Czech Jan Amos Komensky, lat. Comenius

Czech humanist educator, writer, public figure, bishop of the Czech Brotherhood Church, founder of scientific pedagogy, systematizer and popularizer of the classroom system

short biography

- an outstanding Czech teacher, humanist thinker, founder of scientific pedagogy, didactics, writer, public figure. He was born into a Protestant family that was part of the Community of Czech Brethren (his entire future biography will be connected with it). It happened in the Czech town of Nivnitsa on March 28, 1592. The plague epidemic early made the boy an orphan.

Jan received his initial education in a school belonging to the brotherhood, then, from 1608 to 1610, in Latin. The extremely boring learning process awakened the first thoughts in the high school student about the need for reforms in this area. The next educational institutions for the young Comenius were the Herborn Academy, since 1613 - the University of Heidelberg, where he studied theology. In 1612, he undertakes the fundamental work of compiling a complete dictionary of the Czech language in order to dedicate 44 years of his life to the Treasury of the Czech Language. After graduating from the university, he briefly goes on a trip to the Netherlands, and upon returning to the Czech Republic, in the city of Psherov, he gets a job as a teacher in a fraternal school, teaching Latin according to his own method.

In 1616, Comenius became a priest of the family community of Czech brothers, then the manager of the council of the fraternal community, a teacher-preacher, and a few years later became one of the prominent leaders of the brotherhood. In the biography of this great man, an important role was played by the intervention of external hostile circumstances, more than once he had to lose the most valuable thing he had, to wander outside the Czech Republic due to wars, religious and political persecution. So, his first wife and two young sons fell victim to the plague. Because of the persecution of Protestants, Comenius was forced in 1628 to emigrate to the Polish city of Leszno.

There he worked at the gymnasium, was the rector of the national school, while simultaneously working on essays, which later brought him fame and great authority. One of them is the "Didactics" in Czech, which he would later rewrite in Latin under the title "Great Didactics". In the same period, he wrote a number of textbooks, as well as "Mother's School" (1632) - a guide to family education, which became the first in history.

From 1650 to 1654, Jan Amos Comenius, at the invitation of Prince Sigismund Rakoczi, lives in Hungary, where he is engaged in reforming school education, teaching in the city of Sáros-Patak according to the new system, after which he returns to Leszno again. In April 1656, the Polish city was destroyed by the Swedes, setting on fire. Everything that Comenius had acquired over almost three decades, including the house and most of the manuscripts, burned down, and he himself was forced to flee once again after the extermination of Protestants began.

Jan Amos Comenius chose Amsterdam as a new place of residence among numerous proposals, where he was invited by the Senate, where he lived from 1657 until his death. There, he was financially supported by the son of a longtime patron, thanks to which the teacher-thinker could calmly work on writing and publishing works. In 1657-1658. 4 volumes of the “Great Didactics” written long ago are published, which made a splash. In 1658, The World of Sensible Things in Pictures was published, which became the first textbook in history to be provided with illustrations.

Ya.A. Comenius did not stop his scientific activity almost until his death, the last works were already written under his dictation. The pedagogical heritage of the scientist has largely influenced the world pedagogy and school practice; in the modern theory of learning, one can find many of his didactic postulates. November 15, 1670 Jan Amos Comenius died.

Biography from Wikipedia

Activity

Jan Comenius was born in Moravia, in the town of Nivnice. Son of Martin Komensky and Anna Chmelova. Martin Comenius was a native of the nearby village of Komne. Martin's father - Jan Segeš - moved to Moravia from Slovakia, and took the surname Comenius - in honor of the village of Komne, in which he settled. Martin and Anna Comenius were members of the religious community of the Czech (Moravian) brothers.

Yang received his primary education at a fraternal school. In 1602-04. his father, mother and two sisters died of the plague. In 1608-10 Jan studied at the Latin school in Přerov. In 1611, Jan Comenius, in accordance with the dogmas of his church, was baptized and received a second name - Amos.

Then he studied at the Herborn Academy, at the University of Heidelberg, where he began to create a kind of encyclopedia - "The Theater of All Things" (1614-27) and began work on a complete dictionary of the Czech language ("Treasury of the Czech Language", 1612-56). In 1614 Comenius was a teacher at a fraternal school in Psherov. In 1618-21 he lived in Fulneck, studied the works of the Renaissance humanists - T. Campanella, H. Vives and others. In the Fulneck period, Comenius wrote the book Moravian Antiquities (1618-1621) and compiled a detailed map of his native Moravia (1618-1627) .

In 1627 Comenius began writing a work on didactics in Czech. In connection with the persecution by Catholic fanatics, Comenius emigrated to Poland, to the city of Leszno (where in 1626 the Moravian brothers founded their gymnasium). Here he taught at a fraternal gymnasium, finished his "Didactics" in Czech (1632), and then revised it and translated it into Latin, calling it "Great Didactics" (Didactica Magna)(1633-38), prepared several textbooks: "The Open Door to Languages" (1631), "Astronomy" (1632), "Physics" (1633), wrote the first ever manual for family education - "Mother's School" (1632) . Comenius was intensively engaged in the development of the ideas of pansophia (teaching everyone everything), which aroused great interest among European scientists.

In the 40s. published a number of textbooks. In 1651, the Transylvanian prince György II Rákóczi proposed to Comenius to reform the schools in his lands. Teaching according to the new system began in the city of Sarospatak. Comenius managed to partially implement the plan of the pansophic school. The scientific substantiation of its principles, the curriculum, the daily routine were outlined by Comenius in the essay "Pansophic School" (1651).

Soon Comenius returned to Leshno. In 1655, Leshno was taken by the Swedes - allies of the Zaporozhye hetman Bogdan Khmelnitsky, who fought with the Commonwealth. Both the local Lutherans and Jan Amos Comenius and the Moravian brothers, who had previously suffered a lot from Catholic fanaticism, warmly welcomed the Protestant (Lutheran) army.

In 1656 Comenius left for Amsterdam via Hamburg.

In an effort to revive teaching and arouse in children an interest in knowledge, Comenius applied the method of dramatization of educational material and, based on The Open Door to Languages, wrote a number of plays that made up the book School-Play (1656). In Hungary, Comenius completed the first illustrated textbook in history, The World of Sensible Things in Pictures (1658), in which drawings were an integral part of educational texts.

Having moved to Amsterdam, Comenius continued to work on the capital work, begun back in 1644, “The General Council for the Correction of Human Affairs” (lat. De rerum humanarum emendatione culsultatio catholica), in which he gave a plan for the reform of human society. The first 2 parts of the work were published in 1662, while the manuscripts of the remaining 5 parts were found in the 30s. 20th century; The entire work was published in Latin in Prague in 1966. The result of his long life Comenius summed up in the essay "The Only Necessary" (1668).

