For the little ones ...

Lovely lunchtime walk around Hylands Park with Mrs K, a beautiful day. And on this day in 1719 Jean-Baptiste de La Salle died. Having been educated in a de la Salle school I thought I ought to read up.

In de la Salle's time most children had little hope for the future. Moved by the plight of the poor who seemed so "far from salvation" either in this world or the next, he put his talents and advanced education at the service of the children "often left to themselves and badly brought up".

De La Salle knew that the teachers in Reims were struggling, lacking leadership, purpose, and training. He invited them for meals in his home, as much to teach them table manners as to inspire and instruct them in their work. This crossing of social boundaries was one that his relatives found difficult to bear. He then brought the teachers into his own home to live with him. De La Salle's relatives were deeply disturbed, his social class was scandalized.

De La Salle and his Brothers succeeded in creating a network of quality schools with students grouped according to ability and achievement & they prepared teachers with a sense of vocation and mission, and they also involved parents.

Having grown up on a sink estate outside Manchester, I think my schooling did what de la Salle's hoped and worked for. He's now recognised as the patron saint of teachers.