The Theory of Basic Subject-Matter as Understood by O. Chlup

Four unpublished papers on basic subject- matter by Academician Otokar Chlup are a significant document of his all-round preparation for developing the theory of didactic art, especially at the elementary stage. In the first paper, The Introduction to the Theory of Teaching, he pays attention to the sources of pedagogical knowledge. He calls for the integration of all the components of education so that they will guarantee such a transformation of the school as to make it serve the aims of Communist education derived from the philosophy of Marxism-Leninism. In the second paper he further develops the questions concerning the laws governing Communist education in practice, specifically with regard to the basic subject- matter. The paper entitled On Cultivating Pedagogical Theory is essentially a critical analysis of the situation caused by the excessive number of teaching periods in mathematics and partly also in languages, which results in the overburdening of pupils. The fourth paper, On the Process of Teaching and Moral Education, emphasizes the inner unity of the general and moral education. The basic subject-matter as understood by Chlup is the optimal maximum of the teacher’s creative work. It is supposed to be simultaneously an objective criterion of his educational results. Chlup recognizes the norm of the curriculum and the syllabi as binding and within their framework he expects the teacher to harmonize the logical and dialectical aspects of the teaching process. The theory of the basic subject-matter, which Chlup arrived at after his lifelong pedagogical work, should be further developed by his followers.