not appear to have been intimately acquainted with his works.[1]
Far more immediate was the influence of Andreæ, to whose Utopia, Reipublicæ Christiano-Politica Descriptio, and the educational reforms described in it, Comenius’ debt is very great. Andreæ, imbued with the scientific spirit that was awakening throughout Europe, wished to add both mathematics and natural science to the ordinary humanist curriculum, and was undoubtedly a strong factor in the development of Comenius’ “modern side” tendencies.
But it is to John Henry Alsted, his friend and teacher at Herborn, that the debt is greatest. In his Encyclopædia of all the Sciences, published in 1630, Alsted included a very complete treatise on Education, and, though many of the propositions brought forward resemble those of Ratke, it does not appear that they were directly borrowed from him. Indeed, in the list of writers on Education at the beginning of Alsted’s Consilarius Academicus, Ratke’s name does not
- ↑ The great similarity between the method of Ratke and of Comenius is well exemplified by the programme submitted by Ratke to a commission at Jena in 1629. 1. Everything is to be preceded by prayer. 2. Everything according to the method of nature. 3. Not more than one thing at a time. 4. And that frequently. 5. Everything first in the vernacular. 6. From the vernacular into other languages. 7. Everything without compulsion. 8. All subjects should be taught on principles that are similar and harmonious. 9. All effort should be on the side of the teacher. 10. The pupil should maintain a Pythagorean silence, and should not ask questions or talk while the lesson is proceeding. 11. Each language should be taught in accordance with its own genius. 12. The pupil should approach everything with an unbiassed mind. 13. Not more than one teacher in one subject. 14. Form should not precede matter. 15. Education should begin with religion. 16. All the young should be educated. 17. All certainty should be obtained through induction and experiment. 18. Nothing but the subject actually before the class should be discussed. 19. All subjects should be taught in two ways, first superficially, then in detail. 20. The teacher should do nothing but teach. Discipline must be left to the ushers. 21. All the pupils should sit in a row, in view of the teacher. 22. A pupil must miss no school hour. 23. At home a boy should be subjected to the same discipline as at school. 24. In printing school-books the importance of local memory should be borne in mind. 25. Languages should be taught with a view to conversation. 26. Nothing that can give rise to any evil thought is to be placed before the pupil (Geschichte der Pädagogik, Prof. Th. Ziegler, p. 149).
