(CZ) Reformní návrhy Františka Čupra na reorganizaci všech stupňů školských z let 1848—1850
(EN) Reform Proposals by František Čupr for a Reorganization of Schools of All Grades (1848—1850)

František Čupr (1821—1882), author of the reform proposal for a reorganization of the school system, which was published in the 1848—1851 period, was the first Czech educationist who decided to find a theoretical basis for educational practice. He proceeded from Herbartianism, in philosophy too, discussing with Czech philosophers the problem of whether national .philosophy was possible. This discussion resulted in Čupr’s treatise »Grundriiss der empirischen Psychologie«, of 1852. Like other followers of Herbart, Čupr studied, above all, psychology and pedagogy, but also religion and literary aesthetics. The task of philosophy, in his opinion, was to deal with the problems in these fields scientifically so that they would be clear and free from internal contradictions. And the foremost task of Czech pedagogy was, he thought, to provide, in this way, a theoretical basis for overcoming the primitive verbal methods practised in the National Revival period. Unlike other Czech Herbartians whose work was based on the domestic traditions of Czech thinking from Thomas Štítný to J. A. Comenius, Čupr constructed his own system of national philosophy and national education, which he based on Herbart’s realism and empiricism. Thus he wished to pursue a practical moral philosophy resulting in the personal freedom of the individual. He developed these basic general principles for the purpose of education in the three stages of the school system. For the education of the youth at the elementary stage according to the principle of humanist guidance »Regierung«, for the secondary stage in the sphere of educability »Unterricht« and finally for the academic years specifically human and scientific crystallization of character »Zucht« in the so- called philosophically potentialized exact education. This is what he discussed under the theme »Uber die Zielpunkte der Pädagogik«, at the session of the learned society on December 12 th, 1853. Theoretically he tried to remain a consistent Herbartian in order to avoid pedagogical eclecticism, which he could not fully succeed in doing owing to the undeveloped conditions of Czech science prevailing in the then transient period of incipient liberalism. The circumstances conditioned by those times did not allow Čupr to develop more fully his philosophical and pedagogical thinking at the beginning of the relentless struggle for constitutional life in the national provinces of backward-looking Austria. Even though later, after his dismissal from the school service, he vehemently organized a private school in Kolčavka Street at Libeň and in Prague as a combined type of secondary technical and vocational school, he was forced to give up his educational researches and devoted several decades to meditating upon the philosophy of religion; nevertheless it is necessary to appraise his pioneering pedagogical work in positive terms. His professional and scientific effort to apply Herbart’s theory to improving educational practice and raising the level of pedagogical thinking in our country in the period of the Bach reaction places him even before G. A. Lindner.