Jean-Baptiste Girard (pedagogue)

He was the fifth child in a family of fourteen, and his gift for teaching was early shown at home in helping his mother with the younger children.

At sixteen he entered the novitiate of the Franciscans at Lucerne; after spending some time teaching in the colleges of the order, he went to Würzburg for his philosophical and theological studies, and was there ordained to the priesthood.

Returning to Fribourg in 1789, he spent ten years in missionary work and in teaching philosophy to the young men of his order.

Upon the invitation of Stapfer, minister of arts and sciences, in 1798 he published an essay outlining a scheme of national Swiss education.

In an 1832 treatise on public education, François Marc Louis Naville [fr] praised Girard for his method of teaching by actively interesting his students in their lessons.