Family

• 1618 - marries the stepdaughter of the burgomaster of the city of Psherov, Magdalena Vizovskaya.
• 1622 - wife and two children died from the plague.
• 1624 - in Brandis, Comenius marries the daughter of the bishop, Maria Dorothea.
• 1648 - Comenius' second wife died.
• 1649 - Comenius marries Yana Gayusova.

Philosophical views

In his philosophical views, Comenius was close to materialistic sensationalism, which Comenius himself saw as the philosophy of the common people. Recognizing three sources of knowledge - feelings, reason and faith, Comenius attached the main importance to the senses. In the development of knowledge, he distinguished 3 stages - empirical, scientific and practical. He believed that universal education, the creation of a new school would help to educate children in the spirit of humanism.

At the same time, in defining the goal of education, Comenius clearly feels the influence of religious ideology: he speaks of preparing a person for eternal life.

Based on the cognizability of the world, Comenius considered cognizable and all the phenomena associated with the pedagogical process, making a conclusion about the possibility of managing it. Since a person is a part of nature, then, according to Comenius, he must obey its general laws and all pedagogical means must be natural. At the same time, the principle of the natural conformity of education, according to Comenius, involves the study of the laws of a person's spiritual life and the coordination of all pedagogical influences with them.

The pedagogical system of Ya. A. Comenius

Sources for the development of a worldview: ancient philosophy, F. Bacon, F. Rabelais. Main pedagogical ideas: general education, ideas of discipline, the concept of the school year, didactic principles, classroom system. Comenius believed that learning should be carried out at school with the help of: plan, classroom organization, study from the age of 6, knowledge testing, a ban on missing lessons, textbooks for each class.

Didactic principles: conformity to nature, visibility, consistency, consciousness, feasibility, strength, systematicity.

Questions of upbringing and education were considered by Comenius as an inseparable unity. He interpreted didactics as a theory of education and training, and as a theory of upbringing. Comenius called for a broad universal education for all young people, considered it necessary to link all educational work with teaching languages ​​- first native, then Latin - as the language of science and culture of that time.

In the educational method, which Comenius interpreted broadly, he considered order and naturalness to be the most essential. From here, Comenius also derived the basic requirements for education: training should begin as early as possible, the training material should correspond to the age of the students. Comenius was convinced that the human mind is capable of capturing everything, only for this in learning it is necessary to observe a consistent and gradual progress forward, following from close to far, from familiar to unfamiliar, from the whole to the particular, ensuring that students learn the system of knowledge rather than fragmentary information. Comenius believed that it was necessary to develop positive moral qualities from childhood (justice, moderation, courage, and by the latter he understood, in particular, perseverance in work, etc.). He assigned an important role in moral education to the example of adults, the systematic accustoming of children to useful activities and to the implementation of rules of conduct.

In an effort to make education accessible to all children, Comenius developed a class-lesson system of education, which replaced the individual one. Comenius developed a unified school system: mother school(upbringing in the family under the guidance of the mother up to 6 years), mother tongue school for children from 6 to 12 years old (studying their native language, arithmetic, elements of geometry, geography, natural history, reading scripture, getting to know the most important crafts), in large cities for the most capable students from 12 to 18 years old - latin school or gymnasium(in the curriculum of the gymnasium, Comenius introduced, along with the traditional "seven liberal arts", natural science, history, geography). Comenius also changed the content of the "free arts" themselves, linking them to practical needs and raising them to the level of contemporary science. Finally, each state must have academy- high school for youth from 18 to 24 years old. This system, already described in Czech Didactics, was expanded by Comenius in Pampedia, adding to it “schools of mature age and old age”, in which life itself “teaches”.

Most of Comenius' pedagogical works contain statements about the teacher, and Pampedia has a special chapter. The teacher, according to Comenius, must possess pedagogical skills and love his job, awaken the independent thought of students, prepare them as active people who care about the common good.

Comenius had a great influence on the development of world pedagogy and school practice. Many of his didactic provisions have become part of the modern theory of learning.

Great didactics

Via Lucis, 1668

The most famous theoretical work of Comenius on pedagogy "Didactics", that is, the general theory of learning. It was originally written in Czech, and then translated into Latin, at that time the international language of science, in a revised form, under the title "Great Didactics".

Chapter 16

Principle 1

• Human education must begin in the spring of life, that is, in childhood.
• Morning hours are the most convenient for classes.
• Everything to be studied should be distributed according to the stages of age - so that only what is available for perception at a given age is offered for study.

Principle 2

• Preparation of material: books and other teaching aids - in advance.
• Develop mind before language.
• Real learning subjects should be formal.
• Examples to preface the rules.

Principle 4

• Schools should establish an order in which pupils study only one subject at a time.

Principle 6

• From the very beginning, young men who need to be educated should be given the basics of general education (distribute the educational material so that the subsequent classes do not bring anything new, but represent only some development of the acquired knowledge).
• Any language, any science, must first be taught in its simplest elements, so that the students have a general concept of them as a whole.

Principle 7

• The whole set of studies should be carefully divided into classes - so that the previous one always opens the way for the next one and illuminates its path.
• Time must be distributed with the greatest precision, so that each year, month, day, and hour has its own special work to do.

Chapter 17

Principle 1

• Youth education must begin early.
• One and the same student in the same subject should have only one teacher.
• At the will of the educator, morals must first be brought into harmony.

Principle 2

• In all possible ways, it is necessary to affirm in children an ardent desire for knowledge and learning.
• The method of teaching should lessen the difficulties of learning, so that it does not arouse displeasure in the students and does not turn them away from further studies.

Principle 3

• Every science must be enclosed in the most concise but precise rules.
• Each rule must be stated in a few, but in the clearest words.
• Each rule should be accompanied by numerous examples to make it clear how varied its application.

Chapter 18 Foundations of Strength in Teaching and Teaching

• Only those things that can be useful should be thoroughly considered.
• Everything that follows should build on the previous one.
• Everything must be fixed with constant exercises.
• Everything needs to be studied sequentially, focusing on one thing.

Chapter 26 About School Discipline

• "A school without discipline is a mill without water"
• To maintain discipline, be guided by:
• By constant examples, the educator himself must set an example.
• Instructions, exhortations, sometimes reprimands.

9 Rules for the Art of Teaching Science

• Everything that needs to be known needs to be taught.
• Everything that you teach should be presented to students as a thing that really exists and brings a certain benefit.
• Everything you teach should be taught directly, not in a roundabout way.
• Everything that you teach must be taught as it is and happens, that is, by studying causal relationships.
• Whatever is to be studied, let it be offered first in general terms, and then in parts.
• Parts of a thing should be considered all, even less significant ones, without missing a single one, taking into account the order, position and connection in which they are with other parts.
• Everything must be studied sequentially, focusing attention at any given moment on only one thing.
• Each subject must be stopped until it is understood.
• The differences between things must be conveyed well so that the understanding of everything is clear.

