(CZ) Z pedagogického odkazu J. A. Komenského
(EN) From the Pedagogical Heritage of J. A. Comenius

The present-day Czech socialist school still has things to learn from its progressive traditions, among which the teachings of J. A. Comenius occupy a place which is quite unique by its significance. Humanism, democratism, concern with everyone’s welfare, patriotism and peace among nations, wisdom and morality, the road to true knowledge which draws upon the book of nature and leads to the rectification of impaired harmony, the finding of a correct human relationship of man to man, nature and the world, the efforts to create a kingdom of happiness on the earth, all these are ideas that are still alive and particularly close to the ideas of the socialist school. The author of this article shows in what Comenius’ idea of wisdom differs from the ancient conception of it, Comenius being concerned with wisdom based on pansophical education and, at the same time, wisdom aiming at general welfare. He explains that Comenius’ principle of pansophia is not identical with encyclopaedism aiming at the completeness of knowledge. What Comenius means are the general fundamentals of knowledge covering the substance of natural phenomena and providing a key to further knowledge. In the question of educational aims the author underlines Comenius’ synthetic conception, which leads to the dialectics of the aims of content and the aims of form. Culture, morality and piety express the content of what the reason, the language and the hand are the form of. The synthesis of these two triads represents the core of Comenius’ pedagogical teleology, which up till now has not lost its topicality. He shows the usefulness of comparing the development of Comenius’ views about the method of teaching and learning, which he conceives as a dynamic process and interprets them dialectically from psychological as well as logical positions. Little use has so far been made of Comenius’ views on the content and methods of moral education, though we find here very valuable support for the theory of humanistic education and no less valuable source of inspiration for the theory of education for work and other aims which are still topical for us. As far as the problem of the educational content is concerned, Comenius can still serve us as an example by his courage not to yield to established traditions and to open the school gates energetically to new knowledge. In his last works he conceives education as a life-long affair; in his view the school system is only a part of a larger unit, the educational and self-educational system, in which also the family and other institutions and even man himself as a subject and object of his own self-education have their roles to play. The school, of course, is the core of this system and its mission serves several purposes: it is simultaneously a house of recreation and enlightenment, a rostrum, a workroom, a workshop of virtue, an image of civic life. Such is the ideal even today when it is often still an unattainable aim for our school. In the light of the tasks of educating young people for the building of socialism and communism, their active participation in the social and in the scientific and technological revolution, new significance is attached to Comenius’ pedagogical, pan-sophical and all-reformative efforts, which have a single common denominator: the happiness of man.