The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-08-19
Paper Read by H. S. Townsend
at Summer School.
OF TEACHERS METHOD
His Systems Compare With Ours of
Today-Honors rendered the Great
Moravian school Reformer - No
Teacher Should Fail TO Read his Life

| The following interesting paper on
the life of Comenius, the great Mora
Wan teacher, was read by Inspector
| General Townsend at the opening OF
the Summer School in Honolulu, Aug.
9TH
John Amos Comenius was born in
Moravia in the year 1892, one hundred
| years after the discovery of America
| by Columb mbus. His parents belonged to
the religious sect known as the Mo-
ravian Brethren. This sect was made
up of the followers of John Huss, the
Bohemian refOrmer, who was burned
at the stake rather than recant his doc
CrineS without proof of their falSity, in
1415, one hundred years before the be-
ginning of the Reformation under
Luther At first they were naturally
known as the Bohemian Brethren, but
missionary zeal combined with perse-
cutiOns at home, soon transferred the
center of this religious body across the
mountains into Moravia; and thus it
came about that they are known in
history as the Moravian Brethren. F'a-
miliar with persecution, they learned
10 value Iu0lT T0lISlOuS ldIJL u1OI0 HISu-
lily than their lives. It was from such
stock that Comenius sprang; and it was
III this religious atmosphere that he
was brought up.
Of his early life and education we
know little. He has told us that his
parents died in his childhood, and that
his education was neglected till he was
sixteen years of age; that he thereupon
set about making up the lost time in
good earnest, and that he became dis
satisfied with the education of his time
and began to consider ways and means
for its improvement.
Let us turn aside from our story for
moment that we may get view of
this education which the young Come
MUS wished to improve.
The prevailing education of the sew
enteenth century was Of a well defined
type. That type was determined by the
spirit of the Renascence and the per-
sonalities of two great men, John
Sturm and Ignatius Loyola
Sturm was man of great force of
character. Filled with the spirit of the
Renascence, he worked with great zeal
and after a very definite plan to de-
velOp-not beauty of thought, not
thought at all, not practical or the
oretical wisdom, but the beauty of ex-
preston. He was Protestant and for
forty years rector of the gymnasium
at Strassburg. Here children began the
study of words and phrases, and in the
Latin language at that, the first year of
their school life; and for fourteen
years, according to the Strassburg
scheme, Latin words and phrases were
the staple of instruction. No mathe-
matics, no natural science, no modern
languages, no history, no training in
the mother tongue even was considered
necessary to liberal education accord
ing to Sturm's ideal.
Loyola impelled by different motives,
established a similar course of study
for the schools of the Jesuits; and thus
Latin words and phrases, the Latin Ian
guage, but not Latin literature, became
the matter of chief concern in the
schools, Protestant and Catholic alike.
To speak Latin as Cicero spoke it, and
Greek as Demosthenes; to write poems
like Pindar or Horace-this was the
goal toward which all pupils were en-
couraged to run.
Now Comenius. while yet a school
boy, saw what it seems strange his ell
ders had not seen before him, viz, that
this course was narrow, and that Ian
guages ought to be learned in less time
While he was a student in Germany
he happened to see a report prepared
for the University of Jena, on Ratichs
method. This seems to have confirmed
him in the opinion that great improve
ments in the popular system of educa-
tion were not only desirable but attain
able. Accordingly, at the age of twenty
four. we find him publishing short