Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational ReformMonroe, W. S. (Will Seymour)
History
Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform
Monroe, W. S. (Will Seymour)
Comenius, Johann Amos, 1592-1670; Education -- History; Educational change -- History
In addition to his literary labors, he gave much time to the
administration of church affairs; for Lissa had risen from her ashes
and was more prosperous than before the war. Here congregated again
many adherents of the Moravian brotherhood, and the college was
rebuilt and resumed its beneficent pedagogic influence. From this
centre the Moravian influence spread anew to many parts of Europe.
England, Prussia, and other Protestant countries were generous in their
contributions toward the restoration of Moravian churches. All this
money was sent to Comenius at Amsterdam, and by him apportioned to the
scattered brethren. He received thirty thousand dollars from England
alone during the years 1658 and 1659; the only stipulation made in the
disposition of the money was that a portion of it should be used for
the printing of Polish and Bohemian Bibles. The last years of his life
were occupied almost wholly in such ministrations.
He published in 1668 his swan song, the _One thing needful_. This is
his farewell address to the world. It delineates in a forceful yet
modest way his aspirations for educational reform, gives expression
of the deep faith which sustained him during the long years of his
weary pilgrimage, and burns with enthusiastic zeal for the welfare of
mankind—the burning passion of his life. He was well prepared at the
advanced age of seventy-six years to sum up the experience of a long
and afflicted life.
A few citations from this touching bit of reminiscence will hint at the
motives which actuated him in his life-work as an educational reformer.
“I thank God that I have been all my life a man of aspirations;
and although He has brought me into many labyrinths, yet He has so
protected me that either I have soon worked my way out of them, or He
has brought me by His own hand to the enjoyment of holy rest. For the
desire after good, if it is always in the heart, is a living stream
that flows from God, the fountain of all good. The blame is ours if we
do not follow the stream to its source or to its overflow into the sea,
where there is fulness and satiety of good.”
“One of my chief employments has been the improvement of schools, which
I undertook and continued for many years from the desire to deliver the
youth in the schools from the labyrinth in which they are entangled.
Some have held this business foreign to a theologian, as if Christ
had not connected together and given to his beloved disciple Peter at
the same time the two commands, ‘Feed my sheep’ and ‘Feed my lambs.’ I
thank Christ for inspiring me with such affection toward his lambs, and
for regulating my exertions in the form of educational works. I trust
that when the winter of indifference has passed that my endeavors will
bring forth some fruit.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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