Extrait du livre Schubert
Schubert by Ann Rachlin and Susan Hellard Flowerpot Children's press
Schubert
The Viennese schoolmaster picked up his pen and began to write the letter. At last it was quiet. His pupils had gone home. For a few short hours the Lichtenstal School would be just his family’s home again, until tomorrow morning when they would all be back. Mr. Schubert had heard that the headmaster of Leopoldstadt School had died. “That would be the school for me!” he sighed. So here he was, applying for the job. He wrote: ‘When I came to the Lichtenstal School, it had such a bad name that there were no pupils. I used my own money to furnish the school and pay an assistant. Now, I have 174 pupils. Many are so poor that I teach them for nothing. Please give me the opportunity to work in a well-equipped school where I can prove how good I am.’
But Mr. Schubert was disappointed. The job went to someone else. One year later, on January 31, 1797, his wife gave birth to their fourth son. The schoolmaster wondered how he would find the money to look after them all. He looked in the cradle at his baby son. “We’ll give him my name,” he said. “He shall be called Franz.” When Franz was three-years-old, his father and mother moved to a bigger house. Now, they had 300 pupils. There was not enough money to pay an assistant, so Ignaz, the eldest son, helped Mr. Schubert. Soon, the other sons, Ferdinand and Karl, would be teaching—and Franz too, when he was old enough.
