"The action of teaching and learning is in its own nature pleasing andagreeable."
——The Schoolof Infancy (母育学校）
The Renaissance Period
What/ when was theRenaissance period? In European history, between the 14th-17thcentury, is what we know today as the renaissance. The renaissance is the bridge in time betweenthe middle ages and modern history. Thisperiod of time was based heavily on classical learning and the “rebirth” of ancient Rome and Greece. Due to this it is commonly referred to as thetime of “rebirth” because renaissance is the French word for rebirth.
Education During the Renaissance,education was primarily for young boys who came from wealthy families. There are two types of educationalfacilities: one for the wealthy, based heavily on Latin and The Humanities, andthe other for the lower class, who were taught the common trades. Girls duringthis period were not usually educated, however the wealthiest among them couldbe schooled in the classics alongside the boys; the majority of which wereschooled about matters of the home and “wifely duties”. Children carried with them a hornbook tied to their belt on a dailybasis, which was used to learn the alphabet.
Political Politics in the middle ages wassolely reliant on the Roman Catholic Church, but the Renaissance gave birth toHumanism, which in turn gave rise to much needed change. Humanism during the ranaissance promoted theneed for more concentration on the goodness of people, rather than focusing onthe divine. This then brought back theclassical texts to change the way of medieval thinking.
John AmosComenius——Enduring Optimism
John Amos Comenius（Latin）, who wasborn in 1592, and was the youngest of five children and the only son in adeeply religious family. When Comeniuswas ten years old, his parents and two of his sisters died. Comenius and his two surviving sisters wentto live with an aunt in a nearby town. He found the curriculum narrow, theteaching poor, and the discipline harsh and brutal. He had to learn many rules by rote(死记硬背) before he had understood them andtranslated Latin authors without suitable dictionaries or commentaries. Comenius deplored the destruction of childhoodhappiness that resulted from the inhuman conditions of these schools and theaversion they created toward learning. Because of his early experiences, Comenius later pleaded for more humanetreatment of pupils and tried to develop new methods of instruction.
At the time of his death in 1670,he had written more than 200 works, and his textbooks were in half the schoolsin Europe, translated into 17 languages. Comenius was a man who remained positive, optimistic and energeticthroughout his life despite the violence and tragedies around him.
1. Comenius’ FamousBooks
1. 1 Philosophy of Education: The Great Didactic
As the reality for an independent Bohemia became less and lessattainable, Comenius turned his vision and efforts to the wider aim ofeducation and to pedagogic reform. Heenvisioned education for all nations and for all people, a universal education,which he called pampaedia. Comenius hoped that universal education wouldpromote social harmony.
The Great Didactic (大教学论1628-1632) is the method ofteaching all things to all people. Thepurpose of The Great Didacticis stated at the beginning of the text: Letthe main object of this, our Didactic, be as follows: To seek and to find a methodof instruction, by which teachers may teach less, but learners may learn more;by which schools may be the scene of less noise, aversion, and useless labor,but of more leisure, enjoyment, and solid progress; and through which theChristian community may have less darkness, perplexity, and dissension, but onthe other hand more light, orderliness, peace, and rest.
Following are some of the ideas Comeniusadvanced in The Great Didactic.Education is necessary for all young people of all classes of society, for bothsexes, including those who are backward, mentally weak, and of limited intelligenceto help them overcome their shortcomings, as no mind can be so poor that itcannot be improved through education, because God had made everyone in Hisimage. Children should be educated together in classes, since better resultsand more pleasure are obtained when they are taught together and interact.
During the sixteenth century, societybegan to develop an interest in the study of nature, observation of her laws,imitation of her methods in education, and denouncement of the existing harsh andsevere discipline of the students for the sake of learning.
Comenius looked to nature for guidelinesfor his pedagogy and used examples from nature to illustrate his points. The basis of the reform Comenius wasadvocating is an application of the principle of order he found in nature. (1)Nature, he claimed, observes a suitable time; (2) prepares the material beforeattempting to give it form; (3) chooses a fit subject to act upon; (4)advanceswith precision from one point to another; (5) develops from within;(6) beginswith the universal and ends with the particular; (7) makes no leaps, butproceeds step by step; (8) does not leave the process incomplete; and (9)avoidsall obstacles that are likely to interfere with her operations.
Comenius's idea of education was alifelong process. Therefore he developed an educational system of four levels: infancy, childhood, boyhood, and youth , eachlasting for six years. For infancy, aMother school should exist in every house, a Vernacular School in every hamletand village , a Gymnasium or Latin school in every city, and a University inevery kingdom or in every province. Thevarious subjects were not to be separated but taught concurrently. The same subjectswere to be taught at all four levels, but the degree of difficulty of eachsubject was to be adapted to each pupil's stage of development and progress.
