be asses, blocks, and stones. They have studied for twenty and forty years and have learned neither Latin nor German.”[1]
Schools must therefore be established for boys and girls, and these must be managed, not by the Church, but by the civil powers. As for the subjects taught, “Had I children,” says Luther, “I should make them learn not only languages and history, but also singing, music, and mathematics.” To the poor who objected that they needed the services of their children at home and could not afford to bring them up as gentlemen, he answers: “Let them go to school for one or two hours daily, and spend the rest of their time in learning a trade. These few hours they can easily spare; indeed, as it is, they waste far more time in playing at ball.” If parents refuse to send their children to school they must be made to do so; “I am of opinion that those in authority should compel their subjects to send their children to school.”[2]
Luther did but formulate the charter of national education; its accomplishment he left to other hands, and it must be confessed that the schoolmasters of the Reformation carried out his recommendations in a very half-hearted way. In the then state of Europe, an approximation to the national school could scarcely have been expected, and we accordingly find that the leading reformed schools are of the “Grammar School” type, and intended for the middle class. It is their programme of instruction that is disappointing. A glance at the curriculum proposed by Sturm at Strasburg in 1539 will show that to read and speak Latin still remained the chief objects. It is not until a boy is sixteen and in the highest class that he commences such useful subjects as arithmetic, history, and geography.
While according to Sturm the object of instruction is
- ↑ ‘An die Rathsherren aller Städte deutschen Landes, dasz sie christliche Schulen aufrichten und halten sollen,’ 1524.
- ↑ ‘Ein Sermon oder Predigt, dasz man solle Kinder zur Schule halten’—“Ich halt aber, dasz auch die Obrigkeit hie schuldig sei, die Unterthanen zu zwingen, ihre Kinder zur Schule zu halten.”
