CHAPTER VII

EARLIEST EDUCATION OF THE CHILD

_School of infancy_—Circumstances under which written—View of childhood—Conception of infant education. Physical training—Care of the body—The child’s natural nurse—Foods—Sleep—Play and exercise. Mental training—Studies which furnish the materials of thought, and studies which furnish the symbols of thought—Nature study—Geography—History—Household economy—Stories and fables—Principle of activity—Drawing—Arithmetic—Geometry—Music—Language—Poetry. Moral and religious training—Examples—Instruction—Discipline—Some virtues to be taught—Character of formal religious instruction.

_The School of Infancy_

Plato, Quintilian, Plutarch, and other writers on education have discussed the earliest training of the child, but none of these early writers have comprehended the significance of infancy with any such pedagogic insight as Comenius; and his _School of infancy_ has taken a permanent place among the classics which deal with the period of childhood. It was written during the years 1628 to 1630, when he was in charge of the Moravian school at Lissa. A German edition (it was originally written in the Sclavic tongue) appeared at Lissa in 1633, a second edition at Leipzig in 1634, and a third German edition at Nuremberg in 1636. Subsequently Polish, Bohemian, and Latin translations appeared; and Joseph Müller,[32] a most painstaking Comenius bibliographer, mentions an English translation in 1641. I have found no other reference to an English translation so early. As already noted, however, Comenius was well and favorably known to Milton, Hartlib, and others high in educational authority in England; and the fact that most of his other writings were translated there gives credence to Mr. Müller’s statement. In the year 1858, Mr. Daniel Benham[33] published in London an English translation, to which he prefixed a well-written account of the life of Comenius. But his translation was soon out of print; and this excellent treatise in consequence remained inaccessible to English readers until the appearance of my own translation. (Boston, 1896. Republished in London, 1897.)

The _School of infancy_ was written as a guide for mothers during the first six years of the child’s life, and was dedicated to “pious Christian parents, guardians, teachers, and all upon whom the charge of children is incumbent.” Since the education of the child must begin at its birth, mothers must assume the teacher’s rôle; and the mothers of the seventeenth century, according to Comenius, were altogether unfitted because of lack of training to undertake this high and holy mission. Accordingly, the _School of infancy_ outlines definite instructions for mothers.

Comenius was too deeply grounded in the religious dogmas of his day to abandon altogether the doctrine of original sin, then so generally held; but he maintained that suitable early training would overcome most of the original perversity in the human heart. No one, he urges, should be a mother or a teacher who does not hold unbounded faith in the possibilities of childhood. The child is not to be regarded with reference to its youthful disabilities, but rather with a view to the purposes of the Divine mind, as Fröbel would say, regard the child as a pledge of the presence, goodness, and love of God. What higher tribute to childhood than this: “The mother that has under her care the training of a little child possesses a garden in which celestial plantlets are sown, watered, bloom, and flourish. How inexpressibly blessed is a mother in such a paradise!” With Quintilian he asks: “Has a son been born to you? From the first, conceive only the highest hopes for him.”

The purpose in the education of the child is threefold: (1) faith and piety, (2) uprightness in respect to morals, and (3) knowledge of languages and arts; and this order must not be inverted. Parents, therefore, do not fully perform their duty when they merely teach their offspring to eat, drink, walk, and talk. These things are merely subservient to the body, which is not the man, but his tabernacle only; the rational soul dwells within, and rightly claims greater care than its outward tenement.

In the education of the child, care especially for the soul, which is the highest part of its nature; and next, attend to the body, that it may be made a fit and worthy habitation for the soul. Aim to train the child to a clear and true knowledge of God and all his wonderful works, and a knowledge of himself, so that he may wisely and prudently regulate his actions.

It must be borne in mind, however, that to properly train children requires clear insight and assiduous labor. It is to be regretted that so many parents are too incompetent to instruct their children and that others, by reason of the performance of family and social duties, are unable to discharge this high and holy mission. All such, of course, must hand their children over to some one else to instruct. But they should intrust their little ones to the care and training of such instructors only who will make the act of learning pleasing and agreeable—a mere amusement and mental delight.

