March 28

Yesterday was Johann Amos Comenius' birthday, and if he was alive he would have been 423. Although born only 100 years after Columbus discovered America, he had discovered the true continent of learning, which schools continue to ignore. In his honor, though one day late, I share his perspective on education, collected and published in School Life, 1921

To instruct the young is not to beat into them by repetition a mass of words, phrases, sentences, and opinions gathered out of authors; but it is to open their understanding through things. We must offer to the young, not the shadows of things, but the things themselves, which impress the senses and the imagination. Instruction should commence with a real observation of things and not with a verbal description of them.

From the unalterable nature of the matter itself, drawing off, as from a living source, the constantly flowing runlets and bringing them together again into one concentrated stream, we may lay the foundations of the universal art of founding universal schools.

If universal instruction of youth be brought about by proper means, none will lack the material for thinking, choosing, following, and doing good things. All will know how the actions and endeavors of life should be regulated, within what limits we must progress, and how each man can protect his own position.

Not the children of the rich or powerful only, but all alike, boys and girls, both noble and ignoble, rich and poor, in all cities and towns, villages, and hamlets, should be sent to school.

 Make, fix and create...