16 rules of art to develop morality

• Virtues should be instilled in youth by all without exception.
• First of all, the basic, or, as they are called, "cardinal" virtues: wisdom, moderation, courage and justice.
• Wisdom young men should draw from good instruction, studying the true difference of things and their dignity.
• Let them learn moderation throughout the entire period of study, getting used to observe moderation in food and drink, sleep and wakefulness, in work and play, in conversation and silence.
• Let them learn courage by overcoming themselves, restraining their desire for excessive running or playing outside or beyond the allotted time, in curbing impatience, grumbling, anger.
• They learn justice without offending anyone, giving each their own, avoiding lies and deceit, showing diligence and courtesy.
• Types of courage especially necessary for youth: noble frankness and endurance in work.
• Noble frankness is achieved by frequent communication with noble people and the execution of all kinds of assignments before their eyes.
• Young men will acquire the habit of work if they are constantly engaged in some serious or entertaining business.
• It is especially necessary to instill in children a virtue related to justice - a willingness to serve others and a desire to do so.
• The development of virtues must begin from the earliest years, before vice takes possession of the soul.
• Virtues are learned by constantly doing what is honest!
• Let examples of the decent life of parents, nurses, teachers, and comrades constantly shine before us.
• However, examples must be accompanied by instructions and rules of life in order to correct, supplement and strengthen imitation.
• Children must be most carefully guarded from the community of corrupt people, so that they do not become infected from them.
• And as one can hardly in any way be so sharp-sighted that no evil can penetrate the children, discipline is absolutely necessary to counteract bad morals.

Bibliography

• The world of sensual things in pictures, or Image and name of all the most important objects in the world and actions in life = “Orbis Sensualium Pictus” / Per. from Latin by Yu. N. Dreizin; Ed. and with enter. article by prof. A. A. Krasnovsky. - Ed. 2nd. - M.: Uchpedgiz, 1957. - 352 p. - 20,000 copies. (in trans.)
• Dilo, sv. 1-2, 17, Praha, 1969--1971 (ed. ongoing): Listy přátelům a přiznivcům, Praha, 1970: in Russian. per.- Fav. cit., ch. 1-3, Revel, 1892-1897
• Fav. pedagogical essays, 2nd ed., part 1-2, M., 1902-1911
• Fav. pedagogical essays, vols. 1-3, M., 1939-1941
• Fav. pedagogical essays, M., 1955
• Visible light in Latin, Russian, German, Italian, French is presented with a register of the most necessary Russian words, M., 1768
• Mother school / Per. with him. St. Petersburg, 1892 (reprint M., 1992, circulation 100,000)
• The labyrinth of light and the paradise of the heart. M.: MIK Publishing House, 2000
• Comenius Jan Amos: Teacher of teachers ("Mother's School", "Great Didactics" and other works with abbreviations). M.: Karapuz, 2009, 288 p.

Aphorisms

• It is useless to argue with Nature (Great Didactics, Ch. XXIII).
• Virtue is cultivated through deeds, but not through chatter (Great Didactics, ch. XIII).
• You won't learn anything without an example.
• Let it be an eternal law: to teach and learn everything through examples, instructions and practical applications.
• Children are always willing to do something. This is very useful, and therefore not only should this not be interfered with, but measures must be taken to ensure that they always have something to do.
• The study of wisdom uplifts and makes us strong and generous.
• Books are a tool for planting wisdom.
• Education must be true, complete, clear and lasting.
• There is nothing more difficult than to re-educate a person who is poorly educated.
• Do not pursue praise, but do your best to act praiseworthy.
• The wise distribution of time is the basis for activity.
• The mind illuminates the way for the will, and the will commands the actions.
• He who knows little can teach little.
• Nothing feigned can last.
• Reading and not understanding is the same as not reading at all.
• Happy is that school which teaches zealously to study and do good things, even more zealously - the best, and most zealously - the best.
• Care should be taken as much as possible to ensure that the art of introducing morality in a real way is properly established in schools, so that schools become, as they are called, "workshops of people."

Memory

• A street in the Rosvigovsky district of Mukachevo (Transcarpathia) has been named.
• Coins:
  • Czechoslovakia, 1957, 10 crowns, weight 12 grams, hallmark 500.
  • Czechoslovakia, 1992, 500 crowns, weight 24 grams, fineness 900.
• The portrait of Jan Amos Comenius is featured on the obverse of the 200 CZK banknote.
• Featured on a 1992 Hungarian postage stamp.

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Among the teachers of the beginning of the New Age, a special place belongs to Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670). The humanist philosopher, public figure, scientist took a prominent place in the struggle against obsolete and obsolete norms of the Middle Ages in science and culture, in upbringing and education. Ya. A. Comenius can rightly be called the father of modern pedagogy. He was one of the first to try to find and bring into the system the objective laws of education and training, to solve questions that the previous pedagogy could not answer.

The life path of Ya. A. Comenius is closely connected with the tragic and courageous struggle of the Czech people for their national independence. He was among those who led the Protestant community of the "Czech Brothers" - the heirs of the national liberation Hussite movement. Coming from the family of a member of the community, Ya. A. Komensky received his primary education in a fraternal school. Having brilliantly graduated from the Latin (city) school, he later acquired the best education for his time. At the Prague Charles, Herborn and Heidelberg Universities, Ya. A. Comenius studied the work of ancient thinkers, got acquainted with the ideas of outstanding humanists and philosophers of his time. After traveling around Europe in 1614, Ya. A. Comenius returned to the Czech Republic, where he accepted the post of head of the Latin school, where he had studied before. Four years later, he moves to Fulpek, where he heads the school.

The Thirty Years' War in Europe, which began in 1618, forever interrupts the relatively calm pedagogical activity of Ya. A. Comenius. As a result of religious repression, the "Czech brothers" left their homeland. In 1628 Ya. A. Comenius began the journey of a wanderer. Together with the community, he moved to Leszno (Poland), where he stayed intermittently for about 28 years and fled from there because of the persecution of Catholic fanatics. Over the years, Ya. A. Comenius visited England, Sweden, Hungary, and the Netherlands. In Poland, he attempted to carry out an earlier planned reform of the Latin school. In Leshno, he wrote school textbooks, in which the task was to give children a holistic picture of the world, he completed the largest pedagogical work - "Great didactics".

The treatise deals with the issues of not only education, but also education (mental, physical, aesthetic), school studies, pedagogical psychology, family education. "Great didactics" is a kind of fusion of the pedagogical ideas of the time. But the treatise is by no means a compilation; it introduces new ideas into pedagogy, radically revising the old ones. In the "Great Didactics" sensationalist pedagogical principles are formulated, Comenius calls for enriching the mind of the child, introducing objects and phenomena of the sensually perceived world. According to his theory of evolution, there can be no leaps in nature, and consequently in education as well. “Everything happens through self-development, violence is alien to the nature of things,” reads the inscription on the frontispiece of the Great Didactics. The treatise proposes the idea of ​​putting the knowledge of the laws of the pedagogical process at the service of pedagogical practice, designed to provide quick and thorough training, as a result of which a person becomes a bearer of knowledge and skills, capable of spiritual and moral improvement. For Comenius, education, therefore, is not an end in itself. He emphasized that it is also acquired in order to "communicate to others" education and scholarship.

