JOHANN AMOS COMENIUS

(1592 - 1670)

Father of Education

Educational Works

In the Labyrinthe of the World

A Man of Desire


Johann Amos Comenius was born probably in the village of Nivnice in southeastern Moravia. Soon he became an orphan and was brought up by his relatives. He was a member of Czech Unitas Fratrum (its members were non-Catholic and lived in firm religious faith). After his studies in Germany he worked at Czech fraternal school in the town of Fulnek.

Comenius's life, which was influenced by many personal and national tragedies, was possessed by Thirty Years' War. After the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, when Catholicism was allowed as the only religion, Johann being a non-Catholic had to find shelter with his Czech fraternal aristocratic protectors. In 1628, after the promulgation of severe acts against non-Catholics he was forced to leave Bohemia and he never returned back.

After his departure he took refuge in the Polish town of Leszno and in the following years he sojourned alternately in England, Sweden, eastern Prussia, Hungary and the Netherlands. During his life the reputable Czech theologian, ecclesiastic, educationist and philosopher also received an invitation to Harvard University. In 1656, when Catholic army irrupted into Leszno, Comenius had to flee and during the fights all his belongings were destroyed.

Comenius spent the rest of his life in Holland where he published many of his educational works. In the last years of his life he succumbed to apocalyptic predictions of religious prophets and senile indiscriminateness and irrationality appeared, too. Johann Amos Comenius died on November 15, 1670 and is buried in the townlet of Naarden near Amsterdam.

What Has Survived?

There has been left more than we think. The idea of education for girls, the idea of global learning, which has been modern hitherto, regarding especially languages, primacy in demanding lifelong education. The eternal principle of ecumenism - the tenet of tolerance of various ideas and people of various opinions.

The Moravian Johann Amos Comenius became not only the apostle of modern pedagogy; he also personalized one of the first designers of the big experiment implemented at present, for example under the auspices of the integrating European Community. Comenius was not only "the teacher of teachers" but also and maybe chiefly an architect of a globally tolerant, peace-loving and thus delightful future world of people.



Litterature:
B.Balajka: Přehled dějin literatury I, 1997
P.Hora-Hořejš: Toulky českou minulostí IV, 1995