Schools should be retreats of ease, places of literary amusement, and not houses of torture. A musician does not dash his instrument against the wall, or give it blows and cuffs because he cannot draw music from it, but continues to apply his skill until he is able to extract a melody. So by your skill you should bring the mind of the young child into harmony with his studies.

The first step in the education of the child is the most important. Every one knows that whatever form the branches of an old tree may have, that they must necessarily have been so formed from the first growth. The animal born blind, lame, defective, or deformed remains so. The training of the child’s body, mind, and soul should, therefore, be a matter of earnest thought from the very first.

While it is possible for God to completely transform an inveterately bad man, yet, in the regular course of nature, it scarcely ever happens otherwise than that as a being is formed during the early stages of development, so it matures, and so it remains. Whatever seed is sown in youth, such fruit is reaped in old age.

Nor is it wise to delay such training until the child is old enough to be instructed in a school, since tendencies are acquired which are difficult to overcome. It is impossible to make a tree straight that has grown crooked, or to produce an orchard from a forest everywhere surrounded with briers and thorns. This makes it necessary for parents to know something about the management of children, that they may be able to lay the foundations upon which the teachers are to build when the child enters school at the age of six years.

Great care must be exercised with reference to the methods adopted with children so young. The instruction need not be apportioned to the same degree that it is apportioned in schools, since at this early age all children are not endowed with equal ability, some beginning to speak in the first year, some in the second, and some not until the third year.

_Physical Training_

The first care of the mother must be for the health of her child, since bodily vigor so largely conditions normal mental development. “A certain author,” says Comenius, “advises that parents ought ‘to pray for a sound mind in a sound body,’ but they ought to labor as well as pray.” Since the early care of the child devolves largely on the mother, Comenius counsels women with reference to the hygiene of childhood. Prenatal conditions are no less important than postnatal; and prospective mothers should observe temperance in diet, avoid violent movements, control the emotions, and indulge in no excessive sleep or indolence.

For good and sufficient reasons the mother should nurse her own child. “How grievous, how hurtful, how reprehensible,” he exclaims, “is the conduct of some mothers, especially among the upper classes, who, feeling it irksome to nourish their own offspring, delegate the duty to other women.” This cruel alienation of mothers from their children, he maintains, is the greatest obstacle to the early training of the child. Such conduct is clearly opposed to nature: the wolf and bear, the lion and panther, nourish their offspring with their own milk; and shall the mothers of the human race be less affectionate than the wild beasts? Moreover, it contributes to the health of the child to be nourished by its natural mother.

Comenius has some sound advice for mothers on the kinds of food for young children. At the first it must as nearly as possible approximate to their natural aliment; it must be soft, sweet, and easily digestible. Milk is an excellent food; and after milk, bread, butter, and vegetables. All highly seasoned foods are to be avoided; and Comenius urges mothers to regard medicines as they would poisons, and avoid them altogether. Children accustomed to medicine from their earliest years are certain to become “feeble, sickly, infirm, pale-faced, imbecile, cancerous.”

Children during the earliest years require an abundance of sleep, fresh air, and exercise. They need not only to be exercised, but their exercises should be in the nature of amusements. “A joyful mind,” he remarks, “is half health, and the joy of the heart is the very life-spring of the child.” These exercises for the amusement of the child may provide for the pleasure of its eyes, ears, and other senses, as well as contribute to the vigor of its body and mind. Play not only conduces to the health of the child, but it lays the basis for later development.[34]

_Mental Training_

For the mental training of the child during its first six years Comenius has outlined two classes of studies: (1) those which furnish the materials of thought, such as nature study, geography, and household economy, and (2) those which furnish the symbols of thought, such as drawing, writing, and language. This grouping of form and content studies, it should be noted, has been followed by the disciples of Herbart in their schemes of classification.