The main objectives of the MotherSchool were character training, the development of the senses, and fosteringthe mother tongue. In the Vernacular School, the processes of imagination andmemory were to be developed in combination with their related organs throughreading, writing, painting, singing, counting, measuring, weighing, andmemorizing. The Vernacular School was to be universal, compulsory, free for allchildren of both sexes regardless of their social class or religious affiliation,and divided into definite classes. The Latin School provided a classical curriculumof dialectic, grammar, rhetoric, and other sciences and arts that are based onprinciples of causation. Through these courses, the student was to be trainedto understand and to judge the information he has collected. Finally, theUniversity, through the faculties of theology, philosophy, medicine, andjurisprudence, provided professional training. Comenius initiated a school system that wasdevelopmentally appropriate.
Comenius devotes a whole chapter inThe Great Didactic on schooldiscipline. He protests against the severe and inhuman discipline of his day.He pleads for gentle discipline, free from personal elements such as anger ordislike, and exercised with frankness and sincerity. Teachers should administerpunishment just as physicians prescribe medicine --- to improve the condition ofthe individual. Severe discipline shouldnot be used for studies, only in the case of moral delinquencies such as: (1)impiety of any kind; (2) premeditated misbehavior, or neglect of duty; and (3)pride, disdain, envy, and idleness. Corporal punishment(体罚) is not useful to inculcating alove for schoolwork, but it is very likely to create an aversion to learning.He suggests praise, encouragement, andemulation as better methods of discipline.
1.2 School of Infancy (母育学校)
Comenius wrote several guides andschoolbooks for the use of the teachers and pupils in the various grades of hiseducational scheme. The first of these was the Informatorium Skoly Materske, or Informatory of the Mother School, written in Czech between 1628 and1630, during the time Comenius was pastor in Leszno(波兰), but itwas not published in Czech until 1858. A German translation was issued atLeszno in 1633. It was also translatedinto Polish and Latin.
Since the education of the childmust begin at birth, mothers must assume the teacher's role. The mothers of theseventeenth century, according to Comenius, were not prepared to undertake thismission due to lack of training. The School of Infancy outlines definiteinstructions for mothers. It lays thefoundation for all that the child is to learn. Comenius advised that children should stay with their mothers and not begiven to teachers before the age of six. Among the reasons he gives is that young children require more attentionand care than a teacher can give, who has the responsibility for many children.
According to Comenius, the purposeof educating the child is threefold: (1) faith and piety, (2) uprightness inrespect to morals, and (3) knowledge of language and of arts. This order mustnot be inverted. Parents, therefore, do not fully perform their duty when theymerely teach their children to eat, drink, walk, and talk. These things aresubservient to the body, Greater care must be taken for the soul, which is thehighest part of the child's nature.
Comenius does not ignore thephysical care of the child. Bodily vigor influences mental development. He counseled mothers to take care of themselvesduring pregnancy; nurse their own children giving them to strangers to nurse them,is hurtful; gradually introduce them to solid foods; allow them to move andplay; and provide some stimulation for the senses. The body and soul of thechild. should be trained from birth, as ought to be throughout his life.
For the mental training of thechild, he outlined two groups of studies: (1)those providing the materials forthought such as nature study, geography, household economy and (2) thosesupplying the symbols of thought, such as drawing, writing, and language.Comenius described the content and examples of educational activities for youngchildren, which he divided into: things young children should know, things theyshould be able to do, and things they should be able to say. Children under sixshould have knowledge of: (1) natural things-the differences between plants andanimals; the name of fruits; the names of the external parts of their bodiesand their uses; (2)optics-the difference between light and darkness; (3)astronomy distinguish between sun, moon, and stars; (4) geography-knowledge ofwhere the child was born, and where he lives, village, town, or city; (5)chronology (时间顺序) what is an hour, a day, a week,or a month; (6) the beginning of history-ability to remember what he didyesterday; (7) household affairs-ability to distinguish who belongs to thefamily and who does not; and (8) politics-knowing that there is a state, aruler, ministers, and legislators. These form the basis of the early childhoodeducation curriculum today, Many of the activities of the contemporarypreschool education curriculum in the United States are Comenian in scope andcontent.
Comenius recommended stories andfables, particularly those about animals that contain some moral principle. Byage six, children should be able to distinguish between a question and answer,express themselves understand-ably, count to twenty, and understand the differencebetween even and odd numbers. Additional activities were related to music,health, cleanliness, justice, patience, and industriousness. Comenius believedthat instruction should be individualized because children learn to speak andreach their developmental milestones at different ages.
