Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform

by W. S. Monroe

The braced figures refer to the objects numbered in the cut; for example, a group of students conversing together in the illustration is marked 10 in the cut and in the text. The purpose of Comenius, it should be noted in passing, was primarily to teach the vernacular through things and the representation of things; although he had no objection to the learning of the Latin with the vernacular. His aim, as stated by himself, “That instruction may progress without hindrance, and neither learning nor teaching delay, since what is printed in words may be brought before the eyes by sight, and thus the mind may be instructed without error.”

“Primer though it be,” says G. Stanley Hall, “the Orbis pictus sheds a broad light over the whole field of education.” Compayré remarks, “It was the first practical application of the intuitive method, and has served as a model for the innumerable illustrated books which for three centuries have invaded the schools.” And Raumer, who is little given to praise of Comenius and his schemes, adds, “The Orbis pictus was the forerunner of future development, and had for its object, not merely the introduction of an indistinct painted world into the school, but, as much as possible, a knowledge of the original world itself, by actual intercourse with it.”

Professor Laurie is doubtless right when he says that Comenius knew little psychology—scarcely more than the generalizations of Plato and Aristotle, and these not strictly investigated by himself. Yet who can read these lines in the preface of the Orbis pictus, “This little book will serve to stir up the attention, which is to be fastened upon things, and ever to be sharpened more and more; for the senses ever more seek their own objects, and when the objects are present, they grow merry, wax lively, and willingly suffer themselves to be fastened upon them, until the things are sufficiently discerned”—who can read these lines, and reflect upon the manner in which volitional attention operates in the higher spheres of thought and emotion, and say that Comenius was altogether ignorant of the psychological law that the power of the will over the attention of little children is largely a matter of automatic fixation, depending upon the attractiveness of the objects that affect the senses.

Methodus Novissima

While residing at Elbing, Comenius wrote the Methodus novissima for the use of the teachers of Sweden. This he intended as a plan of studies, and it contains the principles which must lie at the basis of every rational course of study. The three principles of his method are the parallelism of things and words, proper stages of succession, and easy natural progress. In God are the ideas, the original types which he impresses upon things; things, again, impress their representation upon the senses, the senses impart them to the mind, the mind to the tongue, and the tongue to the ears of others; for souls shut up in bodies cannot understand each other in a purely intellectual way.

Any language is complete in so far as it possesses a full nomenclature, has words for everything,—and these significant and consistent,—and is constructed in accordance with fixed grammatical laws. It is a source of error when things accommodate themselves to words, instead of words to things. The same classification prevails for words as for things; and whoever understands the relation of words among themselves will, the more easily, study the analogous relations among things.

Vives thought that the most complete language would be that in which the words express the nature of things, and Comenius believed that there could be composed a real language in which each word should be a definition.

To be able to represent a thing by the mind, hand, or tongue is to understand it. The mental process involved consists of representations and images of the pictures of things. If, says Comenius, I perceive a thing by the senses, its image is impressed upon my brain; if I represent a thing, I impress its image upon the material; but if I express in words the thing which I have thought of or represented, I impress it upon the atmosphere, and through it upon the ear, brain, and mind of another.

Things are learned by examples, rules, and practice. Before the understanding, truth must be held up as an example; before the will, the good; before the forming powers, the ideal; and to these must be added practice regulated by suitable rules. But rules should not be given before the examples. This is well understood by artisans; they do not begin by lecturing to their apprentices upon trades, but by showing them how masters work and then by putting tools in their hands and training them to imitate their masters. We learn to do by doing, to write by writing, and to paint by painting.