6. The elements of geography[1] will begin during the course of the first year, when children commence to distinguish their cradles and the maternal bosom. In the second and third year, the geography will be to know the place where they are nursed, etc., in which they ought to learn when to eat, when to go to rest, or when to go out, where the light is, and where the heat is to be found. In their third year, they will advance in geography when they remember the distinctions and names not only of the nursery, but also of the hall, of the kitchen, of the bed-chamber, of things which are in the house, in the stable, in the orchard, and in and around the home. In the fourth year they may, by going abroad, learn the way through the street or market-place, by going to the suburbs, to their uncle, to their grandmother, their aunt, or their cousin. In the fifth and sixth years, they may fix all such things in the memory, and learn to understand what a city is, what a village, what a field, what a garden, what a forest, what a river, etc.
7. Children ought also to be taught the distinctions of time, namely, that one time is day and another time is night. Likewise what is morning, what is evening, what noonday, what midnight. Then, how often during the day they should eat, sleep, or pray. Then let them, moreover, know that a week consists of seven days, and what days follow each other; that six are common days but the seventh the Lord’s day; that on that day outward labor should be discontinued, the place of worship attended, and divine service engaged in. That solemn festivals occur thrice in a year; the birth of Christ in winter; Easter in spring; and
- ↑ Comenius was the first of the early educators to recognize the importance of geography as a subject of study; and largely through the influence of his writings, Germany has given it important considerations in all her schemes of education. And to-day in no country of the world is geography better taught than in the German schools.
