EARLIEST EDUCATION OF THE CHILD
_School of infancy_—Circumstances under which
written—View of childhood—Conception of infant
education. Physical training—Care of the body—The
child’s natural nurse—Foods—Sleep—Play and exercise.
Mental training—Studies which furnish the materials
of thought, and studies which furnish the symbols
of thought—Nature study—Geography—History—Household
economy—Stories and fables—Principle of
activity—Drawing—Arithmetic—Geometry—Music—Language—Poetry.
Moral and religious
training—Examples—Instruction—Discipline—Some
virtues to be taught—Character of formal religious
instruction.
_The School of Infancy_
Plato, Quintilian, Plutarch, and other writers on education have
discussed the earliest training of the child, but none of these
early writers have comprehended the significance of infancy with
any such pedagogic insight as Comenius; and his _School of infancy_
has taken a permanent place among the classics which deal with the
period of childhood. It was written during the years 1628 to 1630,
when he was in charge of the Moravian school at Lissa. A German
edition (it was originally written in the Sclavic tongue) appeared
at Lissa in 1633, a second edition at Leipzig in 1634, and a third
German edition at Nuremberg in 1636. Subsequently Polish, Bohemian,
and Latin translations appeared; and Joseph Müller,[32] a most
painstaking Comenius bibliographer, mentions an English translation
in 1641. I have found no other reference to an English translation
so early. As already noted, however, Comenius was well and favorably
known to Milton, Hartlib, and others high in educational authority in
England; and the fact that most of his other writings were translated
there gives credence to Mr. Müller’s statement. In the year 1858,
Mr. Daniel Benham[33] published in London an English translation, to
which he prefixed a well-written account of the life of Comenius. But
his translation was soon out of print; and this excellent treatise
in consequence remained inaccessible to English readers until the
appearance of my own translation. (Boston, 1896. Republished in London,
1897.)
The _School of infancy_ was written as a guide for mothers during
the first six years of the child’s life, and was dedicated to “pious
Christian parents, guardians, teachers, and all upon whom the charge
of children is incumbent.” Since the education of the child must begin
at its birth, mothers must assume the teacher’s rôle; and the mothers
of the seventeenth century, according to Comenius, were altogether
unfitted because of lack of training to undertake this high and holy
mission. Accordingly, the _School of infancy_ outlines definite
instructions for mothers.
Comenius was too deeply grounded in the religious dogmas of his day
to abandon altogether the doctrine of original sin, then so generally
held; but he maintained that suitable early training would overcome
most of the original perversity in the human heart. No one, he urges,
should be a mother or a teacher who does not hold unbounded faith in
the possibilities of childhood. The child is not to be regarded with
reference to its youthful disabilities, but rather with a view to the
purposes of the Divine mind, as Fröbel would say, regard the child
as a pledge of the presence, goodness, and love of God. What higher
tribute to childhood than this: “The mother that has under her care
the training of a little child possesses a garden in which celestial
plantlets are sown, watered, bloom, and flourish. How inexpressibly
blessed is a mother in such a paradise!” With Quintilian he asks: “Has
a son been born to you? From the first, conceive only the highest hopes
for him.”
The purpose in the education of the child is threefold: (1) faith
and piety, (2) uprightness in respect to morals, and (3) knowledge
of languages and arts; and this order must not be inverted. Parents,
therefore, do not fully perform their duty when they merely teach
their offspring to eat, drink, walk, and talk. These things are merely
subservient to the body, which is not the man, but his tabernacle only;
the rational soul dwells within, and rightly claims greater care than
its outward tenement.
In the education of the child, care especially for the soul, which is
the highest part of its nature; and next, attend to the body, that it
may be made a fit and worthy habitation for the soul. Aim to train
the child to a clear and true knowledge of God and all his wonderful
works, and a knowledge of himself, so that he may wisely and prudently
regulate his actions.
It must be borne in mind, however, that to properly train children
requires clear insight and assiduous labor. It is to be regretted
that so many parents are too incompetent to instruct their children
and that others, by reason of the performance of family and social
duties, are unable to discharge this high and holy mission. All such,
of course, must hand their children over to some one else to instruct.