In 1641 - 1642. Ya. A. Comenius actively cooperates with the followers of F. Bacon in England. He develops extensive plans for the improvement of society through school reforms. Comenius went to Sweden in the hope of getting help for his community. In exchange for such support, he offered his services in the preparation of textbooks for Swedish urban schools.

Ns abandoned his pedagogical plans J. A. Comenius and during his stay in the Hungarian city of Saros-Patak in 1650-1654. Here, however, he ran into a situation that forced him to abandon his vast plans for improving education for the time being. In the conditions of almost universal illiteracy in Hungary, more modest tasks had to be solved, and Comenius directs his efforts primarily to the organization of primary education. It offers new forms of learning and teaching. In Hungary he completes the work "The world of sensual things in pictures", writes several school plays, creates a school. In Hungary, the Czech teacher was only partially able to implement his plans for improving school work.

The Thirty Years' War destroyed the hopes of the "Czech brothers" for the liberation of their homeland. The war brought a lot of grief to Comenius himself. During the years of exile, Comenius lost his children, his wife, and many close people. His manuscripts were burned in Leshno. The teacher spends the last years of his life in Amsterdam. In the Netherlands, he managed to publish many of his works. So, in 1657, the Great Didactics in Latin was first published.

Four years before his death, Ya. A. Comenius publishes a part "General Council for the Correction of Human Affairs"- the main work of his life. In this kind of testament to posterity, he calls on humanity to peace and cooperation. "The General Council" is the result of Comenius' reflections on the goals and essence of education. He writes that a person becomes wise and useful only when he sees the main goal of life in "the well-being of the human race." The pathos of the "General Council" lies primarily in the idea of ​​universal education, which will lead humanity to peace, social justice and prosperity. AT "Pampedia"(one of the parts of the "General Council") Ya. A. Comenius with the deepest optimism, faith in the boundless progress of mankind, the triumph of good over evil surveys being outside the school. The scientist dreams of changing the way of life of his contemporaries in the spirit of the public good. Education in "Pampedia" is comprehended as a way of transformation of mankind. With amazing force and passion, the fundamental pedagogical ideas were proclaimed: the general education of the people; democratic, successive school system; familiarization of the younger generation to work; bringing education closer to the needs of society; moral education on the basis of humanism.

The pedagogy of Ya. A. Comenius expresses a general philosophical vision of the world. His worldview was formed under the influence of ideological flows, which differed to a large extent: Antiquity, Reformation, Renaissance. The views of Ya. A. Comenius were a kind of combination of new and outgoing ideas, but the scales invariably lean towards progress and humanism.

The son of his time, a deeply religious man, Ya. A. Comenius expressed the ideas of the Renaissance with extraordinary force. His view of man was opposed to the dogmas of the Middle Ages. The great humanist saw the perfect creation of nature in every person, defended the right of a person to develop all his capabilities, attached great importance to upbringing and education, which should form people capable of serving society. Comenius' view of the child was full of hope that, with the appropriate organization of the educational process, he would be able to climb the highest rung on the ladder of education. Believing that knowledge should be useful in practical life, the teacher proclaimed the necessity of real, socially useful education. He paid special attention to the development of the child's sensory system.

Ya. A. Comenius was the first of the teachers who consistently substantiated the principle of conformity to nature in education. He came from the humanistic traditions of his predecessors. In Comenius, man appears as a "microcosm". Such a view led to the recognition of special patterns of personality formation, closely related to global changes in nature. Human nature, Comenius believed, has an independent and self-propelled force. Proceeding from this, the scientist formulates as a pedagogical necessity the principle of the student's independence in comprehending and actively mastering the world. This idea was most fully implemented in the work "Exit from school labyrinths". The detailed argumentation of natural education has become a noticeable step forward in pedagogy.

The main method of education at that time was the unconditional submission of the pupil, i.e. External circumstances turned out to be decisive in the development of the personality, shaping the personality according to their own laws, independent of the potential, activity of the child himself. Comenius proclaimed the understanding, will and activity of the pupil as the main components of the pedagogical process.

Conformity in nature in education meant for the scientist the recognition of the natural equality of people. People are equally endowed with nature, they equally need the fullest possible mental and moral development, which will undoubtedly benefit humanity. Thus, their rights to education are equal. Proclaiming the equality of people by nature, Comenius by no means denied the individuality of the inclinations of each person. Considering that children have an inherent propensity for activity, the Czech teacher saw the goal of education in encouraging this attraction, taking into account their inclinations. Such a task can be solved by observing a certain sequence of learning: first, through the development of feelings, children must become familiar with the surrounding objects and phenomena, then learn the images of the world around them, and, finally, learn to actively act with the help of hands and speech, based on the acquired knowledge, skills, abilities. .

The principle of conformity to nature was consistently expressed in the didactics of Ya. A. Comenius, primarily in the idea of ​​imitating nature (the so-called natural method of education). This idea involves bringing pedagogical laws into conformity with the laws of nature. Using this principle, in the work "Exiting the School Labyrinths" the scientist considers four stages of learning based on the unity of the laws of nature and education: the first is independent observation ( autopsy); the second is practical implementation ( autopraxia); the third is the application of acquired knowledge, skills in new circumstances ( autochresia); fourth - independent presentation of the results of their activities ( autolexia). Formulating the rules of the educational process, Comenius aims to provide an easy, thorough and lasting education, he proposes to go in teaching from the real.

Calling for the formation of a person in accordance with the ideals of goodness and social benefit, Ya. A. Komensky pays special attention to issues of moral education. His works are imbued with a deep faith in the human personality, the flowering of which has always remained the cherished dream of an outstanding Czech teacher. "Man is the highest, most perfect, most excellent creation," we read in the first lines of the Great Didactics.

The fundamental idea of ​​pedagogy Ya. A. Comenius is pansophism, i.e. the generalization of all the knowledge acquired by civilization and the communication of this generalized knowledge through the school in the native language to all people, regardless of social, racial, religious affiliation. The great thinker saw the root of evil in ignorance or distortion of knowledge and dreamed of introducing humanity to true knowledge (pansophy) - universal wisdom.

In your utopia "Labyrinth of light and paradise of the heart"(1625) he depicted a man as a traveler passing through the labyrinth of life. In order to pass such a labyrinth with dignity and success, a person must acquire a socially beneficial education. Continuing to reflect on the need for such an education, Ya. A. Comenius wrote a quarter of a century later in a treatise "On the development of natural talents":"He who is wise will be able to be useful everywhere and will be prepared for all accidents."

