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PROGRESSIVE THROWBACK NAZARETH EXHIBIT TO HONOR MODERN-DAY INFLUENCE OF 16TH-CENTURY EDUCATOR COMENIUS

Morning Call - Allentown, Pa. Author: LORNA WEIL

Copyright Morning Call Mar 22, 1992

Lorna Weil is a free-lance writer for The Morning Call.

John Amos Comenius, a Czech philosopher, educator and Moravian bishop, first began expressing his ideas on education more than 300 years ago. He had an erratic early education, lived in exile during troubled times and worked for the freedom of his homeland and preservation of the Unitas Fratrum (Latin for Unity of Brethren), more familiarly known as the Moravian Church.

Central to Comenius' beliefs was that education is a lifelong process; that each age has its proper functions, and that education begins at birth and at home. As he wrote in his book "Pampaedia": "It will be very easy, therefore, to make the whole of life a school."

Comenius, who believed that "Schools should not be places of torture, slaughterhouses of the mind!" is about to be rediscovered. His thoughts, ideas and continuing influence on educational systems around the world will be illustrated in "Father of Modern Education," an exhibit prepared by the Moravian Historical Society and opening to the public on Saturday, the 400th anniversary of Comenius' birth, in Nazareth's Whitefield House.

"It will be a different exhibit from what we have done before," said Susan Dreydoppel, executive director of the society. "It will focus on how Comenius' ideas are in use today; how he is still an influence in the world, even though most people have never heard of him."

Dreydoppel noted that "most of Comenius' ideas on education were not in widespread use all over Europe when he died in 1670. He had done education reforms in Sweden and Hungary, but most of Europe was at war during his lifetime and he died thinking of himself as a failure, and pretty many of his ideas died with him."

The relevancy of his ideas to education will be illustrated through artifacts, a series of present-day photographs and selected quotes from Comenius books.

The exhibit will be divided into four sections:

*Education is a lifelong process from birth to death -- "It will greatly contribute to learning that children have for play wooden or leaden horses, tables, little seats, tankards, pots or pans, cows, sheep, little carriages, mattocks, etc., and not for amusement only, but also for promoting their knowledge of things. For this way is to teach the youth according to their own way, and by presenting these little things before their eyes, they will not be ignorant of the greater things which they represent" -- from "School of Infancy," written in 1631, one of his first works on education.

*Education is for all -- "All young people of both sexes should be sent to public schools." -- from "Great Didactic," published in Amsterdam in 1657; first written in Czech, then translated into Latin.

*Systematic education based on abilities -- "Nothing should be taught to the young, unless it is not only permitted but actually demanded by their age and mental strength" -- from "Great Didactic."

*Enjoyable education -- "The most important spice of pleasantness will be the method of study, entirely practical, entirely pleasureable, and such as to make school a real game, i.e., a pleasant prelude to our whole life." -- from "Pampaedia," a seven- part work on education never published in Comenius' lifetime, but rediscovered at the start of World War II in Halle, Germany.

Accompanying the quotes will be photographs taken by Bethlehem photographer Tim Gilman at pre-school, elementary, middle and high schools, General Educational development (GED) classes, vocational- technical schools, Northampton Community College, Moravian College, the Weller Center for Health Education in Easton and the Baum School of Art, Allentown.

The exhibit was financed by grants from the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, a statewide organization funded partially by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and from the United Brethren's (Moravian) Congregation on Staten Island.

It will include a bust of Comenius, presented to the society in 1965 by the University of Prague. It was made for Comenius College at Charles University in Prague and later displayed on premises of the Czechoslovakia Ministry of Education.

"Comenius was really rediscovered by American educators in the early 20th century," according to Dr. John McDermott, vice president for planning and enrollment and professor of education at Moravian College.

McDermott explained that "people like John Dewey and others who were leaders of the progressive education movement recognized that many of Comenius' ideas on student-centered learning anticipated the ideas of the progressive educators. The progressive education movement was really in its heyday between 1915 and 1950.

"Since the progressive movement, many of the ideas that Comenius anticipated have become an institutional part of elementary education in the United States. Before that, much was done by rote memory. It was very text oriented, as opposed to experience oriented. It was a very teacher-centered approach, as opposed to an approach that encouraged active learning by the students themselves."

"And certainly," McDermott pointed out, "Comenius' ideas about the importance of the family as an educational force are very current in our concern about the integrity of the family as an educational unit."

The exhibit will feature a sampling of some of the 154 books that Comenius wrote, including the first textbook for children, "Orbis Pictus" (The World in Picture), which was published in 1657 in Europe and translated into English in 1658.

Another children's book, "A World of Things Obvious to the Senses Drawn in Pictures," also is among the older works in the exhibit. It was translated into English in 1705 and its illustrations include numbered objects which are described in the text written in English and Latin. Subject material includes the human body, nature, wildlife, occupations and death.

Also on display will be "The Janus Vestibulum," a Latin grammar published in 1686; "Diogenes Cyncus," 1662; an encyclopedia, also in Latin, 1657; "Natural Philosophie Reformed by Divine Light," a synopsis of physics, 1651; "Ecclesiastica Discipline," 1660, and "The Vestibulum," published in Amsterdam in 1673.

The photographic section of the exhibit will be on exhibit at the Fine Arts Center of Salem College in Winston-Salem, N.C., Oct. 24- Nov. 21.

A traveling exhibit will be produced for showing in Moravian churches, schools and institutions across the United States and Canada later this month. An abbreviated version will also be going to Chelsea House, a museum next door to offices of the Moravian Church of Great Britain and Ireland. Support from the Moravian Board of Christian Education, Southern Province, and the Department of Educational Ministries, Northern Province, is making the travel exhibit possible.

"Father of Modern Education" opens at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Whitefield House, 214 E. Center St., Nazareth, and will be shown 1-4 p.m. weekdays through Oct. 11 and 1-4 p.m. Sundays during March, April and May. For information, call 759-5070 during business hours weekdays and 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

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