3. One thing again and again repeated.
4. Nothing shall be learned by heart.
5. Uniformity in all things.
6. Knowledge of the thing itself must be given before that which refers to the thing.
7. Everything by experiment and analysis.
8. Everything without coercion;[2] that is, by gentle means, and not by the use of the rod.
Others have worked out these principles until they have become thoroughly incorporated into every system of modern pedagogy.
COMENIUS[96] (1592-1670)
By far the greatest educator of the seventeenth century, and one of the greatest in educational history, was Johann Amos Comenius. He was born in Moravia, and belonged to the Protestant body known as the Moravian Brethren. His early education was neglected, a fact that was not without its compensation, for, not beginning the study of Latin until sixteen years of age, he was mature enough to appreciate the defects in the prevalent method of instruction. One of his most valuable services to education grew out of his attempt to remedy the defects thus discovered.
Of the schools he attended, he says, "They are the terror of boys, and the slaughterhouses of minds,—places where a hatred of books and literature is contracted, where ten or more years are spent in learning what might be acquired in one, where what ought to be poured in gently is violently forced in, and beaten in, where what ought to be put clearly and perspicuously is presented in a confused and intricate way, as if it were a collection of puzzles,—places where minds are fed on words."[97]