John Baptiste de La Salle

In 1678 a layman inspired the handsome and scholarly John Baptiste De La Salle (1651-1719) to establish schools, accommodating the teachers in his own home. Resigning his canonry in 1683, John donated his wealth to the poor, and founded the Brothers of Christian Schools, better known as Christian Brothers. He taught classrooms segregated by level of knowledge, or grades, in French, instead of one-on-one tutoring in Latin. In breaking the norm, he made mass education practical in teacher colleges and boy’s schools before his order gained official approval.

Promoting visual learning, John innovated the blackboard. As demand for his services spread, he wrote a Manual for Christian Schools, and started schools for orphans, the rich, delinquents, and the trades. Despite opposition from the Jansenists, lay teachers, tutors, and some of his own brothers who opposed the rigidity of his methods, John’s schools spread from France to Italy and the entire western world before his retirement. His lead paved the way for subsequent teaching orders.

Operating in the system launched by the Schoolmen, Franciscan nuns, Sisters of Charity, and Christian Brothers oversaw the first twelve years of my education. The Christian Brothers exude education. I seldom read before Brother Girard played Richard Burton’s Hamlet LP in Freshman Literature. I seldom stopped since. I remember my very first religion class at the all-boys South Hills Catholic High School in 1963. In a simple, but profound opening comment to freshman religion, Brother Alexis advised that we were Christians first, and Catholics second. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve pondered that statement through the years, or how many years it would be before I appreciated its depth! One of his first assignments requested that we attend a service at another church, Christian or otherwise, and write a report on the experience.

I will always remember my ‘goose bumps’ as one of two hundred plus young men belting out A Mighty Fortress as Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena domed roof revolved, slowly opening to a starlit night at our springtime graduation ceremony. The work ethics and study habits I acquired served me well as I pursued a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and a master’s in business at the University of Pittsburgh, and, more importantly, in the pursuit of my faith.