But they should intrust their little ones to the care and training of
such instructors only who will make the act of learning pleasing and
agreeable—a mere amusement and mental delight.
Schools should be retreats of ease, places of literary amusement, and
not houses of torture. A musician does not dash his instrument against
the wall, or give it blows and cuffs because he cannot draw music from
it, but continues to apply his skill until he is able to extract a
melody. So by your skill you should bring the mind of the young child
into harmony with his studies.
The first step in the education of the child is the most important.
Every one knows that whatever form the branches of an old tree may
have, that they must necessarily have been so formed from the first
growth. The animal born blind, lame, defective, or deformed remains so.
The training of the child’s body, mind, and soul should, therefore, be
a matter of earnest thought from the very first.
While it is possible for God to completely transform an inveterately
bad man, yet, in the regular course of nature, it scarcely ever happens
otherwise than that as a being is formed during the early stages of
development, so it matures, and so it remains. Whatever seed is sown in
youth, such fruit is reaped in old age.
Nor is it wise to delay such training until the child is old enough
to be instructed in a school, since tendencies are acquired which are
difficult to overcome. It is impossible to make a tree straight that
has grown crooked, or to produce an orchard from a forest everywhere
surrounded with briers and thorns. This makes it necessary for parents
to know something about the management of children, that they may be
able to lay the foundations upon which the teachers are to build when
the child enters school at the age of six years.
Great care must be exercised with reference to the methods adopted with
children so young. The instruction need not be apportioned to the same
degree that it is apportioned in schools, since at this early age all
children are not endowed with equal ability, some beginning to speak in
the first year, some in the second, and some not until the third year.
_Physical Training_
The first care of the mother must be for the health of her child,
since bodily vigor so largely conditions normal mental development.
“A certain author,” says Comenius, “advises that parents ought ‘to
pray for a sound mind in a sound body,’ but they ought to labor as
well as pray.” Since the early care of the child devolves largely on
the mother, Comenius counsels women with reference to the hygiene of
childhood. Prenatal conditions are no less important than postnatal;
and prospective mothers should observe temperance in diet, avoid
violent movements, control the emotions, and indulge in no excessive
sleep or indolence.
For good and sufficient reasons the mother should nurse her own child.
“How grievous, how hurtful, how reprehensible,” he exclaims, “is the
conduct of some mothers, especially among the upper classes, who,
feeling it irksome to nourish their own offspring, delegate the duty to
other women.” This cruel alienation of mothers from their children, he
maintains, is the greatest obstacle to the early training of the child.
Such conduct is clearly opposed to nature: the wolf and bear, the lion
and panther, nourish their offspring with their own milk; and shall the
mothers of the human race be less affectionate than the wild beasts?
Moreover, it contributes to the health of the child to be nourished by
its natural mother.
Comenius has some sound advice for mothers on the kinds of food
for young children. At the first it must as nearly as possible
approximate to their natural aliment; it must be soft, sweet, and
easily digestible. Milk is an excellent food; and after milk, bread,
butter, and vegetables. All highly seasoned foods are to be avoided;
and Comenius urges mothers to regard medicines as they would poisons,
and avoid them altogether. Children accustomed to medicine from
their earliest years are certain to become “feeble, sickly, infirm,
pale-faced, imbecile, cancerous.”
Children during the earliest years require an abundance of sleep,
fresh air, and exercise. They need not only to be exercised, but their
exercises should be in the nature of amusements. “A joyful mind,”
he remarks, “is half health, and the joy of the heart is the very
life-spring of the child.” These exercises for the amusement of the
child may provide for the pleasure of its eyes, ears, and other senses,
as well as contribute to the vigor of its body and mind. Play not only
conduces to the health of the child, but it lays the basis for later
development.[34]
_Mental Training_
For the mental training of the child during its first six years
Comenius has outlined two classes of studies: (1) those which furnish
the materials of thought, such as nature study, geography, and
household economy, and (2) those which furnish the symbols of thought,
such as drawing, writing, and language. This grouping of form and
content studies, it should be noted, has been followed by the disciples
of Herbart in their schemes of classification.
