(CZ) Lidová osvětová práce v počátcích národního obrození
(EN) Popular Adult Educational Work in the Beginnings of the National Revival

Adult people’s education in the beginnings of the Czech National Revival period sup plemented in a significant manner school instruction and education, covering a wider range of society than school itself. The principal instrument of the patriotic intelligentsia In this field was the issuing of publications. The form as well as the contents of these publications were adapted to the needs of the broadest sections of Czech society, especially to those of the rural population. In the period of Joseph II’s reign great attention was given by the Czech national revivalists to popularizing the government reform s and to spreading some ideas of the Age of Enlightenment. Particular attention was given especially to the influence of Joseph’s reform s on the development of the cultural life of the Czech nation. A significant p art of the work connected with adult education was the endeavour to achieve economic progress of the subject peasantry, especially by popularizing new methods of agricultural production. The popular national revivalists gained much mořit In their struggle against medieval obscurantism by their efforts to extend elem entary education of the broadest sections of the population. Popularizing the a c h ie v e m e n ts of natural science in th e ir works, they fought against superstition, professed the principles of the right way of life as well as new principles of ethics. Many of them helped the school in publishing literature for the youth and textbooks. An integral part of adult education in this period was the education of the Czech people having as its aim to awaken their patriotism , love for their mother tongue, for their culture and for the progressive heritage of their' national history. The content of the work connected with adult education was directed against feudalism, particularly against its survival in the minds of the people. It helped to undermine the hold of the Church over m an’s thinking. This work was progressive in character, corresponding to the laws governing the development of Czech society.