GIRARD, GRÉGOIRE — In the world Giovanni Battista, a great Swiss educationalist, of the Friars Minor Conventual, born at Fribourg on 17 Dec. 1765, died there on 6 March 1850. Ordained a priest at Fribourg in 1788, he devoted the first years of his ministry to teaching in the schools of the Order at Überlingen
and Fribourg. He first made his mark with his Piano di educazione pubblica per la Repubblica elvetica, and in 1799 was appointed Catholic counsellor to the Minister of Education at Lucerne. When the government moved to Bern, G. became the first Catholic parish priest of that city after the « Reformation ». Recalled to Fribourg in 1804 to reorganize and direct the city’s elementary schools, he revealed his genius by transforming the artificial system of the school of the time into a nursery of culture, where interest and activity took the place of memory, and joy and the desire to know took the place of coercion by a science already established and imposed upon the minds of the pupils.
The results were magnificent, and the fame of the school of Fribourg spread throughout Europe, the Americas, and India. Everywhere in Switzerland, England, France, Greece, and Russia, « Girardine » schools arose, also introduced into Italy by the educationalist Fr. Baghetti. Lambruschini, too, later paid tribute to G. « as a disciple to his master ». But the method of mutual instruction, which entrusted a group of children to the instruction of one of their more intelligent companions under the teacher’s guidance, was regarded at Fribourg as an overthrow of the social order and an annihilation of the principle of authority. Despite the surprising results and the recognition accorded to G. by the most distinguished educationalists of the time, on 2 June 1827 the civil authorities, in agreement with the ecclesiastical authority, abolished mutual instruction. G. withdrew to Lucerne, where he taught philosophy at the State secondary school from 1827 to 1834. He was repeatedly sought out for advice and guidance in organizing the schools of various Swiss cantons, took part in meetings and congresses, and was several times guardian and provincial minister in his Order.
G.’s name has remained linked to the method of mutual instruction, a method initially occasioned by the shortage of teachers in his school, but from which he knew how to derive the greatest advantages. Its fundamental principle was to meet the innate need for vitality and movement in children. The mechanism consisted in a contest of emulation among the pupils to attain the rank that would enable them to teach their fellow pupils, since, as G. used to say, « the best way to learn is to teach ». Another result of this method was to train future leaders in the art of commanding, and to instil in the pupils the civic sense of obedience to the laws and constituted authorities. This self-education, education from within, not imposed but naturally developed according to the principles of freedom and personality, was ultimately manifested in the children’s jury, called upon to resolve disciplinary questions arising within the school. The effectiveness of this educational system was founded on the fundamental principle of the maternal method, which, by fostering the natural development of all the faculties, formed the complete human being through love and acquired conviction: « If you care about the progress of your pupils, make yourselves loved by them ». It was the method that his mother, « educator by nature », had taught him. At first an intuitive method, and then an abstracting one. G. succeeded in deriving his method above all by reflecting on the way in which a mother teaches her child the mother tongue. This became for him the great instrument in the formation of the complete human being. By studying the mother tongue, the child becomes aware by himself of the notions he acquires, exercising all his natural faculties, without limiting himself to the mere exercise of rote learning. The same maternal principle applies to moral and religious formation, not by instilling virtue, but by awakening and cultivating the good tendencies that are latent in the child’s heart. « To form Christ in man » was for G. the ideal and supreme end of education.
At his death, the Grand Council of Fribourg ordered that his likeness be displayed in all the schools, and a public subscription erected a bronze monument to him in the city, which still perpetuates his memory today.