The pedagogy of Comenius opposed scholastic education. Scourging the unsystematic education, idle talk and rudeness that dominated the school, Ya. A. Comenius sought to form piety, independent, active thinking, and the ability to work in various ways. Ya. A. Comenius defended the humanistic program of education. He gave all of himself to the transformation of the educational institution from a place of meaningless cramming, corporal punishment into a temple of reasonable, joyful education and training. The Czech teacher saw a school full of beauty, love and attention to children. The ideal school was to become a laboratory for the training of humane people trained to act effectively in the field of work. The school was seen by Comenius as an institution of unceasing mental efforts of students, competition of minds and talents, overcoming moral vices. Reasonably organized training, the scientist believed, required the efforts of the mentor and pupil to the limit of their capabilities.

Ya. A. Comenius is surprisingly modern. And this is seen by anyone who refers to his pedagogical heritage. He is credited with introducing radically new ideas into pedagogical thought, which have fertilized its development for centuries to come. Comenius outlined a harmonious system of general education. He raised questions about the nationwide school, the planned nature of school affairs, the correspondence of the levels of education to the age of a person, teaching in the native language, the combination of humanitarian and scientific and technical general education, and the class-lesson system. Vitality, modernity of the pedagogical ideas of Ya. A. Comenius is explained by their highest democratism and humanism. They constituted a coherent system that affirms the great transformative mission of education. The ideas of Comenius contain an enormous power of creation. His heritage helps to overcome inertia, dogmatism in education, to develop the spiritual strength of the child.

9. Pedagogical ideas of Jan Amos Comenius

Jan Amos Comenius was the founder of modern pedagogy. In his theoretical works on the education and upbringing of children, all the most important pedagogical problems are considered.

A distinctive feature of the pedagogical views of Jan Amos Comenius was that he considered education as one of the most important prerequisites for establishing fair and friendly relations between people and nations. Also in all the teachings of Comenius, his humanistic approach to man, to education can be traced. The main provisions of his teaching, such as the principle of conformity to nature, didactic principles, family pedagogy, are considered in this work.

The principle of natural conformity

One of the most important provisions of Comenius, on which many of the statements of his pedagogy are based, is the principle of conformity to nature.

On the basis of the principle of natural conformity, Jan Comenius creates a grandiose and on a modern scale project of educating a person from birth to twenty-four years. The project was focused on the idea of ​​"teaching everyone everything" - on the rational organization of a "mass school".

Based on the principle of conformity to nature, Comenius presented the time of a person growing up as four stages of six years each and defined tasks for each stage.

Based on human nature, he distinguishes the following stages:

He puts age characteristics at the basis of this division: childhood is characterized by increased physical growth and development of the sense organs; adolescence - the development of memory and imagination with their executive organs - the tongue and hand; youth, in addition to these qualities, is characterized by a higher level of development of thinking; maturity - the development of will and the ability to maintain harmony.

For each of these age periods, following the characteristic age features (the nature of the child), Comenius outlines a special stage of education.

The procedural side of learning from Comenius is expressed in the search for a "natural (nature-conforming) method", which is focused on the student's holistic personality, on the motivational sphere, on the versatile work of the intellect, on "living knowledge", and not on the traditional "book learning", which the student took by memory and will power.

Humanism and moral education in the writings of Jan Comenius.

The task of every Christian state, argued Comenius, should be the "universal education of youth." The main thing for him is to avoid the "temptation" of the historical conditions of that time: reducing a person to his class appearance, to an instrument of national-state and religious interests and goals, and his education - to preparing a person to fulfill his class roles, social functions.

In the concept of Comenius, a person is placed in the "microworld", endowed with power over things and responsibility for his activities in the "microworld".

The pedagogical system of Comenius is optimistic, permeated with the light of faith in the possibilities of man and the possibility of education, in the prospects for a reasonable "human hostel", the unification of "lofty, courageous, generous people."

In general, the pedagogical system of Comenius can be represented as a humanistic model of the pedagogical process, the purpose of which is the value-oriented and holistic development of the natural forces and abilities of a growing person.

Didactic principles of Jan Comenius

In pedagogical literature, didactic (general) principles of teaching and methodical (private) teaching principles are distinguished:

1) the principle of consciousness and activity;

2) the principle of visibility;

3) the principle of gradual and systematic knowledge;

4) the principle of exercises and a solid mastery of knowledge and skills.

1) The principle of consciousness and activity

This principle presupposes such a nature of learning, when students do not passively, through cramming and mechanical exercises, but consciously, deeply and thoroughly acquire knowledge and skills. Where there is no consciousness, teaching is conducted dogmatically and knowledge is dominated by formalism.

Comenius considers the upbringing of activity and independence in learning to be the most important task: "It is necessary that everything be done through theory, practice and application, and, moreover, so that each student learns for himself, with his own feelings, tries to pronounce and do everything and begins to apply everything. With his students I always develop self-reliance in observation, in speech, in practice and in application, as the only basis for achieving sound knowledge, virtue, and finally bliss.

2) The principle of visibility

Comenius defined visibility and its meaning as follows:

1) "If we want to instill in students a true and solid knowledge of things in general, we must teach everything through personal observation and sensory evidence."

2) “Therefore, schools should leave everything to the students’ own senses so that they themselves see, hear, touch, smell, taste everything that they can and should see, hear, etc., they will thus save human nature from endless ambiguities and hallucinations..."

3) What needs to be known about things should be "taught by means of the things themselves, i.e., should, as far as possible, expose for contemplation, touch, hearing, smell, etc. the things themselves, or images replacing them."

4) "He who once carefully observed the anatomy of the human body will understand and remember everything more accurately than if he reads the most extensive explanations without seeing all this with human eyes."

The educational effect of any observation depends on how much the teacher managed to inspire the student what and why he should observe, and how much he managed to attract and maintain his attention throughout the entire learning process.

3) The principle of gradual and systematic knowledge

Comenius considers the consistent study of the foundations of sciences and the systematic nature of knowledge to be an obligatory principle of education.

Comenius' first demand is that an exact order of learning be established in time, since "order is the soul of everything."

The second requirement concerns the appropriateness of teaching to the level of knowledge of the students and that "the whole set of training sessions should be carefully divided into classes."

The third requirement concerns that "everything is studied consistently from beginning to end".

The fourth requirement is "to support all the foundations of reason - this means to teach everything, pointing to the reasons, that is, not only to show how something happens, but also to show why it cannot be otherwise. After all, to know something is to name a thing in a causal connection.

Comenius formulates a number of specific instructions and didactic rules for the implementation of these requirements.

1. Classes should be distributed in such a way that for each year, each month, day and hour certain educational tasks are set, which must be thought out in advance by the teacher and understood by the students.

2. These tasks should be solved taking into account age characteristics, more precisely, according to the tasks of individual classes.

