We live at a fast pace, accustomed to immediacy and to looking for quick results in almost everything we do. Pupils sometimes arrive in the classroom caught up in the same dynamic: overwhelmed by the digital environment, in a hurry to see instant achievements and with enormous difficulty in managing frustration or waiting. We see it every day in such ordinary details as the pupil who sighs in despair because they cannot solve a maths problem at the first attempt, or, at home, because the screen will not load as quickly as they would like.
In the midst of this daily whirl, school often runs the risk of becoming a constant race against the clock. To put it metaphorically, truly educating in the Assumption is far more like making bread by hand than working on an industrial production line. Anyone who has ever ventured into the world of baking knows there are no shortcuts: you need to mix good ingredients, get the proportions right and, above all, let the yeast do its work and the dough rest calmly.
This challenge is not unique to our twenty-first century. In her early writings on education (such as the valuable advice she left in the writings from the beginnings of the foundation, around 1842), Marie Eugenie was already warning against precisely this. She insisted that teaching could not be content with copying superficial fashions or bowing to the worldly or hasty demands of the moment. For the foundress, forming young people required constant, patient work on the intellect and the will, avoiding the ephemeral in order to shape deep convictions. Just as good bread needs expert, loving and constant handling to take shape, educating demanded knowing how to act with firmness and gentleness deep within each pupil.
Putting this into practice in our daily lives means, at heart, getting our “hands in the dough”. We live it in the classroom, in tutorial sessions and days together where we slow down to learn how to relate to one another, in the emotions corner where we stop to breathe and listen to ourselves inwardly, or in those moments of interiority in Espacio Adora (our space dedicated to prayer and encounter with God). Sometimes we have to knead with infinite patience when a pupil is demotivated, or let conflicts rest by giving them space for calm and genuine listening. It is not about moulding pupils to our adult expectations, but about guiding their flight, trusting in the immense potential each one carries within.
This way of understanding life extends far beyond the classroom walls thanks to the beautiful, close relationship that characterises our whole Assumption educational community. It is the spirit we breathe together, for example, on a staff meeting afternoon when we, teaching and non-teaching staff, look one another in the eye, talk and reach agreements in order to keep improving, or the atmosphere that drives the groups of Asunción Joven (our youth leisure movement, where children and young people find a space for healthy, joyful recreation shared in community).
That same care and desire to grow together is reflected in spaces such as Asunción Familias, a meeting place where we, parents and teachers, reflect on and share the challenges of parenthood and education in a spirit of closeness. And it beats strongly in the Shared Mission groups, which bring the whole educational community together to spend time together, walk side by side and bring the charism to life.
This is where the true driving force of the Assumption comes in: what we call “supernatural optimism”. Raw dough is soft, cannot be eaten and needs to go through the heat of the oven to take shape. Difficult times, complicated school years, pupils’ rough patches and teachers’ own tiredness are that necessary oven. Without difficulties and effort, the bread does not rise in the same way.
Marie Eugenie’s optimism was the deep conviction that every small everyday effort has meaning and that, by placing our hand in the hand of God, history and classrooms can be transformed. Educating in difficult times is, ultimately, an act of faith and of daily craftsmanship. It is believing that every small, simple ingredient, kneaded with love in our classrooms and in our families, can go on transforming the world.
And you, what special ingredient will you set out to knead patiently in your daily life today to transform your classroom or your home?
Marta Buzón Guerra