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The Institute of the Brothers of the Christian School, was founded in 1680 in the French city of Reims by St. John Baptist De La Salle.
All members are Brothers devoted exclusively to the work of Christian education. As Brothers, these men are not priests and do not engage in ministries proper to the ordained priesthood.
The Brothers do take vows and try in every way to keep alive the spirit of the brotherhood among themselves and in relationships with their students.
At the time of the foundation, the Brothers devoted themselves in a special way to the task of providing a sound elementary education for the children of artisans and the poor who otherwise would have been left without any formal education.
De La Salle and the early Brothers pioneered many educational practices that are taken for granted today: simultaneous instruction, instruction given in the vernacular instead of Latin, special attention to the basic skills of reading and writing, insistence on regular attendance, classroom discipline and sound habits of mental health and physical hygiene.
By the time of the French Revolution, the Brothers' Christian School had already effected a revolution of sorts in the field of popular education all over France. The Brothers continue to conduct quality secondary schools in most major American cities and all over the world. In recent years they have associated themselves more and more with devoted and talented lay teachers who share their sense of mission and the Lasallian spirit. Throughout the world and in
Amman-Jordan in particular, the Brothers have been able to preserve the spirit and heritage of their Founder and, at the same time, adapt in creative way to the new challenges that the contemporary world presents to their specific mission in the field of Christian education.
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