the people’s school shall be that all children of both sexes, from the
tenth to the twelfth or the thirteenth year, may be instructed in that
knowledge which is useful during the whole of life.”
This was an admirable definition of the purpose of the primary
school. A thing not less remarkable is that Comenius establishes an
elementary school in each village:—
“There should be a maternal school in each family; an elementary
school in each district; a gymnasium in each city; an academy in
each kingdom, or even in each considerable province.”
140. ElÉmÉntary Initiation into All thÉ StudiÉs .—One of the most
novel and most original ideas of the great Slavic educator is the wish
that, from the earliest years of his life, the child may acquire some
elementary notions of all the sciences that he is to study at a later
period. From the cradle, the gaze of the infant, guided by the
mother, should be directed to all the objects that surround him, so
that his growing powers of reflection will be brought into play in
working on these sense intuitions. “Thus, from the moment he
begins to speak, the child comes to know himself, and, by his daily
experience, certain general and abstract expressions; he comes to
comprehend the meaning of the words something, nothing, thus,
otherwise, where, similar, different; and what are generalizations
and the categories expressed by these words but the rudiments of
metaphysics? In the domain of physics, the infant can learn to know
water, earth, air, fire, rain, snow, etc., as well as the names and uses
of the parts of his body, or at least of the external members and
organs. He will take his first lesson in optics in learning to distinguish
light, darkness, and the different colors; and in astronomy, in
noticing the sun, the moon, and the stars, and in observing that
these heavenly bodies rise and set every day. In geography,
according to the place where he lives, he will be shown a mountain,
a valley, a plain, a river, a village, a hamlet, a city, etc. In chronology,
he will be taught what an hour is, a day, a week, a year, summer,
winter, yesterday, the day before yesterday, to-morrow, the day after
to-morrow, etc. History, such as his age will allow him to conceive,