The first and second years of the child’s life must be entirely given
over to the development of organic functions; but, by the beginning
of the third year, the child has acquired a vocabulary, and he should
be taught to comprehend the meaning of the words he uses. This early
knowledge should be of natural things—plants, flowers, trees, sand,
clay, the cow, horse, and dog. He may be taught to comprehend some of
the more important observable characters of these objects and to know
their uses.
Special exercises should be provided for the training of the eye;
excessive lights must be avoided, and also overstraining. Children may
be moderately introduced to objects of color, and thus taught to enjoy
the beauty of the heavens, trees, flowers, and running water. In the
fourth and following years they should be taken into fields and along
the rivers, and trained to observe plants, animals, running water, and
the turning of windmills. In both nature study and geography Comenius
anticipated the _Heimatskunde_ of Pestalozzi.
Children should also during their first six years be taught to know the
heavens, and to distinguish between sun, moon, and stars; to understand
that the sun and moon rise and set; to recognize that the days are
shortest in winter and longest in summer; to distinguish time—morning,
noonday, evening, and when to eat, sleep, and pray.
The study of geography should be begun at the cradle, and the location,
distance, and direction of the nursery, kitchen, bed-chamber, and
orchard should early be learned. They should have out-door lessons in
geography, and be taught to find their way through the streets, to the
market-place, and to the homes of their friends and relatives. In the
fifth year they should study a city, field, orchard, forest, hill, and
river, and fix what they learn about these things in the memory.
The early historic instruction should begin with a development of the
sense of time—the working days and the Sabbath days, when to attend and
engage in divine services, the occurrence of such solemn festivals as
Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and the significance of these holy
occasions. The child may also be trained to recall where he was and
what he did yesterday, the day before, a week ago.
Household economy should receive important instruction during the first
six years of the child’s life. He must be trained to know the relation
which he is to sustain to his father and mother, and to obey each;
where to place and how to care for his clothes; the use of toys and
playthings; the economy of the home, and his place in that economy.
Comenius also commends stories and fables, particularly those about
animals which contain some moral principle. “Stories,” says Comenius,
“greatly sharpen the innate capacity of children.” Ingeniously
constructed stories serve a twofold purpose in the early development
of the child: they occupy their minds, and they instil knowledge which
will afterward be of use.
The greatest service which parents can render their children during
these early years is to encourage play. This must not be left to
chance, but must be provided for; and children need, most of all, to
play with other children near their own age. In such social plays with
their companions there is neither the assumption of authority nor the
dread of fear, but the free intercourse which calls forth all their
powers of invention, sharpens their wits, and cultivates their manners
and habits.
In his discussion of the form studies, such as drawing, writing, and
language, Comenius remarks that nothing delights children more than
to be doing something. Youthful vigor will not long permit them to be
at rest; and this spontaneous activity requires wise regulation, in
order that children may acquire the habit of doing things that they
will be required to do later.[35] This is the time when children are
most imaginative and imitative; they delight in doing the things that
they have seen done by their elders. All these imitative exercises give
health to their bodies, agility to their movements, and vigor to their
muscles.
At this period children delight in construction; supply them with
material with which they may exercise whatever architectural genius
they may have—clay, wood, blocks, and stones, with which to construct
houses, walls, etc. They should also have toy carriages, houses, mills,
plows, swords, and knives. Children delight in activity, and parents
should realize that restraint is alike harmful to the development of
the mind and the body.
After children have been taught to walk, run, jump, roll hoop, throw
balls, and to construct with blocks and clay, supply them with chalk or
charcoal, and allow them to draw according as their inclination may be
excited. In arithmetic Comenius recognizes the difficulty in leading
children to see quantitative relations. By the fourth year, however, he
thinks that they may be taught to count to ten and to note resemblances
and differences in quantity. To proceed further than this would be
unprofitable, nay, hurtful, he says, since nothing is so difficult to
fix in the mind of the young child as numbers. Comenius, it would seem,
valued the study of arithmetic much less highly than modern educators.
