He established the first normal school in history at Rheims in 1684, thirteen years before Francke organized his teachers' class at Halle, and fifty years before Hecker founded the first Prussian normal school at Stettin. La Salle magnified the teacher's office, and urgently demanded professional training for instructors of the young. Brother Azarias forcibly sums up La Salle's great work in this respect as follows: "He is the benefactor of the modern schoolmaster. He it was who raised primary teaching out of the ruts of never ending routine, carried on in the midst of time-honored noise and confusion, and, in giving it principles and a method, made of it a science. He hedged in the dignity of the schoolmaster. He was the first to assert the exclusive right of the master to devote his whole time to his school work."[115] Education, therefore, owes to La Salle three important contributions,--(1) the Simultaneous Method of Instruction, whereby a number of children of the same advancement are taught together; (2) the first Normal School, established at Rheims, France, in 1684; and (3) a dignifying of the teacher's profession by setting apart trained persons who should give all their time to the work of teaching. =Rollin (1661-1741).=--This great teacher, connected for many years with the University of Paris, and deposed therefrom in connection with the Jansenists to whom he adhered, was not merely a university lecturer, but also an author of educational works and a student of general education. His most important educational work is his "Treatise on Studies." Rollin anticipated modern practice by seeking to make learning pleasant and discipline humane. He would use the rod only as a last resort--a theory quite contrary to the practice of that time. Too much freedom, he thought, would have a tendency to make children impudent; too frequent appeal to fear breaks the spirit; praise arouses and encourages the child, but too much of it makes him vain. Therefore the teacher must avoid both extremes. While he would have girls know the four ground rules of arithmetic, that is about all they should have except domestic training. Rollin had no connection with elementary schools and but little contact with children; therefore his precepts do not always have the sound basis that experience furnishes. Nevertheless, he exerted a salutary influence upon the education of his time. =Summary of the Educational Progress of the Seventeenth Century.=--1. School systems were established and compulsory attendance made efficient in Weimar in 1619, in Gotha in 1642, and in many other cities, showing a growing recognition of the principle of universal education and the duty of the State to assume the responsibility for its attainment. 2. A school of educators, known as the "Innovators," laid emphasis on _sense-realism_,--the study of things, the contact with nature, the education that is of practical use.