2. A proof of the multiplication of schools, and so of the diffusion of the new educational spirit, is the wretched quality of those who were allowed to teach. There must be schools even if they are poor ones.
3. The need of competent teachers led to the establishment of the Teachers’ Seminary, the parent of the modern normal school. The two elements in this professional instruction seem to have been a knowledge of the subjects to be taught and of methods of organization and discipline.
4. The severe discipline and enforced silence of La Salle’s schools permit the inference that the school of the period was the scene of lawlessness and disorder. The reaction went to an extreme; but considering the times, this excess was a virtue.
5. The scarcity of teachers and the abundance of pupils led to the expedient of mutual and simultaneous instruction. While this method is absolutely bad, it was relatively good.
6. To the benevolent and inventive spirit of La Salle is due the organization of industrial schools.]
FOOTNOTES:
[157] Petites écoles. This is the term commonly applied to primary schools at this period. By the Jansenists this term was used in a more distinctive sense, and for this reason I have translated it “Little Schools” in [Chap. VII]. (P.)
[158] See the Lectures pédagogiques. Hachette, 1883, p. 420.
[159] We have before us the edition of 1722.
[160] Histoire d’une école gratuite, par V. Plessier, p. 15.