Back
when I was young, there was a nation called Czechoslovakia. (As you
can imagine, it struck horror into students' hearts when asked to
spell it for a test.) In 1993, this nation peacefully split up into two
separate countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (making memorizing the spellings easier, thank
you!).
Both nations continue to celebrate Teachers' Day on
the same date, for the day honors the 1592 birthday of an
extraordinary teacher: Jan Amos Komensky.
(He is also known by a Latin name, Comenius.)
Poor
Komensky didn't have the easiest life. Living in Moravia, one of the
Czech lands, he was orphaned at an early age, and his guardians stole
the bit of inheritance his parents left him. The schools he went to
were harsh—he later referred to them as the slaughter-houses of the
young. Even after he earned a college education and became a teacher,
he was in for rough times when his wife and children died during an
epidemic and his land became embroiled in the Thirty Years War.
Spaniards burned Komensky's village, including his library and his
writings, and Komensky was forced into exile for the rest of his
life!
Komensky
believed that self-discipline should be the good-stuff motivation for
learning, rather than using the bad-stuff “motivation” of
physically punishing those who make mistakes or forget facts. He
urged universal education, including the radical ideas of educating
girls as well as boys and poor children as well as rich. He
introduced the idea of using books written in children's native
languages, rather than in Latin, and the idea of including pictures
in books for children. He urged the development of logical thinking
rather than just asking kids to memorize, memorize, memorize.
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| How awesome is it that the Czech Republic features a teacher on some of its money! |
And
Komensky traveled all over Europe talking about his progressive ideas
about education. He was offered the opportunity to travel to the
American colonies to head up a new university called Harvard, but he
turned down the job and stayed in Europe.
Unfortunately,
during another battle, his writings were once more burned!
But
some of Komensky's writings survived, and they formed the basis of
elementary education in many parts of Europe. One of his most famous
works, Orbis Pictus, was the first illustrated encyclopedia
for children. (The longer title translates to Nomenclature and
Pictures of all the Chief Things that are in the World and of Men's
Employments Therein.)
Celebrate
Komensky!
I'm
thinking a chocolate caramel Comenius cake and a nice interlude of
poring over the pictures in The Ultimate Visual Dictionary.
I'll raise my glass (of milk—that chocolate caramel cake is RICH!)
to the man who worked for no paddlings, education for girls, and
higher-level thinking skills!
Also
on this date:
Wonderful, informative article, thank you so much!
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