The Irish standard., 1919-05-10
CONTINUED from Page ~

\COut1uu0U IrOm rage Id
Societies like physical bodies move
in virtue of the principles that set
them in motion. The Brothers of the
Christian Schools still move under
the impulse of the Saint to whom they
owe their origin. Like him they are
a mighty social force; factor of the
highest value in the religious and edu-
cational world. Few bodies of re-
ligious have come into such close con-
tact with the people as the sons of
La Sale. Few know the heart of the
toiler and his children as they do.
Few have been as practical in their
educational system. They could not
we'll go astray, for they had before
them the admirable counsel of the
wise and holy priest of Reims.
John Baptist de la Sale was not
only one of the greatest Saints of the
seventeenth century, recalling by his
gentleness the sweetness of Francis
de Sales, by his fortitude and trust
in God the flaming ardor of St. Tere.
sa, by his executive ability, Ignatius,
by his humility, the Saint of Assist,
he was one of the most far.seeing
men of his age. AS an educator he
was like Fenelon, far ahead of his
day. He brought into the field of
primary education elements which
gave it an impulse under which it is
still forging ahead. His concept of a
body of religious men, not priests,
wholly devoted to the education of the
poor, was as bold as it was practical.
OF him, Brother Azarias, one of his
distinguished sons, says:
| He is the benefactor of the modern
schoolmaster. He it was that raised
primary teaching out of the ruts of
never-ending routine, carried on in
the midst Of time.honored noise and
confusion, and, in giving it principles
and method, made it a science. He
hedged in the dignity of the school.
master. He was the first to assert
the exclusive right of the master to
devote his whole time to his school
work c'Essays Educational" p. 23S).
This great master of pedagogy
crystallized into it's final form that
famous simultaneous method" al
ready used In some shape in the Jesu-
it schools and in the classes taught
by St. Peter Fourier, Charles Demia
and Bishop de Nesmond. In virtue
of that method pupils are graded ac-
cording to their capacity and their
acquired knowledge, gathered in ac-
cordance with that standard into one
class, given the same textbooks, all
taught at one and the same time the
same lessonsby the same master. The
simultaneous method eliminated an
enormous amount of waste and was
a notable gain in efficiency The
method appears very simple to us to-
day because 1t is now universally>used
and we have been brought up under
it. But as Brother Azarias tells us,
1t was a novelty in the days of La
Sale, when Brothers school was
looked upon with admiration, and
strangers were shown it as a curios-
ity. The Saint was an innovator also
in other ways. He eliminated Latin
from the primary school and insisted
upon the vernacular. He thought it
waste of time to teach reading from
texts the children did not understand,
and saw that if taste of reading
could be given to the pupil an instru-
ment would be put into his hand of
incalculable pedagogical and cultural
value. Thirteen years before Francke
organized his teachers class at Halle
and fifty years before Hecker found
ed the first Prussian normal school
at Stettin, La Sale had founded the
first normal school at Reims. The
Normal School of the Saint at Reims,
marks an epoch in the history of edu-
cation. Henceforth the world under