3. One subject should be taught until it is mastered by students from beginning to end.

4. "All classes should be distributed in such a way that new material is always based on the previous one and strengthened by the next one."

5. Teaching "should go from the more general to the more particular", "from the easier to the more difficult", "from the known to the unknown", "from the closer to the more distant", etc.

4) The principle of exercise and the lasting mastery of knowledge and skills

An indicator of the usefulness of knowledge and skills are systematic exercises and repetitions.

Comenius, on the other hand, introduced new content into the concepts of exercise and repetition, he set a new task for them - a deep assimilation of knowledge based on the consciousness and activity of students. Also, Comenius demands that much attention be paid to the physical education of students.

Comenius developed the following requirements for the principle of learning and repetition:

1. "Rules must support and reinforce practice"

2. "Students should not do what they like, but what laws and teachers prescribe to them."

3. "The exercises of the mind will take place in special lessons conducted according to our method."

4. "Each task is first illustrated and explained, and students are required to show whether they understood it and how they understood it. It is also good to arrange repetitions at the end of the week."

From these provisions it is clear that Comenius completely subordinates exercise and repetition to the task of conscious and lasting assimilation of knowledge by students. From this point of view, many of the rules he proposed still retain their theoretical and practical significance.

Family education in the pedagogy of Comenius

Comenius attaches great importance to family upbringing. "Having shown that the plants of paradise - Christian youth - cannot grow like a forest, but need care, we should consider who this care falls on. It is most natural to admit that it falls on parents, so that those to whom children owe their lives turn out to be and a source for them of a rational, moral and holy life."

Comenius puts teachers in second place after parents. Following Plato and Aristotle, Comenius considered wisdom, moderation, courage and justice to be the main virtues. And the main means of their education was the example of their parents. The family, according to Comenius, is the main means of moral education.

An important function of family education for Kamensky is the awakening and maintenance of the desire to learn in children. "The desire for learning is awakened and supported in children by parents, teachers, the school, the subjects themselves, the teaching method and the school authorities.

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Comenius Jan Amos (Komensky, Comenius).

Czech humanist thinker, teacher, public figure. Born in the family of a member of the Protestant community of the Czech Brethren. He received his initial education at a fraternal school, in 1608-10 he studied in lat. school, then at the Herborn Academy and Heidelberg University (1611-14), where he was sent by the community to prepare for preaching. In 1614-20 he taught and was a preacher in Přerov, then in Fulnek (Moravia).

You won't learn anything without an example.

Comenius Jan Amos

Comenius' activities were devoted to the problems of education and upbringing, the correction of society for the purpose of mutual understanding and cooperation between peoples in order to "achieve a better life in the whole world."

The philosophical views of Comenius were formed under the influence of the ideas of Aristotle, Plato, F. Bacon, Vives. The philosophy of Comenius (pansophia - teaching everyone everything), his program of general education, faith in the continuity of the process of improving everyone and everything through creative work, the desire to create an integrated method of shaping the individual and society seemed utopian at that time and received a well-deserved assessment only in the 20th century.

In the work of Comenius, the previous tradition of the Czech Reformation and humanism, associated with the Hussite movement, and then with the community of the Czech Brethren, develops.

Even during his studies, Comenius collected a huge language material for the book. "The Treasure of the Czech Language" (the manuscript burned down in 1656), tried to create a kind of universal encyclopedia "The Theater of Everything" ("Theatrum universitatis rerum"), dabbled in spiritual poetry, and studied the theory of Czech versification.

Comenius is a leading representative of the Czech Reformed Church, during the 30-year war he was forced to hide in the Czech Republic and Moravia. During this period, Comenius wrote a number of historical works and a literary and philosophical treatise "The Labyrinth of Light and Paradise of the Heart" ("Labirint sveta a raj srdce", 1623), which reflected his socially critical position. Acute society, satire in the "Labyrinth ..." is complemented by an optimistic picture of a harmonious society ("Paradise of the Heart"). Under the influence of Neoplatonism, Comenius came to the conclusion that it is possible to eliminate the shortcomings of society only on the basis of the general problems of the world order. He saw one of the ways to improve the world in improving the system of upbringing and education of people. He outlined the theory of general universal education in "Didactics" in Czech (1628-30, published in 1849), in which he considered particular issues of education in connection with the general problems of education and set the goals and methods of education depending on the position of a person in society, his destiny . Education, in his opinion, should help a person to correctly navigate the world in search of the meaning of life. The broad interpretation of the problem and the demand for education for all children and youth led to a negative attitude towards "Didactics".

In 1631-32, Comenius revised Didactics, calling it "Paradise of the Church or Czech Paradise", and made it an integral part of the first draft of the reform of education and upbringing in the Czech Republic. He also intended to create textbooks and methodological literature in addition to "Didactics". Finished Comenius only "Informatorium maternal school", which became the first theory of preschool education of children up to 6 years. The essay revealed the specifics of education at each stage of a child's life, the correlation of physical and moral education, the relationship of children's active work with moral and religious education, mental development and the formation of a child's speech. Noting the diverse significance of children's games, Comenius also emphasized the need for a systematic, commensurate with the age of the child, non-violent familiarization of children with the simplest knowledge about the world.

Let it be an eternal law: to teach and learn everything through examples, instructions and application in practice.

Comenius Jan Amos

In the city of Leszno (Poland), being engaged only in teaching activities, Comenius in 1633-38 revised, expanded and translated into lat. lang. "Didactics". This is how the "Great Didactic" ("Didactica magna") arose, which became the main theoretical basis of the middle (Latin) level of education. The scientist created a unified system of education and outlined its structure - from preschool education to higher education. From birth to 6 years old, children are brought up in a family (mother school), from 6 to 12 years old they study in an elementary school (native language, arithmetic, elements of geometry, geography, natural history, sacred scripture). Comenius believed that in the "school of the native language" it is necessary to acquaint children with crafts. At the next stage of education - in lat. school or gymnasium (from 12 to 18 years old) Comenius introduces, along with the traditional seven free arts, natural science, history, geography. Higher education (from 18 to 24 years old) is carried out at the academy. Comenius developed the concepts of goals, content and methods of education. At first, he preferred the subject principle and was the author of a number of subject textbooks on physics, geometry, geodesy, geography, astronomy, and history. Then he came to the conclusion that a person should receive a system of knowledge about the world. An example of such a collection of the most important knowledge about the world, nature, man, social structure and the spiritual field is the textbook "The Open Door of Languages" ("Janua linguarum reserata", 1631). The textbook was a new type of manual, it rejected the traditional dogmatic way of studying grammar and syntax, and offered a method of language acquisition based on knowledge of the elements of the real world. Contained 8 thousand lats. words, from which relatively simple sentences were composed, grouped into small, gradually becoming more complex stories-articles about the most important phenomena of the surrounding reality. In the 1640s Comenius, at the suggestion of the Swedish government, took up the preparation of the school reform for Sweden in Elbląg and the development of methods for teaching Latin. language. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648), he returned to Leszno, where, by order of Sweden, he prepared textbooks: "The threshold of the Latin language" ("Vestibulum latinae linguae"), "The Hall of Latinism" ("Atrium linguae latinae", 1643-49, publ. 1649 ), as well as "The Newest Method of Languages" ("Linguarum methodus novissima", 1649).

