to God, they have great difficulty. to overcome difficulties. Do not do the same for yours, train them in the spirit of sacrifice and complacency by the motive of pleasing God.
