(CZ) Výchova a vzdělání v českých zemích před J. A. Komenským
(EN) Education and instruction in the Czech provinces before J. A. Commenius

The author points out that the research on Comenius mostly deals with the social conditions of his times and the relation of Comenius to the representatives of philosophical and pedagogical thinking in Europe at that time, but little attention has so far been given to the specific development of education and instruction in his own country. This gives rise to the danger of an incorrect, cosmopolitan interpretation of Comenius. Among other circumstances there is especially one fact which contributes to the separation of Comenius from the development of pedagogical problems on Czech' soil: all that had been created here in this field was suppressed to such an extent that even today it is forgotten that with Comenius the development of Czech pedagogy reached its climax, in a way which represented an important climax on a world scale.
Pedagogical development in the Czech lands was not isolated, but it had its own specific features which differentiated it from the common features characterizing education under feudalism. The Hussite movement exercised a decisive influence. Religious differentiation, conditioned in its origin by class-division, was also reflected in different views on education and instruction and in separate schools in the 16th and early 17th century (Catholic, Protestant and those of the Union of Czech Brethren), which served as a means of gaining and consolidating their respective positions of power. For this reason it was a field in which sharp struggles were waged.
The author goes on to mention some concrete data about thfe educational practice in this period.
The developing pedagogical practice gave rise to the development of problems of pedagogical theory. A number of outstanding pedagogues, such as Matouš Kollin, Petr Kodicill, Martin Bacháček, Vavřinec Benedikt Nudožerský and others, as well as a great number of long-forgotten M. A.s and B. A.s, cotributed to the development and transformation of education and instruction enforced by social changes and developments. A promising development was broken off in practice, but in theory it reached a culminating point in the pedagogical work of J. A. Comenius. A deeper knowledge of this process of development will contribute to a better knowledge not only of Comenius but also of laws governing the historical development of education and in the long run will lead to a better understanding of the deep changes in education and instruction which are taking place at the present time.