Jan Amos Comenius (born March 28, 1592 in Nivnice, Moravia, died November 14, 1670 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands) was a Czech educational reformer and religious figure. Known for innovative teaching methods, in particular languages.

Jan Amos Comenius: biography

The youngest of five children, Comenius was born into a moderately wealthy family of devout members of the Protestant community of the Bohemian Brethren. After the death of his parents and two sisters in 1604, presumably from the plague, he lived with relatives and received a mediocre education, until in 1608 he entered the Latin school of the Bohemian brothers in Přerov. Three years later, thanks to the patronage of Count Karl Żerotinsky, he entered the Reformed University in Herborn under the influence of Johann Heinrich Alsted. Many aspects of Comenius' thought are very reminiscent of the latter's philosophy. Alsted, an opponent of Aristotle and a follower of Peter Ramus, was deeply interested in Raymond Lull and Giordano Bruno, was a chiliast in theology and worked on a collection of all knowledge in his famous Encyclopedia (1630). After finishing his studies in Heidelberg in 1614, Jan Comenius returned to his homeland, where he first taught at a school. But in 1618, two years after his ordination as a priest of the Bohemian Brethren, he became a pastor in Fulneck. His first published work, A Grammar of Latin, dates from these years.

And the battle on White Mountain in November 1620 had a significant impact on Comenius' life, since most of his work was aimed at returning land and faith to his people. For the next eight years, he was not safe until the final expulsion of the brothers from the imperial lands brought him to Leszno, Poland, where he tentatively visited, negotiating the possibility of a settlement.

Jan Amos Comenius, whose biography over the years was marked by the death of his first wife Magdalena and their two children, married a second time in 1624. He completed The Labyrinth of Light and the Paradise of the Heart in 1623 and the Centrum securitatis in 1625, publishing them in Czech in 1631 and 1633 respectively.

From 1628 to 1641, Jan Comenius lived in Leszno as a bishop for his flock and rector of the local gymnasium. He also found time to work on the reform of knowledge and pedagogy, writing, and among other things for his first great book, Didactica magna. Written in Czech, it was published in Latin in 1657 as part of the Opera didactica omnia, which contains most of the work created since 1627.

Another book written at this time by Jan Amos Comenius, The Mother's School, is dedicated to the first six years of raising a child.

Unexpected popularity

In 1633, Jan Comenius suddenly gained European notoriety with the publication of Janua linguarum reserata (An Open Door to Languages), which was published that same year. This is a simple introduction to Latin according to a new method based on principles derived from Wolfgang Rathke and the textbooks published by the Spanish Jesuits of Salamanca. The reform of language learning, which made it faster and easier for everyone, was characteristic of the general reformation of mankind and the world, which all chiliasts sought to achieve in the remaining hours before the return of Christ.

Jan Comenius entered into an agreement with the Englishman Samuel Hartlieb, to whom he sent the manuscript of his "Christian Omniscience" under the title Conatuum Comenianorum praeludia, and then, in 1639, Pansophiae prodromus. In 1642, Hartlieb published an English translation called The Reform of the Schools. Jan Amos Comenius, whose contribution to pedagogy aroused great interest in certain circles in England, was invited by Hartlieb to London. In September 1641, he arrived in the capital of Great Britain, where he met his supporters, as well as such people as John Pell, Theodore Haack and Sir Cheney Culpeper. He was invited to stay permanently in England, the creation of a Pansophic college was planned. But the Irish Rebellion soon put an end to all these optimistic plans, although Comenius remained in Britain until June 1642. While in London, he wrote the work Via Lucis ("The Way of Light"), which was distributed in manuscript form in England until it was printed in 1668 in Amsterdam. At the same time, the Czech educator received an offer from Richelieu to continue his activities in Paris, but instead he visited Descartes near Leiden.

Working in Sweden

In Sweden, Jan Comenius again met with difficulties. Chancellor Oxenstierna wanted him to write useful books for schools. Comenius, at the insistence of his English friends, offered to work on pansophia. He focused on two issues at once, retiring to Elbing in Prussia, then under Swedish rule, between 1642 and 1648. His work Pansophiae diatyposis was published in Danzig in 1643, and Linguarum methodus nouissima in Leszno in 1648. In 1651, Pansophia was published in English as a model of universal knowledge. His Natural Philosophy Reformed by Divine Light, or Lumen divinuem reformatate synopsis (Leipzig, 1633), appeared the same year. In 1648, returning to Leszno, Comenius became the twentieth and last bishop of the Bohemian Brotherhood (subsequently transformed into Moravian).

Failure in Sarospatak

In 1650, the educator Jan Comenius received a call from Prince Sigismund Rákóczi of Transylvania, the younger brother of George II Rákóczi, to come to Sárospatak for consultations on school reform and pansophy. He introduced many changes in the local school, but despite the hard work, his success was small, and in 1654 he returned to Leszno. At the same time, Comenius produced one of his most famous works, Orbis sensualium Pictus (The Sensual World in Pictures, 1658), in Latin and German. It is important to note that the work opened with an epigraph from Genesis when Adam gave names (Gen. 2:19-20). It was the first school book to use pictures of objects to teach languages. She illustrated the fundamental principle that Jan Amos Comenius professed. Briefly, it sounds like this: words must be accompanied by things and cannot be studied separately from them. In 1659, Charles Hoole published an English version of the textbook, Comenius's Visible World, or A Picture and List of All the Chief Things that Exist in the World and of Human Occupations.

The lack of success in Sarospatak is probably due in large part to the fascination with the fantastic prophecies of the visionary and enthusiast Nikolai Darbik. Not the first time Comenius bet on the prophet of the last day - a weakness that other chiliasts succumbed to. They relied too much on forecasts of apocalyptic events and unexpected twists and turns in the near future, such as the fall of the House of Habsburg or the end of the papacy and the Roman Church. The publication of these statements with the aim of influencing political events had a negative impact on the reputation of an outstanding teacher.

Last years

Soon after Comenius returned to Leszno, a war broke out between Poland and Sweden, and in 1656 Leszno was completely destroyed by Polish troops. He lost all his books and manuscripts and was again forced to leave the country. He was invited to settle in Amsterdam, where he spent the remaining years of his life in the home of the son of his former patron Laurence de Geer. During these years he completed a great work that occupied him for at least twenty years, De rerum humanarum emendatione consultatio catholica. The seven-part book summed up his entire life and became a comprehensive discussion on the subject of improving human things. Pampedia, instructions for general education, is preceded by Pansophia, its foundation, followed by Panglottia, instructions for overcoming the confusion of languages, which will make possible the final reformation. Although some parts of the work were published as early as 1702, it was considered lost until the end of 1934, when the book was found in Halle. It was first published in its entirety in 1966.