He thought that some geometry might be taught during these early years;
children may easily be trained to perceive the common geometric forms;
and the measurements and comparisons involved in the perception of such
forms train the understanding of the child.
Music is instinctive and natural to the child. Complaints and wailings
are his first lessons in music. It is impossible to restrain such
complaints and wails; and even if it were possible, it would not be
expedient, since all such vocalizations exercise the muscles involved
in the production of speech, develop the chest, and contribute to the
child’s general health. Children should hear music in their earliest
infancy, that their ears and minds may be soothed by concord and
harmony. He even countenances the banging and rattling noises which
children are fond of making, on the ground that such noises represent
legitimate steps in the development of the child’s musical sense. Give
them horns, whistles, drums, and rattles, and allow them to acquire
perceptions of rhythm and melody.
In the matter of instruction in language, Comenius had one fundamental
principle—that ideas of things must accompany or precede the words
which symbolized the things. In consequence, word training, as such,
had no place in his schemes of education. When children begin to talk,
great care must be exercised that they articulate distinctly and
correctly. The start must always be in the mother-tongue. Comenius, it
will be recalled, was at variance with his contemporaries in deferring
instruction in Latin until the child was twelve years old. During these
early years he believes that poetry—and especially jingles and nursery
rhymes—may be used with great profit in aiding children to acquire
language. They may not always understand the rhymes, but they are
certain to be pleased much more by the rhythm of verse than by prose.
_Moral and Religious Training_
However much Comenius may have valued mental and physical training,
the fundamental aim and end of all education he regarded as moral and
religious. The agencies which he would have employed in the early
moral training of the child are (1) a perpetual example of virtuous
conduct; (2) properly timed and prudent instruction and exercise; and
(3) well-regulated discipline. Children are exceptionally imitative,
in consequence of which there should be great circumspection in the
home in matters of temperance, cleanliness, neatness, truthfulness,
complaisance, and respect for superiors. While lengthened discourses
and admonitions are not expedient, prudent instruction may often
accompany examples with profit.
As to discipline, Comenius thinks that occasionally there is need of
chastisement in order that children may attend to examples of virtue
and admonition. When other means of discipline have been ineffectual,
the rod may be used, but only for offences against morals—never for
stupidity. Comenius gives the impression that children may be whipped
into being good. The influence of the ill-timed advice of Solomon is
clearly apparent here.
Temperance and frugality, he thinks, claim the first place in the moral
training of the child, inasmuch as they are the foundations of health
and life, and the mother of all the virtues. Neatness and cleanliness
should be exacted from the first; so should respect of superiors and
elders. Bold and forward children are not generally loved. Obedience,
like the plant, does not spring up spontaneously, but requires years
of patient care and training to develop into a thing of beauty.
Truthfulness likewise is no less important; so also justice, respect
for the rights of others, benevolence, patience, and civility.
And most important of the virtues to be acquired by the young child is
industry. Nothing hinders moral growth more than indolence. Comenius
agrees with the church fathers that Satan’s best allies are the idle.
Children must not be idle. Teach them to play, to make things, to do
things, to be helpful to themselves and useful to others.
Comenius exaggerated the importance of religious training during the
child’s earliest years. While recognizing that reasoning was necessary
for the best results in religious instruction, he nevertheless
overburdens the memory with formal religious instructions. Before
the child is six years old he is to be taught the Lord’s Prayer, the
Apostles’ Creed, the Confession of Faith, the Ten Commandments, and
numerous hymns.
In spite of his unreasonable demands on the memory, most of Comenius’
counsels to mothers on the religious instruction of their little ones
are sane and helpful. The spirit of the parents, he rightly suggests,
is all important in religious instruction; outward piety is not enough.
The religious nature unfolds slowly, and unusual patience and foresight
are required in its nurture and development.
All this training—physical, mental, moral, and religious—has been
preliminary to the formal training in the school, which is to begin in
the sixth or seventh year of the child’s life. The transition step
from the home to the school is now to be made; for just “as little
plants after they have grown up from their seed are transplanted into
orchards, for their more successful growth, so it is expedient that
children, cherished and nurtured in the home, having acquired strength
of mind and body, should be delivered to the care of teachers.”