Patron saint of Catholic teachers

St. John Baptist de La Salle was born in Rheims, France on April 30, 1651. Four days, we celebrated the birth anniversary of this man who made his mark as an innovator in educational matters and the founder of a Catholic teaching congregation, the Institute of the Brothers of Christian Schools. Although born to a wealthy family, he chose to study for the priesthood and was later ordained.

At the beginning of the 17th century, schools for the poorer classes in France were lacking in money, teachers and buildings. The schools for the poor were usually conducted in buildings never designed for education. The main subject was religion and other subjects like reading, writing and arithmetic were taught on a one-to-one basis. The medium of instruction was Latin and not French, the local language.

It is important to know all these so that one can understand that the changes that John Baptist de la Salle introduced to the educational system was considered revolutionary at that time.

Children of the aristocracy and the richer bourgeoisie class had more adequate educational facilities at their disposal. They started schooling with tutorials at home and then entered secondary school usually conducted by the Jesuits and Oratorians or the Confederation of Oratories of Saint Philip Neri.

The teachers in these schools were members of their respective orders, trained in Greek and Latin which, after religion, were the principal subjects.

When John Baptist de la Salle decided to focus on primary education for the poor, he had to introduce innovation primarily in the method of instruction and the curriculum. The Brothers were told to abandon the individual method of instruction and replace it with the simultaneous method. Instead of requiring a teacher to instruct individually in each subject, the simultaneous method allowed the teacher to give his lesson once to all the students in a class. A single teacher could therefore instruct large numbers of students. This was the beginning of the modern classroom.

La Salle also instructed his teachers tp require students to learn the local language French first and then Latin, later. This was a radical change but which allowed education for the masses to be more convenient.

Initially, La Salle intended to concentrate on elementary schools. However, eventually, the Brothers branched out into other areas of educational work. In 1700, the Brothers were entrusted with the education of some 50 Irish boys from aristocratic families who had followed their king into exile in France. This was La Salle’s first effort in secondary education and teaching children who came from non-poor families.

Another innovation started by La Salle was in 1700 when it enrolled youth who had to earn their own living but did not know how to read and write. The Brothers provided them with basic instruction together with vocational and technical training to help them better their position in the world. This was the start of La Salle schools’ entry into venturing outside classical training and education in fields known today as engineering and other similar professions.

At that time, the Brothers opened a reform school for delinquent young men from better families. This became so successful that this practice has been continued up to today. So in some of the La Salle schools, like the ones in Bacolod and in Greenhills, among the students are persons deprived of liberty.

The initial success of the Brothers in the pre-primary schools in France attracted the attention of merchants and businessmen who wanted a secondary but not a classical education for their sons. The Brothers who were teaching in the schools for the poor needed money to support their schools. To obtain these funds, La Salle opened a tuition school which catered to the needs of the children of merchants and businessmen. Instead of a classical education, the focus in these schools was mainly in commercial subjects.

Today, this tradition has continued with La Salle schools developing a reputation for quality courses in business and accounting subjects.

The most serious problem facing the schools for the poor was the lack of qualified teachers. La Salle pioneered in the establishment of teacher training schools. This has proven to be one of La Salle’s greatest contributions to education.

His first effort of opening a Normal school is often regarded as a landmark in the history of education.

There are many biographies written about the life of St. John Baptist de La Salle. However, one of my favorite books is a semi-biographical one entitled “St. John Baptist de La Salle: A 17th Century Educational Innovator” by Gregory Wright, FSC. This is a collection of 16 essays which provide insights into and a fuller understanding of his life and work in education.

Today, the Brothers of the Christian Schools congregation is the largest Catholic order devoted exclusively to education. Many of the practices in today’s La Salle schools are actually inherited from the pioneering years of its revered founder, St. John Baptist de La Salle, patron saint of Catholic teachers.

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