TRANSITION

CHAPTER VII

TO SECULAR POINT OF VIEW IN EDUCATIONAL THEORY: COMENIUS AND LOCKE

Main points of the chapter.—1. During the seventeenth century secular interests occasionally influenced the prevailing religious conceptions of elementary education.

2. Comenius, in the first half of the century, incorporated secular factors as part of his religious point of view, while Locke at the end of the century included religion as one element in a thoroughly secularized definition of education.

3. Three interests, namely, in religion, in the encyclopedic organization of all knowledge, and in the improvement of education, played almost equally influential parts in the life of Comenius.

4. The Latin textbooks of Comenius were famous for centuries, but he exerted little influence on the methods of elementary education.

5. Locke, who ranks with Newton as one of the greatest thinkers of his century, greatly influenced German pedagogy, directly through his own writings, and indirectly through the restatement of his theories by Rousseau.

6. Basedow (1723–1790) and his associates (influential German educational reformers of the eighteenth century) derived from Locke and Rousseau their emphasis on physical training and on the use of games to make instruction pleasant for children.

Secular view of elementary education occasional in the seventeenth century. - The secular interests described in the previous chapter, which eventually overthrew the dominant religious conception and control of life, did not produce such a revolution in elementary education until the nineteenth century. In fact there was no very strong tendency to adopt a purely secular point of view in elementary education until the appearance, in 1762, of Rousseau's epoch-making book on education entitled "Emile." Nevertheless, as early as

1600, there were occasional instances of a broadening of the conception of elementary education so as to include, in addition to the religious element, some study of secular matters. By the year 1700, famous theoretical discussions of education had been published which were conceived primarily in the secular spirit, with the religious element as but one factor. Comenius (1592-1670) is the most famous representative of the early tendency to give secular interests some place, and Locke (1632-1704) is the most important representative of the thoroughly secularized point of view. Neither of these affected elementary-school practice directly to any considerable extent, but they are important as leading representatives of a movement which was gradually gathering force and preparing the way for the revolutionary influence of Rousseau's "Émile."

Comenius theory of universal, encyclopedic, vernacular education. The greatness of Comenius generally acknowl edged. Comenius is generally considered the greatest educational theorist and practical reformer of the seventeenth century. During his life he enjoyed international fame. His extensive theoretical writings are evidence of his profound educational insight, while his practical ability and his influence on contemporary secondary-school practice are attested by the wide adoption of his improved textbooks for teaching Latin. In his efforts at educational reform, especially in the teaching of languages, he was not alone. He himself mentions ten men, largely contemporaries, who were working on the same problems and whose books he studied with great interest; but he stands superior to all of these in the scope and fame of his work.

Comenius active during the period of the Thirty Years' War.- John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was born in Moravia, at that time a part of the Austrian or Holy Roman Empire. Although his education was delayed, he enjoyed the advantage of training in some of the best German

universities, and was thoroughly prepared for his work as a Protestant minister. As such he was banished from his native country by the Catholic Austrians. He labored in various countries - Poland, England, Sweden, Germany,

JOHN AMOS COMENIUS

Holland during and following the subsequent troubled period of the Thirty Years' War between the Catholics and the Protestants (1618-1648). The period of greatest educational productivity in his life was the quarter century between 1628 and 1654. At the beginning of this period

he had begun his most important theoretical treatise, the Great Didactic," and at the end he had completed his four years' experiment in organizing a model school in Hungary and had finished writing the "Orbis Pictus," the first important illustrated textbook for children. The declining years of his life were spent in Amsterdam.

Religion, encyclopedism, and education, three dominant interests. In Comenius's life three prominent interests played almost equally important parts. These were interests in religion, in an encyclopedic organization of all knowledge, and in education.

Bishop of the Moravian church. - The Moravian or Bohemian Brethren were Protestants whose beliefs included elements derived from John Huss, the great Bohemian reformer, and from Luther. Their essential belief was in a simple religious life based directly on a study of the Bible, the precepts of which were followed literally to a considerable degree. In 1618 Comenius was placed in charge of one of the most flourishing of the churches of the Brethren. Ten years later the Brethren were banished from their native country. Some of them came to America eventually, settling in Pennsylvania. In 1632 Comenius was made bishop of the scattered Brethren and he continued to be one of their leaders throughout his life. He wrote a history of their persecutions and in many ways strove to better their condition. Planned the encyclopedic organization of all knowledge. -The second great line of activity with Comenius was his endeavor to interest Europe in the organization of all knowledge in encyclopedic form, and in the organization of facilities for research to advance learning. In this endeavor he was primarily influenced by Professor Alsted of the University of Nassau, where Comenius spent two years (1611-1613), and by the writings of Francis Bacon. Alsted published in 1630 an "Encyclopedia of all the Sciences," which was one of the best known of similar works of that

time. Comenius corresponded with Alsted after leaving the university, and his views are similar to the latter's in many respects.

Concerning Bacon's "Instauratio Magna" Comenius said, "It is a wonderful work, which I consider the most instructive philosophical work of the century now beginning [the seventeenth]." But he did not find Bacon thoroughly satisfactory, saying, "Yet again I was troubled, because the noble Verulam [Bacon], while giving the true key to Nature, did not unlock her secrets, but only showed, by a few examples, how they should be unlocked, and left the rest to future observations to be extended through the centuries." Comenius shared with Bacon the enthusiasm for an actual observation of natural phenomena instead of relying on what Aristotle and other ancients had said. "For," said he, "do we not dwell in the garden of Nature as well as the ancients? Why should we not use our eyes, ears, and noses as well as they? And why should we need other teachers than these our senses to learn to know the works of Nature?" (3: 37.)

Comenius an enthusiastic but mistaken amateur scientist.This interest in a study of natural science found expression in a work on physics and one on astronomy written by Comenius about 1632-1633. As scientific works these writings are much more amateurish even than the works of Francis Bacon, who, as we have noted, was not a scientist at all, but a popular writer about scientific methods that he did. not understand.

The type of pseudoscientific work which Comenius carried on is thus described by Keatinge:

For the production of works of this kind the curious conflict of ideas at the close of the century [about 1600] was responsible. The spirit of free inquiry introduced by the reformed religion had to a large extent overthrown the authority of Aristotle, but the Christian philosophers of the period merely substituted the Bible for the Aristotelian