The first and second years of the child’s life must be entirely given over to the development of organic functions; but, by the beginning of the third year, the child has acquired a vocabulary, and he should be taught to comprehend the meaning of the words he uses. This early knowledge should be of natural things—plants, flowers, trees, sand, clay, the cow, horse, and dog. He may be taught to comprehend some of the more important observable characters of these objects and to know their uses.

Special exercises should be provided for the training of the eye; excessive lights must be avoided, and also overstraining. Children may be moderately introduced to objects of color, and thus taught to enjoy the beauty of the heavens, trees, flowers, and running water. In the fourth and following years they should be taken into fields and along the rivers, and trained to observe plants, animals, running water, and the turning of windmills. In both nature study and geography Comenius anticipated the _Heimatskunde_ of Pestalozzi.

Children should also during their first six years be taught to know the heavens, and to distinguish between sun, moon, and stars; to understand that the sun and moon rise and set; to recognize that the days are shortest in winter and longest in summer; to distinguish time—morning, noonday, evening, and when to eat, sleep, and pray.

The study of geography should be begun at the cradle, and the location, distance, and direction of the nursery, kitchen, bed-chamber, and orchard should early be learned. They should have out-door lessons in geography, and be taught to find their way through the streets, to the market-place, and to the homes of their friends and relatives. In the fifth year they should study a city, field, orchard, forest, hill, and river, and fix what they learn about these things in the memory.

The early historic instruction should begin with a development of the sense of time—the working days and the Sabbath days, when to attend and engage in divine services, the occurrence of such solemn festivals as Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, and the significance of these holy occasions. The child may also be trained to recall where he was and what he did yesterday, the day before, a week ago.

Household economy should receive important instruction during the first six years of the child’s life. He must be trained to know the relation which he is to sustain to his father and mother, and to obey each; where to place and how to care for his clothes; the use of toys and playthings; the economy of the home, and his place in that economy.

Comenius also commends stories and fables, particularly those about animals which contain some moral principle. “Stories,” says Comenius, “greatly sharpen the innate capacity of children.” Ingeniously constructed stories serve a twofold purpose in the early development of the child: they occupy their minds, and they instil knowledge which will afterward be of use.

The greatest service which parents can render their children during these early years is to encourage play. This must not be left to chance, but must be provided for; and children need, most of all, to play with other children near their own age. In such social plays with their companions there is neither the assumption of authority nor the dread of fear, but the free intercourse which calls forth all their powers of invention, sharpens their wits, and cultivates their manners and habits.

In his discussion of the form studies, such as drawing, writing, and language, Comenius remarks that nothing delights children more than to be doing something. Youthful vigor will not long permit them to be at rest; and this spontaneous activity requires wise regulation, in order that children may acquire the habit of doing things that they will be required to do later.[35] This is the time when children are most imaginative and imitative; they delight in doing the things that they have seen done by their elders. All these imitative exercises give health to their bodies, agility to their movements, and vigor to their muscles.

At this period children delight in construction; supply them with material with which they may exercise whatever architectural genius they may have—clay, wood, blocks, and stones, with which to construct houses, walls, etc. They should also have toy carriages, houses, mills, plows, swords, and knives. Children delight in activity, and parents should realize that restraint is alike harmful to the development of the mind and the body.

After children have been taught to walk, run, jump, roll hoop, throw balls, and to construct with blocks and clay, supply them with chalk or charcoal, and allow them to draw according as their inclination may be excited. In arithmetic Comenius recognizes the difficulty in leading children to see quantitative relations. By the fourth year, however, he thinks that they may be taught to count to ten and to note resemblances and differences in quantity. To proceed further than this would be unprofitable, nay, hurtful, he says, since nothing is so difficult to fix in the mind of the young child as numbers. Comenius, it would seem, valued the study of arithmetic much less highly than modern educators. He thought that some geometry might be taught during these early years; children may easily be trained to perceive the common geometric forms; and the measurements and comparisons involved in the perception of such forms train the understanding of the child.

Music is instinctive and natural to the child. Complaints and wailings are his first lessons in music. It is impossible to restrain such complaints and wails; and even if it were possible, it would not be expedient, since all such vocalizations exercise the muscles involved in the production of speech, develop the chest, and contribute to the child’s general health. Children should hear music in their earliest infancy, that their ears and minds may be soothed by concord and harmony. He even countenances the banging and rattling noises which children are fond of making, on the ground that such noises represent legitimate steps in the development of the child’s musical sense. Give them horns, whistles, drums, and rattles, and allow them to acquire perceptions of rhythm and melody.

In the matter of instruction in language, Comenius had one fundamental principle—that ideas of things must accompany or precede the words which symbolized the things. In consequence, word training, as such, had no place in his schemes of education. When children begin to talk, great care must be exercised that they articulate distinctly and correctly. The start must always be in the mother-tongue. Comenius, it will be recalled, was at variance with his contemporaries in deferring instruction in Latin until the child was twelve years old. During these early years he believes that poetry—and especially jingles and nursery rhymes—may be used with great profit in aiding children to acquire language. They may not always understand the rhymes, but they are certain to be pleased much more by the rhythm of verse than by prose.

_Moral and Religious Training_

However much Comenius may have valued mental and physical training, the fundamental aim and end of all education he regarded as moral and religious. The agencies which he would have employed in the early moral training of the child are (1) a perpetual example of virtuous conduct; (2) properly timed and prudent instruction and exercise; and (3) well-regulated discipline. Children are exceptionally imitative, in consequence of which there should be great circumspection in the home in matters of temperance, cleanliness, neatness, truthfulness, complaisance, and respect for superiors. While lengthened discourses and admonitions are not expedient, prudent instruction may often accompany examples with profit.

As to discipline, Comenius thinks that occasionally there is need of chastisement in order that children may attend to examples of virtue and admonition. When other means of discipline have been ineffectual, the rod may be used, but only for offences against morals—never for stupidity. Comenius gives the impression that children may be whipped into being good. The influence of the ill-timed advice of Solomon is clearly apparent here.

Temperance and frugality, he thinks, claim the first place in the moral training of the child, inasmuch as they are the foundations of health and life, and the mother of all the virtues. Neatness and cleanliness should be exacted from the first; so should respect of superiors and elders. Bold and forward children are not generally loved. Obedience, like the plant, does not spring up spontaneously, but requires years of patient care and training to develop into a thing of beauty. Truthfulness likewise is no less important; so also justice, respect for the rights of others, benevolence, patience, and civility.

And most important of the virtues to be acquired by the young child is industry. Nothing hinders moral growth more than indolence. Comenius agrees with the church fathers that Satan’s best allies are the idle. Children must not be idle. Teach them to play, to make things, to do things, to be helpful to themselves and useful to others.

Comenius exaggerated the importance of religious training during the child’s earliest years. While recognizing that reasoning was necessary for the best results in religious instruction, he nevertheless overburdens the memory with formal religious instructions. Before the child is six years old he is to be taught the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, the Confession of Faith, the Ten Commandments, and numerous hymns.

In spite of his unreasonable demands on the memory, most of Comenius’ counsels to mothers on the religious instruction of their little ones are sane and helpful. The spirit of the parents, he rightly suggests, is all important in religious instruction; outward piety is not enough. The religious nature unfolds slowly, and unusual patience and foresight are required in its nurture and development.

All this training—physical, mental, moral, and religious—has been preliminary to the formal training in the school, which is to begin in the sixth or seventh year of the child’s life. The transition step from the home to the school is now to be made; for just “as little plants after they have grown up from their seed are transplanted into orchards, for their more successful growth, so it is expedient that children, cherished and nurtured in the home, having acquired strength of mind and body, should be delivered to the care of teachers.”