March 28, 1592 • Comenius: Born to Learn, Born to Teach

raded curricula, pictures in children's textbooks, hands-on learning: these are but three of the new ideas Comenius gave education. Born on this day, March 28, 1592, he studied under the innovative educator and encyclopedist Johann Alsted and became like his teacher a man of immense learning. But his insights took him beyond his master.

Comenius was destined to spend much of his life in flight from savage persecution. When the Thirty Years' War broke out in 1618, Bohemian Protestants, followers of Jan Hus, known as the Unity of the Brethren, were ordered to leave the nation which became officially Catholic again. Comenius, who had recently been appointed school principal and pastor by the Brethren, remained in hiding seven years in Bohemia, trying to minister to the scattered remnant of his flock. Eventually with a small band of the Brethren he left his native land, never to return. They eventually settled in Leszno, Poland.

In Poland, Comenius wrote several textbooks on education. These were so original that they won him the name "Father of Modern Education." His theory began by seeing children through Christ's eyes: precious gifts from God to be cherished rather than annoyances to be suppressed. Children will be joint heirs of Christ just as much as their Christian parents. Someday they will rule in the Kingdom of God and judge the very devils. However unimportant they now seem, they are actually of inestimable importance.

Therefore children are to be treated as if more precious than gold. They should be showered with love. Material should be adapted to their ability to learn. Since a combination of words and pictures is more powerful than either alone, the two should be united in children's texts. Curricula should move from simpler to more complex with repetition and review so that the learner will gain mastery. Never should children be punished for failing but rather helped and encouraged. The subjects taught should have practical use. Where possible, demonstration and direct observation should be the norm. If Comenius' ideas sound highly modern, it is because they were not applied as they might have been for centuries. It has taken the world a long time to catch up with Comenius, and there is much more to be mined from his vast writings.

Like modern educators, Comenius used pictures, maps, charts and other visual aids. He even brought drama into the classroom. In his system, there were four grades, equivalent to pre-school, grade school, high school and college. He was also an advocate of continuing education, believing that learning should be a lifelong process. He saw the right kind of education as Christ-centered and pansophist. In pansophism, spiritual, philosophical and scientific learning is integrated. He hoped that through education mankind might be changed for the better.

Bibliography:

1. Comenius, Johann Amos. The Orbis pictus of John Amos Comenius / Syracuse, N.Y., C. W. Bardeen, 1887. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1968.
2. Comenius. Christian History & Biography # 13.
3. "Comenius, Johannes Amos." The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
4. Eavey, C. B. History of Christian Education. Chicago: Moody Press, 1964; 169ff.
5. Graves, Frank Pierrepont. Great Educators of Three Centuries; their work and its influence on modern education. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1912.
6. Monroe, Will Seymour. Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform. New York: Scribner's sons, 1900.

Last updated May, 2007.