Comenius called attention to theimportance of children's play. Beginningin infancy, parents should provide toys for the child's enjoyment, and equipmentto help him move about. Parents are toencourage play, and to provide a safe place for it. Play must not be left to chance, but providedfor. Because children try to imitatewhat they see adults do, they should be permitted to have all things exceptthose that might cause injury to themselves. When this is not convenient, theyshould be given toys in place of real implements. With these toys, childrenwill amuse themselves, and exercise their bodies and minds. Children aredelighted to construct houses and erect walls of clay, wood, or stone todisplay their skills Whatever children delight playing with, it should begratified rather than restricted. Inactivity is more injurious to both mind andbody of the child. Most of all, children need to play with other children ofthe same age. The free interaction requires all the powers of invention,sharpens their wits, and cultivates their manners and habits.
Comenius recognized the importanceof early childhood education and saw it as the key to equality of opportunity,long before Froebel, Pestalozzi, and others became concerned with the earlyyears.
1.3 Orbis Sensualium Pictus (The World of Senses in Pictures) 世界图解
Orbis Pictus (The world inpictures) is the result of Comenius's experimentation with language teaching.After he published the Janua, hedecided to create a text for beginners that would give equal attention to bothLatin and the mother tongue or vernacular. The book was in preparation forseveral years and was not completed until 1658 because he had to overcome greattechnical problems before his plans for extensive visual illustrations could berealized. The book has 151illustrations, many of which required a high level of visual detail. Thesuccess of this book was even greater than that of the Janua. This was the first effective and useful children’s book andwas published in Europe until 1842 and in North America up until 1810.
Comenius states in the preface hisphilosophic principle that guided him in writing this book. There is nothing inthe intellect that has not first existed in the senses . He maintained that thematerial of knowledge is derived through the senses. Therefore training the senses is fundamentalto learning. Knowledge acquired throughthe senses becomes permanent. When dealing with objects in the classroom, it iseasy to point them to the beginner, but when the pupils vocabulary becomes moreextensive, the process of learning can be effected by means of a picture-book.
Orbis Pictus is the best known ofComenius' books. Its popularity is attributed to the inclusion of pictures and howthey were used to teach language. According to Murphy, Bohemia had a traditionof illustrated books before Comenius began writing Orbis Pictus, whichinfluenced his belief of the value of visual aids. Comenius was also influencedby Eilhard Lubinus, a German theologian, who recommended the use of picturesside by side with the prose text to enable reading competence to develop morerapidly. This innovation has subsequently revolutionized the whole process oflanguage teaching and has contributed significantly to achieving mass literacyin the years that followed the book’s publication.
2. The Importance and Nature ofEarly Education
Everything should, as far as ispossible, be placed before the senses. Everything visible should be broughtbefore the organs of sight, everything audible before that of hearing. Odorsshould be placed before the sense of smell, and things that are tastable andtangible before the sense of taste and touch respectively. If an object canmake an impression on several senses at once, it should be brought into contactwith several.
A birdlearns to fly, a fish to swim, and a beast to run without compulsion.
——The Great Didactic(大教学论）
Comenius beliefs about education focused on nature and thenatural tendencies and experiences of childhood. That is, he contended that the natural growthof the child must be the basis for education and schooling:
It is the nature of everything that comes into being, thatwhile tender it is easily bent and formed, but that ,when it has grown hard, itis not easy to alter. Wax, when soft, can be easily fashioned and shaped; whenhard it cracks easily fashioned and shaped; then hard it cracks readily. A young plant can be planted, transplanted,pruned and bent this way or that. Whenit becomes a tree there processes are impossible. ——The Great Didactic
Many educator believe that his idea on education have had aprofound impact on general educational practices as well as on specificpractices related to early childhood education. For example, Comenius asserted that there should be educationalopportunities for all people. Accordingto Comenius, schools were the best agencies for educating society and theindividual. He also believed thatcarefully planned experiences were needed to unfold innate ideas, and thatchildren learn through action on object.
2.1 Sense of Education
Sense learning would be at the core of learning and needed tobe developed while the children were very young. It formed the basis of allother learning. The School of Infancy, written for both mothers andteachers, articulated methods for this approach. Sense would be exercised tohelp children distinguish objects around them. Seeds of knowledge would beplanted and would provide a strong foundation for further learning. Memory andunderstanding would develop naturally from the use of the sense.
Comenius’ ideas on sense education would later be developedinto object lessons by Pestalozzi. The action of teaching and learning isin its own nature pleasing and agreeable.
