OTHER PROTESTANT EDUCATORS
The educational work of Luther and Melanchthon bore remarkable fruit.
Luther had urged parents to see to it that their children should be
educated, and had appealed to magistrates to assist the Church in
maintaining schools. He insisted upon compulsory education in the
memorable words, "The authorities are bound to compel their subjects to
send their children to school." As a result schools were organized in
Nuremberg, Frankfort, Ilfeld, Strasburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzic, and
many other places. Eton, Rugby, Harrow, and other educational
institutions were founded about this time in England.
Melanchthon's course of study (Schulplan) for Saxony had appeared in
1528, and in 1558 the school law of Wuertemberg, by far the best yet
enacted, went into force. Other German provinces adopted more or less
efficient school systems, and for the first time in the history of
Christian education, the duty of the State to assume the responsibility
of the education of its subjects was recognized. Out of these primitive
systems have grown the completer systems of the present, after more than
three centuries of experiment, study, and struggle.
The Reformation taught the right of every person to an education,
primarily, it is true, for religious ends, and it gradually came to be
understood that the State must assume that duty. For the Church had
neither the means nor the power to accomplish universal education. But
it was not till the nineteenth century that this end was reached,
whereby the advantages of education were offered to the child of every
parent of whatever rank or station, and the State assumed full control
of the schools.
This was the great work marked out by Luther and Melanchthon, and their
pupils and disciples carried that work to its fulfillment. Among these
immediate followers we may mention Sturm,[56] Trotzendorf, and Neander,
who contributed to educational reform.
STURM[57] (1507-1589)
Johann Sturm is counted among the greatest schoolmen that the
Reformation produced, though he belonged to the French rather than the
German reformers. He received an excellent training in the schools of
Germany, and completed his education at Paris, where he afterward became
professor of Greek. He soon gained such a wide reputation that when only
thirty years of age he was called to the rectorship of the _Gymnasium_
at Strasburg, a position which he held for forty-seven years, and where
he gained lasting fame. This fame rests not on his work as a teacher,
but as an organizer and an executive. Paulsen doubts his having been a
great teacher. He says, "He was a man who gave his attention to great
things. He had his hands in universal politics; he was in the service of
nearly all the European potentates, drawing his yearly salary from
all.... It is not probable that such a wonderful man was also a good
schoolmaster."[58]
But his great work was the organization of the Strasburg _Gymnasium_,
especially its course of study, which became the model for the Latin
schools for many years. Sturm's counsel was sought by schoolmen all over
Europe, and he came to be the recognized leader of educational forces.
His school course took the boy at six years of age and provided at first
a nine years', afterward a ten years' course, ending at the sixteenth
year of age. He added a five years' course to this later, and evidently
planned to found a university.[59]
Sturm believed that the mother should have charge of the child for the
first six years of its life. In his ten years' course he required ten
years of Latin, six of Greek, besides rhetoric, logic, religion, and
music. He introduced the practice of translating Latin into German and
then translating it back into Latin.[60] His course took no account of
German, history, mathematics, or science. He thus sought to reinstate
Greece and Rome, but entirely neglected those things which prepare for
life. Williams says, "With regard to Sturm's plan of organization, it
should be borne in mind that it is the very earliest scheme that we
have, looking to an _extended_, _systematic_, _well-articulated_ course
of studies for a school of several teachers, in which is assigned to
each class such portion of the subject-matter of the course of
instruction as is suited to the age and stage of advancement of its
pupils."[61]
This course of study attracted the attention of all Europe. Karl Schmidt
says that in 1578 "his school numbered several thousand students, among
whom were two hundred of noble birth, twenty-four counts and barons, and
three princes--from Portugal, Poland, Denmark, England, etc."
Paulsen, while not belittling the work of Sturm, thinks that the
celebrated course has but little in it different from the courses of the
Wittenberg reformers. He says, "If Melanchthon had had the planning of a
school course for a large city, it would have been much the same (as
Sturm's). The Saxon school plan of 1528 was effective only in small
cities and country places. The basis of both (Melanchthon's and Sturm's)
is the same,--grammar, rhetoric, dialectics, with music and religion. In
the large schools, like those of Nuremberg and Hamburg, a beginning of
Greek and mathematics was added."[62]
Sturm's course has the merit of definiteness, thoroughness, and unity.
There seems to be some doubt as to his success in carrying it out. It is
certain that but few students completed his course compared with the
number who began it. Instead of sixty to seventy pupils in the last
class, there were only nine or ten. The influence of Sturm, however,
spread not only over Germany, but also reached to many other countries,
and his Strasburg course of study shaped the work in the classical
schools for many years.
TROTZENDORF (1490-1556)
Valentine Trotzendorf was born in poverty and beset by many difficulties
in boyhood. His mother was a constant inspiration to him, and when he
was disposed to give up the struggle, her words, "My son, stick to your
school," led him to continue until he overcame the obstacles. When ready
for the university he went to Leipsic, where he studied Greek and Latin
for two years. In 1515 he became a teacher in a village near Leipsic, a
position that he retained for three years. He then went to Wittenberg,
where he studied under Melanchthon for five years, and became very
intimate with that great teacher. His fame as a teacher was made at
Goldberg, where he was thirty-five years rector of a school. Like
Melanchthon, he believed that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom, and that the school is an adjunct of the Church. With Sturm, he
laid great stress upon the classic languages, and insisted that his
pupils should speak in the Latin tongue. As a teacher he possessed
remarkable power. He loved to mingle with his pupils, converse with and
question them, and he had great skill in drawing them out. In his
instruction he employed many illustrations, and proceeded from the
concrete to the abstract.
