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
This conception of education was almost universally held in the
sixteenth century, by Protestants like Trotzendorf and Sturm, as well
as by Catholics like Aquaviva and the members of the Society of Jesus.
Nor was it confined to elementary and secondary education; for, as
Professor Paulsen[2] has shown, the conquest of European universities
by the humanists was complete by the second decade of the sixteenth
century. The statutes of most of the universities at this time make the
speaking of the Latin compulsory. That at Ingolstadt reads: “A master
in a bursary shall induce to the continual use of Latin by verbal
exhortations and by his own example; and shall also appoint those who
shall mark such as speak the vulgar tongue and shall receive from them
an irremissible penalty.” Again: “That the students in their academical
exercises may learn by the habit of speaking Latin to speak and express
themselves better, the faculty ordains that no person placed by the
faculty upon a common or other bursary shall dare to speak German.
Any one heard by one of the overseers to speak German shall pay one
kreutzer.” There grew out of this prohibition a widespread system
of spying. The spies reported to the university authorities on such
students (_vulgarisantes_ they were called) who persisted in speaking
in the mother-tongue. In spite, however, of statutes, spies, fines, and
floggings, the boys in the sixteenth century spoke little Latin when
they were alone by themselves. Cordier,[3] writing in 1530, says, “Our
boys always chatter French with their companions; or if they try to
talk Latin, cannot keep it up.”
The old ecclesiastical Latin of the Middle Ages had been superseded by
the classical Latin of the Roman poets, and all the energies of the
educational institutions were thrown into the acquisition and practice
of Latin eloquence. The classics were read for the phrases that might
be culled for use in the construction of Latin sentences; these, with
disputations, declamations, and Latin plays, were the order of the
century. Since education consisted in the acquisition of a graceful and
elegant style, the young learner, from the first, applied himself to
the grammatical study of Latin authors, regarding solely the language
of the classics, and taking subject-matter into account only when this
was necessary to understand the words.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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