——The Schoolof Infancy
2.2 ActiveLearning
The School of Infancy, also described activities, play, games, rhymes, fairy tales,music and maunal tasks to help children learn in active ways. The book focused on children from birththrough six years of age. Childrenneeded to be allowed to play freely:
“In a word,whatever children delight to play with, provided that it be not hurtful, theyought rather to be gratified than restrained from it; for inactivity is moreinjurious to both mind and body than anything in which they can beoccupied."
" Too muchsitting still...is not a good sign.”
Children's programs today could bereviewed for "inactivity" and "too much sittingstill". These are still not goodsigns.
2.3 Principles ofTeaching
Premature use of language or writing would harm theunderstanding and the learning: Things are the kernel, words the shells andhusks. In schools, therefore ,let the students learn to write by write bywriting ,to talk by talking, to sing by singing, and to reason byreasoning. I n this way schools willbecome workshops humming with work.
Intrinsic motivation rather thanexternal rewards would encourage children's learning. The child would gain the knowledge afterseeing the need for it.
Preceding later psychologicalstudies of the child, Comenius set forth principles of teaching that reflectedhis understanding of the ways of nature.
Nature was truly his guide: “Followingin the footsteps of nature we find that the process of education will be easy.
if it begins early,before the mind is corrupted
if the mind be dulyprepared to receive it
if it proceeds fromthe general to the particular
and from what is easyto what is more difficult
if the pupil be notoverburdened by too many subjects
and if progress beslow in every case
if the intellect beforced to nothing to which its natural bent does not incline it,in accordancewith its age and with the right method
if everything betaught through the medium of the senses
and if the use ofeverything taught be continually kept in view
if everything betaught according to one and the same method.
These, I say, are the principlesto be adopted if education is to be easy and pleasant.”
——TheGreat Didactic
In Comenius' mind, the teacher'srole was to assist the natural development of the child:
“Man is not a block of wood fromwhich you carve a statue which is completely subject to your will; he is aliving image, shaping, misshaping and reshaping itself. The duty of theteachers of the young, therefore, is none other than to skillfully scatter theseeds of instruction in their minds, and to carefully water God’s plants.Increase and growth will come from above.”
This gardening image wouldreappear many times in the history of early childhood.
2.4 Child Guidance
Comeniuswas vehemently opposed to corporalpunishment and was convinced that punishment would create an aversion toand hatred of school work. The teacherneeded to create the love of learning.
Comenius used many natural images to makehis point:
“The sun itself offers us an excellentexample of such prudence: it does not, in early spring, blaze suddenly upon new,tender plants to overwhelm them with the fire of its rays....The gardenershows the same foresight, handling new plants skillfully and delicate shrubswith greater care. A musician, if hisguitar is sharp or his violin beout of tune, does not strike the strings with his fist or with a stick. In the same way, a harmonious love of studymust be developed in the pupils, if we do not want their indifference to changeinto hostility and their apathy into stupidity.”
In The Great Didactic,Comenius devotes a whole chapter to school discipline and looks at positivesanctions such as encouragement and emulation rather than negative methods:
“I amtherefore of opinion that rods and blows, those weapons of slavery, are quiteunsuitable to freemen, and should never be used in schools. The desire to learncan be excited by teachers, if they are gentle and persuasive and do notalienate their pupils from them by roughness, but attract them by fatherlysentiments and words.”
Comeniussaw four stages of formal education:
Infant School | Up to age 6 | Character training, vernacular competence, sense training |
Vernacular School | 7-12 years of age | Basic curriculum of reading, writing, arithmetic, singing, Latin, and another language |
Latin School | 13-18 years of age | Classical education of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, mathematics, sciences, fine arts and useful art |
University | 18-24 years of age | World of professional training |
He also saw learning as lifelongand formulated eight developmental stages of growth: birth, infancy, boyhood,adolescence, early manhood, full manhood, old age and death.
Comenius wrote many books such as The School of Infancy(1633),The Great Didactic (1628-1632), and The Gate of Languages Unlocked to help makelearning more accessible to all children.
2.5 Teachers asProfessionals
Comenius pre-dated this currentdefinition of a professional. Hebelieved that teachers needed to be paid well, respected by the public, of highcharacter, skilled in the tools of the trade and well educate outside theirdiscipline.
Like Plato's, Comenius' visionincluded harmony among all people. Lifelong learning with a strong early childhood foundation wouldfacilitate this goal. Jean Piaget'stribute to Comenius in 1957 reflects his enduring contribution:
"Comenius is thus among the authors whodo not need to be corrected or, in reality, contradicted in order to bring them up to date, but merelyto be translated and elaborated." "But the supreme merit of the great Czech educationist lies in thefact that he raised a series of new problems." ——John Amos Comenius on Education
