John+Amos+Comenius

"John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) has such an outstanding place in the history of general education that secular educators have called him the 'father of modern education.' His writings contain in germ almost all educational theory of later centuries. He wrote more than a hundred treatises and textbooks. These were summed up in his large theoretical work, //The Great Didactic//, a truly remarkable educational treatise. He also dealt with educational problems in a most practical manner. His textbooks, which stressed modern principles of method, were extraordinarily popular. His recommendations concerning content to be studied are in accord with modern trends of reform in subject matter. He devised a plan for organization of schools essentially like the one in vogue today. He introduced and dominates the whole modern movement in the field of elementary and secondary education especially.

To list the principles stressed by Comenius is to show the specific elements of modern education that found expression in him. He advocated the following: a free universal system of education open to all children of both sexes and compulsory for all; preschool home training; instruction in the mother tongue prior to the teaching of Latin; the grading of material to adapt it to the level of the pupil's development; study of the mind of the child and the suiting of teaching to his present needs; gentle, understanding discipline; making school work interesting and enjoyable through dramatization and play; adaptation of the curriculum to the child's needs and capacities, with correlation and coordination of different subjects throughout the entire period of education; close connection of though with things; and the extreme importance of developing the whole personality of the pupil instead of training him only for some particular career.

Comenius was famous as an educator during his lifetime. Great scholars were his friends, and rulers had confidence in him. The governments of several countries invited him to reconstruct their educational systems. A number of his many books were translated into most of the languages of Europe and into several Asiatic languages.

Though he was a great educator both in his day and in the influence he left on general education, the service he rendered Christian education is even more important. He advocated the Christian education of all youth. At the time he lived, new and strong forces were at work and these inevitably influenced education. Comenius was in part a product of the environment in which modern education, which is naturalistic and humanistic, had its origin. Because he saw defects in education, he devoted his life to efforts to make it what it ought to be. He realized keenly the necessity of having education center in Christian principles. He stands as a transition figure between those who subordinated everything in education to religion and later educators who made religion but one element in a secularized education. Though Comenius was preeminently an educator, the work of God always had first place in his thinking. He believed that the Bible was the basic source of knowledge. For him education was a means of bringing individuals to accept Christ as Saviour, of teaching them how to live the Christian life, and of training them for service to God."

Excerpt from: //History of Christian Education// by C.B. Eavey