His discipline was unique and original. He introduced a practice before
unknown, namely, that of self-government on the part of the students, an
experiment that has been tried in recent years with excellent results in
many American institutions for higher learning. Trotzendorf established
a senate of twelve students, a consul, and other officers, who were made
responsible for the government of the school. These constituted a court
of which he was president. Offenders were brought before the tribunal
and tried with great formality and dignity. This body sentenced the
culprit to such punishment as his guilt merited, the master reserving to
himself the right of being a court of final appeal. Besides the officers
above named, there were others who were in charge of the boys in their
domestic relations,--such as keeping guard over their punctuality, table
manners, diligence in study, etc. It was considered a high honor to hold
one of these offices. The scheme worked well under Trotzendorf; it
taught self-government, and inculcated the spirit of freedom as well as
an intelligent submission to law. Trotzendorf thus gives an example of
school government which is quite in accord with the spirit of modern
times. He also had his best pupils instruct the lower classes under his
supervision, and thus prepared them to go forth as teachers. Teachers
from his school were sought for by intelligent patrons of education in
all parts of Europe.
NEANDER (1525-1595)
Michael Neander was another of Melanchthon's pupils who became great as
a teacher. Neander was for forty-five years the sole teacher of a Latin
school at Ilfeld. Though he never had many pupils, his school was
pronounced by Melanchthon as "the best seminary in the country." He was
a most successful teacher, and the students whom he sent to the
university were found to possess the very best preparation, and always
stood among the first. He was well versed in medicine and chemistry, and
was one of the best Greek and Latin scholars of his time. Contrary to
the practice of his contemporaries, he favored the teaching of
geography, history, and the natural sciences. His position in regard to
the sciences places him in advance of other educators, and in this he
was a follower of Melanchthon, who also believed that science should be
taught.
Neander is celebrated also for the Greek and Latin text-books which he
wrote. Speaking of these books, Paulsen says, "What he especially
emphasized is: as few and as short rules as possible, and these rules
are to be progressive; at the proper time they are to be committed to
memory. The pupil must also commit words, phrases, and sentences to
memory, which is equally important." Lastly, he gave a careful outline
of the work of a boy for every year from the sixth to the eighteenth.
This was especially valuable for that period when parents and teachers
alike had nothing to guide them except the monastic course of study, and
when the world was giving birth to new theories in education as well as
in religion.
Neander's whole life was concentrated on the work of teaching, and in
the schoolroom he found his greatest joy. Here, also, he made a lasting
impression upon his pupils and upon mankind. His father was mistaken
when he addressed the boy, "Into a cloister with you; you will amount to
nothing in the world."
* * * * *
Other great teachers in the schools and in the universities carried
forward the educational work begun by the great reformers. Many cities
had founded schools, and several of the German states had established
school systems. The educational ideas of the Protestant Reformation had
taken deep root, and were destined to spread over the whole world,
gaining in force with each succeeding century.
The practical outcome of this great movement was the establishment of
schools in every village in Germany under the direction of the pastor,
and where he was unable to teach, under his clerk or assistant. As the
chief purpose was to prepare the children for entrance to the church by
confirmation, religion was the center of the school course. But reading,
writing, arithmetic, and singing were also taught.
The clerk of the church gradually became the schoolmaster, and while the
relations of these two offices have materially changed, there is still a
close official connection between the two, particularly in the country.
In many cases the pastor is the local superintendent of the school, and
the teacher is the clerk and chorister of the church. As fast as
Lutheran churches were organized, schools were also established in
connection with them. Nor were boys alone included in the work of
education. Girls' schools were organized and an effort was made at
universal education. Many provinces adopted advanced school laws, and
the principle of compulsory education was recognized, though by no means
successfully carried out.
Thus was born in the middle of the sixteenth century the common school,
and thus was recognized the right of all men to an education, and a
practical illustration of the means of securing it was given to the
world.
FOOTNOTES:
[56] Though Sturm was not a Lutheran, he was a Protestant, being a
follower of Calvin.
[57] See Quick, "Educational Reformers," and Williams, "History of
Modern Education," p. 88.
[58] "Geschichte des Gelehrten Unterrichts."
[59] Sturm's school course appeared in 1538. It was not the oldest
school course of the Protestants. The oldest school course for a German
school was prepared by Johannes Agricola and Hermann Talich in 1525 for
the school at Eisleben, Luther's birthplace. Indeed, Paulsen thinks that
Melanchthon had a hand in its preparation. He says ("Geschichte des
Gelehrten Unterrichts," p. 182), "This is the oldest published school
course of the Reformed Church, which, if not composed by Melanchthon,
was without doubt outlined, or at least approved, by him." This was
discovered in 1865 by F. L. Hoffmann in the Hamburg city library.
[60] See Ascham, p. 191, and Ratke, p. 210.
[61] "History of Modern Education," p. 91.
[62] "Geschichte des Gelehrten Unterrichts," p. 197.