A normal school or normal college trains teachers in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. Other names include teacher training colleges or teachers' colleges. In Argentina and Mexico, they continue to be called normal schools with student-teachers in the latter country being known as normalistas, where schools require a high school diploma for entry, and may be part of a comprehensive university. Normal schools in the United States, Canada, and Argentina trained primary teachers, while in Europe equivalent colleges trained teachers for primary and secondary schools.
In 1685, Jean-Baptiste de La Salle established the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, and founded what is generally considered the first normal school, the École normale, in Reims, Champagne, France.