Comenius is buried in the Walloon church at Naarden, near Amsterdam. His thoughts were highly appreciated by the German pietists of the 18th century. In his own country, he occupies a prominent place as a national hero and writer.

path of light

Jan Amos Komensky devoted his works to the rapid and effective reform of all things related to human life in the field of religion, society and knowledge. His program was "The Path of Light", designed to bring about the greatest possible enlightenment of man before his soon return to the earthly millennium kingdom of Christ. The universal aims were piety, virtue, and knowledge; wisdom was achieved by excelling in all three.

Thus, the source and goal of all Comenius' writings was theology. His beliefs and aspirations were shared by many of his contemporaries, but his system was by far the most complete of the many proposed in the 17th century. It was essentially a recipe for salvation through knowledge raised to the level of universal wisdom, or pansophia, supported by an appropriate educational program. Corresponding to the divine order of things at that time, when it was believed that the last century was coming, was the possibility of achieving a general reform through the invention of printing, and the expansion of shipping and international trade, which for the first time in history promised the worldwide dissemination of this new, reforming wisdom.

Since God is hidden behind his work, man must open himself to three revelations: to the visible creation, in which the power of God is manifested; a man made in the image of God and showing proof of his divine wisdom; word, with his promise of good will towards man. Everything that a person should know and not know should be extracted from three books: nature, the mind or spirit of man, and Scripture. To achieve this wisdom, he is endowed with feelings, reason and faith. Since man and nature are God's creations, they must share the same order, a postulate that guarantees the complete harmony of all things with each other and with the human mind.

Know yourself and nature

This well-known doctrine of the macrocosm-microcosm gives confidence that a person is really capable of gaining a hitherto unrealized wisdom. Everyone thus becomes a pansophist, a little god. Gentiles who lack the revealed word cannot reach this wisdom. Even Christians have until recently been lost in a maze of errors due to tradition and the flood of books that at best contain scattered knowledge. A person should turn only to divine works and learn by direct collision with things - with the help of an autopsy, as Comenius called it. Jan Amos based pedagogical ideas on the fact that all learning and knowledge begins with feelings. It follows that the mind has innate representations that enable a person to comprehend the order he encounters. The world and the life of each individual is a school. Nature teaches, the teacher is nature's servant, and naturalists are priests in nature's temple. Man must know himself and nature.

Encyclopedia of Omniscience

To find a way out of the labyrinth, a person needs a method by which he will see the order of things, understanding their causes. This method should be presented in a book on pansophia, in which the order of nature and the order of the mind will gradually move towards wisdom and insight. It will contain nothing but concrete and useful knowledge, replacing all other books. A complete record of information, thus organized, is a veritable encyclopedia, much like Robert Hooke's "repository" of natural curiosities at the Royal Society, organized according to the categories of John Wilkins in his An Essay on Genuine Symbolism and Philosophical Language. By following this natural method, people can easily acquire full and comprehensive possession of all knowledge. The result of this will be true universality; and again there will be order, light and peace. Thanks to this transformation, man and the world will return to a state similar to that which was before the fall.

Innovation in education

Jan Comenius, whose pedagogy demanded that from early childhood the child learn to compare things and words, considered native speech the first acquaintance with reality, which should not be obscured by empty words and poorly understood concepts. At school, foreign languages ​​- first of all neighboring countries, and then Latin - should be studied in the native language, and school books should follow the method of pansophia. The Door to Tongues will offer the same material as the Door to Things, and both will be small encyclopedias. School textbooks should be divided into age groups and only deal with things that are within the child's experience. Latin is best suited for general communication, but Comenius expected with interest the emergence of a perfect philosophical language that would reflect the method of pansophia, would not be misleading, and would not be uninformative. Language is simply a vehicle of knowledge, but its correct use and teaching is the correct means of attaining light and wisdom.

Life is like a school

Jan Comenius, whose didactics was directed not only towards formal school education, but also towards all age groups, believed that all life is a school and preparation for eternal life. Girls and boys should study together. Since all people have an innate desire for knowledge and godliness, they should learn in a spontaneous and playful manner. Corporal punishment should not be used. Poor learning is not the fault of the student, but indicates the inability of the teacher to fulfill his role of "servant of nature" or "obstetrician of knowledge", as Comenius said.

Jan Amos, whose pedagogical ideas were considered the most significant and, perhaps, his only contribution to science, himself considered them only a means of a general transformation of mankind, the basis for which was pansophia, and theology - the only guiding motive. The abundance of biblical quotations in his writings is a constant reminder of this source of inspiration. Jan Comenius considered the books of the prophecies of Daniel and the revelations of John to be the main means of gaining knowledge for the inevitable millennium. The story of Adam's distribution of names in "Genesis" and formed his idea of ​​​​a person and his conviction in order, which was reflected in pansophia, because God "arranged everything by measure, number and weight." He relied on the complex metaphorical and structural properties of Solomon's temple. For him man was, like Adam, at the center of creation. He knows all nature and thus controls and uses it. Therefore, the transformation of man was only part of a complete transformation of the world, which would recreate its original purity and order and would be the ultimate tribute to its creator.

man of his time

Jan Amos Comenius made no contribution to natural science and was deeply alien to the development of science that was taking place at that time. Other assessments of his work have been made, but they have completely ignored his dependence on a priori postulates and his theological orientation. On the other hand, several eminent members of the Royal Society have shown close kinship with much of his thought. The Society's motto Nullius in Verba occupies a significant place in Comenius's Natural Philosophy Transformed by Divine Light, and in both contexts it has the same meaning. This is a reminder that tradition and authority are no longer the arbiters of truth. It is given to nature, and observation is the only source of concrete knowledge. The much-discussed problem of the relationship between Comenius and the early Royal Society is still unresolved, largely because discussion of the issue is based on scant familiarity with his writings and almost total ignorance of his correspondence.

Claims about the influence of the Czech reformer on Leibniz are greatly exaggerated. He was so typical of the beliefs, doctrines, and issues of the day that the same thoughts were expressed by others who figured prominently in Leibniz's early writings. Jan Amos Comenius drew his ideas from the theology of the Bohemian brothers (with their strong chiliastic tendencies), as well as from such famous personalities as Johann Valentin Andree, Jacob Boehme, Nicholas of Cusa, Juan Luis Vives, Bacon, Campanella, Raimund de Sabunde (Theologia naturalis which he published in Amsterdam in 1661 under the title Oculus fidei) and Mersenne, whose correspondence shows a positive attitude towards Comenius and his work.