The History of Education / Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization

by Ellwood Patterson Cubberley

The world owes much to the constructive, statesman-like genius of Calvin and those who followed him, and we in America probably most of all. Geneva became a refuge for the persecuted Protestants from other lands, and through such influences the ideas of Calvin spread to the Huguenots in France, the Walloons of the Dutch and Belgian Netherlands, the Germans in the Palatinate, the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Puritans in England, and later to the American colonies.

[Illustration: FIG. 98. A FRENCH SCHOOL OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
(From an old woodcut by Abraham Bosse, 1611-78)]

CALVINISM IN THE OTHER LANDS. The great educational work done by the Calvinists in France, in the face of heavy persecution, deserves to be ranked with that of the Lutherans in Germany in its importance. Had the Calvinists had the same opportunity for free development the Lutherans had, and especially their state support, there can be little doubt that their work would have greatly exceeded the Lutherans in importance and influence on the future history of mankind. Beginning with one church in 1538, they had 2150 churches by 1561, when the severe persecutions and religious wars began.

True to the Calvinistic teaching of putting principles into practice, they organized an extensive system of schools, extending from elementary education for all, through secondary schools or colleges, up to eight Huguenot universities. As a people they were thrifty and capable of making great sacrifices to carry out their educational ideals. The education they provided was not only religious but civil; not only intellectual but moral, social, and economic. Education was for all, rich and poor alike. Their synods made liberal appropriations for the universities, while municipalities provided for colleges and elementary education. They emphasized, in the lower schools, the study of the vernacular and arithmetic, and in the colleges Greek and the New Testament. The long list of famous teachers found in their universities reveals the character of their instruction. Foster has well summarized the distinguishing characteristics of Huguenot education in France, before they were driven from the land, as follows: [4]

The significant characteristics of Huguenot education were: an emphasis on the education of the laity; training for "the republic" and "society" as well as for the Church; insistence upon virtue as well as knowledge; the wide-spread demand for education, and a view of it as essential to liberty of conscience; a comprehensive working system of elementary, collegiate, and university training for all, poor as well as rich; an astonishing familiarity with Scripture, even among the lowest classes; utilization of representative church organization for founding, supporting, and unifying education; readiness to sacrifice for education, a spirit of carrying a thing through at any cost; business-like supervision of money, and systematic supervision of both professors and students; a notable emphasis on vernacular, arithmetic, Greek, use of full texts, and libraries; and finally a progressive spirit of inquiry and investigation.

In the Palatinate (see map, Figure 88) some progress in founding churches and schools was made, especially about Strassburg, and the universities of Heidelberg and Marburg became the centers of Huguenot teaching. In the Dutch Netherlands, and in that part of the Belgian Netherlands inhabited by the Walloons, Calvinist ideas as to education dominated. The universities of Leyden (f. 1575), Groningen (f. 1614), Amsterdam (f. 1630), and Utrecht (f. 1636) were Calvinistic, and closely in touch with the Calvinists and Huguenots of German lands and France. Popular education was looked after among these people as it was in Calvinistic France and Geneva. The Church Synod of The Hague (1586) ordered the establishment of schools in the cities, and in 1618 the Great Synod held at Dort (R. 176) ordered that:

Schools in which the young shall be properly instructed in piety and fundamentals of Christian doctrine shall be instituted not only in cities, but also in towns and country places where heretofore none have existed. The Christian magistracy shall be requested that honorable stipends be provided for teachers, and that well-qualified persons may be employed and enabled to devote themselves to that function; and especially that the children of the poor may be gratuitously instructed by them and not be excluded from the benefits of schools.

[Illustration: FIG. 99. A DUTCH VILLAGE SCHOOL
(After a painting by Adrian Ostade, dated 1662, now in the Louvre, at
Paris)]

Further provisions were made as to the certificating of schoolmasters, and the pastors were made superintendents of the schools, to visit, examine, encourage, advise, and report (R. 176). Provision for the free education of the poor became common, and elementary education was made accessible to all. The careful provision for education made by the province of Utrecht (1590, 1612) (R. 178) was typical of Dutch activity. The province of Drenthe ordered (1630) a school tax paid for all children over seven, whether attending school or not. The province of Overyssel levied (1666) a school tax for all children from eight to twelve years of age. The province of Groningen constituted the pastors the attendance officers to see that the children got to school. Amsterdam and many other Dutch cities demanded an examination of all teachers before being licensed to teach. By the middle of the seventeenth century a good system of schools seems to have been provided generally [5] by the Dutch and the Belgian Walloons (R. 178). That the teaching of religion was the main function of the Dutch elementary schools, as of all other vernacular schools of the time, is seen from the official lists of the textbooks used (R. 178).

John Knox, the leader of the Scottish Reformation (1560), who had spent some time at Geneva and who was deeply impressed by the Calvinistic religious-state found there, introduced the Calvinistic religious and educational ideas into Scotland. His Book of Discipline for the Scottish Church (1560), framed closely on the Genevan model, contained a chapter devoted to education in which he proposed: