Reflection on the child and man can be combined with the observation of the plant. It is embedded in the whole, thriving in the soil and turning towards the sun. The seedling is inwardly awakened to life at the appropriate time. The right time and conditions, water and light are the awakening factors. The seedling produces a sprout which anchors itself downwards, towards the core of the earth. Then the stem follows upwards, into the world and the light. The plant produces leaves and gradually a flower given for pollination to produce a fruit and another good seed. The seed is good when the life of the plant is also good.
There is perhaps no generation in modern history that has not thought about how best to pass on the treasure of knowledge to its children and descendants. Many questions carry over into our modern times, when forms of living have changed so rapidly. Questions that are relevant today, and right now.
How to educate the young generation?
How to combine theory with practice?
Are there any methods to facilitate all this?
What kind of schools – classical or alternative?
Can we expect both women and men to want to pursue the teaching profession?
And children – do they like going to school?
Do they have good memories of their years at school?
Do they leave school with a sense of “knowing”?
A young person spends quite a few years at school. About 13. Sometimes 4-5 years more. From time to time a person of gifted spirit and loving character is born, who inspires a revival in education. The Czech Republic had such a genius, who is known all over the world. His works have been translated into many languages and his work is so vast that even after 400 years still not everything has been translated from Latin into Czech.
Jan Amos (a name meaning strong) Comenius dedicated a large part of his work to children and young people. Timeless ideas are easily separable from the clichés of the time. Indeed, he often writes concretely and not just abstractly and philosophically.
Therefore, let us delve into ideas the power of which is still evident today and the relevance can stimulate us, pleasantly surprise us and often make us wonder whether something should be reconsidered. Ideas that are more a “pattern of being” than contemporary thinking.
Jan Amos sees man as integrated into the whole of life. Yes, we can boldly say – into the totality of the highest possible correspondences – into the divine field of life. He himself says: “The spiritual is first with me, and from this then comes the pedagogical.” His ideas cannot be separated from the constant examination of the small whole – man in relation to the larger wholes. To society, to the earth, to the world, to God. “For education means the knowledge of truth, and if all men acquire the truth, they lose the grounds for all disputes.”[1] Here pan-sophy was to play a central role, as education leading man to a competent idea of the world, of society, and of God. Facilitating education so that the human intellect, reasoning and feeling faculties become “play” was one of the goals. Education should be made more pleasant, easier, faster and with the least effort. We are confronted with the idea of Pampaedia, i.e., universal all-education.
By our birth here we become inhabitants of this world and we are learning from the first second. Unconsciously and consciously. Just as a house with a good foundation will hold well even in the face of upheaval, just as a tree with well-established roots is solid, so also a person who is given a good foundation and a basis in the “school of infancy”, i.e. the Schola infantiae, or Informatorium maternum, is equipped with a “good foundation” for further steps in life.
Education is “formation” (gestalten). An expression that is also used extensively by Rudolf Steiner in his Anthroposophy. Both pansophy and anthroposophy have in their terms a reference to wisdom – sophia. Man and wisdom belong together. We are thus faced with the question: Can man be taught wisdom? Can it develop in him like a bud in a flower? Or does he bring it to himself as his talent?
The Pampaedia man is educated in eight schools:
1. the school of birth
2. the school of early childhood
3. the school of childhood
4. the school of adolescence
5. the school of youth
6. school of adulthood
7. school of old age
8. school of death
In all stages of life, man can receive knowledge, advance further, understand more, gain wisdom and other values. In a time like ours, when we as a human society are confronted with waves of disease, disintegration of forms, wars, hunger and threats that plague all humanity, there is no reason to stop striving. It is often on the rubble that a beautiful and fragrant flower grows.
May this article serve to reflect on what is meaningful in every age, who is man, what is his potential. Support to all those who trust that we can still gain wisdom, walk consciously through life with clarity of effort, and all this will then reflect as a benefit to those who are here as young beings with us.
[1] Komenský, Jan Amos: Informatorium školy mateřské (School of Infancy).
