LA SALLE, 14 s41, Jean Baptiste de, French priest and educator, called the father of modern pedagogy: b. Rheims, 30 April 1651; d. Saint-Yon, 7 April 1719. After completing the preparatory course of humanities, he en tered the university of his native city where, at the age of 19, he took his master's degree. Shortly afterward he went to% the Seminary of Saint Sulpice at Paris; and, while living there, followed the theological courses of the Sorbonne. On Easter eve 1678, he was or dained priest, being already a titular canon at the Cathedral Church of Rheims; two years later, in 1681, after defending a thesis before the faculty of the University of Rheims he ob tained the degree of doctor in sacred theology.
A man of means and academic culture, he was also a friend of the people, a true philan thropist, giving away all his patrimony in alms to help the deserving poor. He interested him self at an early period in education, especially the education of children belonging to the humbler classes. He noticed that nowhere was there a clear distinction drawn between primary and secondary education and that nowhere was there any provision made for instructing school children in subjects of acknowledged utility to them in after life. To correct this state of affairs he founded in 1681 a society of teachers under the name of Brothers of the Christian Schools (q.v.), enjoining them by rule to take the vows of religion but not to enter holy or ders. By this latter regulation, he sought to free them from ecclesiastical duties so that they might be able to devote themselves unreservedly to the work of education. The rules and con stitutions of the society were approved in 1724 by Pope Benedict XIII.
The first great change introduced by De la Salle and successfully carried out by his fdllow ers was the substitution of French for Latin as the language of the classroom. As in the case of antecedent reforms, this roused a swarm of wrathful critics; but it soon met with the approval of the universities and highest author ities in church and state.
The individual system of teaching was then in vogue, and as it seemed to him to involve loss of time and to favor idleness, he replaced it by the "simultaneous') method in which the teacher addresses himself to a numerous divi sion and frequently to a whole class at a time.
He insisted on the Socratic method of teaching for all subjects, rejecting the lecturing style as unsuited to elementary instruction. He also recommended the frequent use of object-lessons. Such thorough-going changes gave a great impetus to education inasmuch as it increased the efficiency of the teacher while diminishing his drudgery, and ensuring substantial results. In due time, these hold innovations in educa tional method brought about a general system of popular education in France as well as in other European countries, and merited for their author the title of Father of Modern Pedagogy. In 1684 he opened a Seminaire de Maitres d'Ecole for the formation of competent masters for the rural districts, which seminary was the first normal school or training college founded in Europe. Admission was by examination; and during the course, opportunities were af forded for practice-work by the free schools attached to the institution. In his endeavors to instruct the masses and educate the people, De la Salle established in Paris in 1699 regular public courses in science and art in which in struction was given to all comers on Sunday from 12 to 3 the session being always con cluded by a short religious instruction. These schools were called Ecoles Dominicales and were, in some respects, the prototype of our Sunday schools. At Saint-Yon, near Rouen, he also founded a school of higher studies in which the students were allowed to select the courses best adapted to their wants. De la Salle lived to see his society firmly established in France and his educational work appreciated at home and abroad. Among his published writings are 'Le Devoir du Chretien) and 'La Conduite des Ecoles); others are of an ascetical character and refer to the religious life.
This great educator and benefactor of the people was of a gentle yet firm disposition; severe to himself but kind and encouraging to others. The holiness of his life was proclaimed to the world by Pope Leo XIII, who on 24 May 1900 conferred on him the honors of canonization and enrolled him among the saints of the Catholic Church.