Comenius (1592-1670)

John Amos Comenius was a Czech educator who promoted ‘universal education’ to solve the problem of human and religious conflict. After the Lutherian Reformation, the idea of education for all took root. As a member of the Unity of Brethren, a group of Protestant reformers, he was educated within this system, as well as receiving a Calvinist education in Herborn and Heidelberg. Living in turbulent times, in 1618 there was the defenestration of Prague and the start of the 30 Years War. Comenius had to keep on the move, gathering an international reputation. He was a bridge between the Reformation and Enlightenment with the reforming zeal of the post-print Reformation combined with the universal values of the Enlightenment. In addition he was a proponent of the Scientific Revolution, represented by the dedication of his book The Way of Light (1642), written in England and dedicated to The Royal Society, positing a universal college and network of schools working towards universal knowledge.

Pansophism

His Reformation spirit led him to imagine a ‘pansophism’, a universal wisdom, which teaches a unified knowledge, through a unified system of education. It is what we would call a universal curriculum, covering a wide range of knowledge, which is used to understand God’s world. Switching away from the classics, an obsession with grammar and rote learning to content that was sensitive to the motivation and interests of the learner, he saw print as the medium through which this could be achieved, providing universal access to universal content and learning. His universal and encyclopedic approach to pedagogy encouraged parents and teachers to constantly observe and explain the world to children but also to continue to learn themselves, an early proponent in lifelong learning.

An important dimension of his pansophism was his desire to see universal access to learning, a truly universal, borderless education for the whole human race; rich, poor, male, female, rural, urban and importantly, the disabled – literally everyone.

Textbooks

The Door of Tongues Unlocked (1631) or Janua Linguarum Reserata was the first, of a series of other teaching or textbook books. These textbooks were revolutionary as short encyclopedias for children, an alternative to the traditional learning of Latin through grammar, rote learning and memorisation. It was one of the first ‘textbooks’ to teach language through a knowledge of the world and became a bestseller, an international publishing sensation. The idea was to lift education out of the divisive texts in religion, into a more universal orbit by publishing textbooks sensitive to the needs of learners.

His Orbis Pictus (1658) was the first textbook to use pictures to illustrate the content, connecting words to things. First published in German and Latin, it was subsequently published in many languages. He explains its pedagogic approach in the Preface and its 150 chapters start with the phonetics of language (surprisingly modern) to aid reading, then inanimate objects, botany, zoology, religion, humans and human activity. He recognised that pictures mattered, in this case woodcuts, meaningful and illustrative images, to keep the attention of the child. The images contain many objects and concepts, each numbered and related to the writer’s text. It had two or more columns, in the vernacular language(s) and Latin, and its pedagogic force came through the presentation of ideas in a new language, using objects, starting with familiar objects, gradually increasing in complexity, providing real world knowledge in a way that was motivating for all. It is a truly remarkable and forward-looking textbook.

These textbooks were designed for both teaching, by parents and teachers, as well as independent study. They were highly structured, with related images and text, and have been seen as precursors for later learning technologies in their design, pedagogy and aims.

Influence

Comedius had constructed a whole theory of education, published in Didactica Magna (1633-38) along with content, that appealed to the way in which people naturally learn. In that sense he was the precursor to Rousseau and Pestalozzi. But his influence was also as a practical teacher organising schools in several countries, even imagining the structure of modern day schooling from kindergarten to University. Rediscovered in the 19th C as an important figure in the history of education and pedagogy, many of his papers were only discovered well after his death and in the 1960s research into these documents enlarged his reputation.

Age of reform and print

The late 15th and 6th centuries saw the Reformation, entwined with a print revolution, that broke free of the chains of the Catholic Church and the severe restrictions of Latin, to create a flood of printed texts in the languages people spoke and a wider interest in learning and education for all. Writing also exploded, allowing print, a learning technology, to set free a scientific, political and intellectual revolution along with universal schooling and, importantly, textbooks. Although it is a mistake to see this as a secular break, as even the reformers saw the understanding of scripture as the aim of schooling. We see a sense of scaling in learning materials, never seen before. From the elite scarcity of scribal clay tablets and papyrus to hand-written scrolls and manuscripts, a new learning technology – print – was to provide a more generative cultural explosion.

Bibliography

Comenius, Johann Amos. 1673. The Gate of Languages Unlocked, or, A Seed-Plot of All Arts and Tongues: Containing a Ready Way to Learn the Latine and English Tongue. London: Printed by T.R. and N.T. for the Company of Stationers.

Comenius, Johann Amos. 1967. The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius: Now for the First Time, tr. and ed. Maurice W. Keatinge. New York: Russell and Russell.

Comenius, Johann Amos. 1968. The Oribs Pictus of John Amos Comenius. Detroit, MI: Singing Tree.

Small, Mary Luins. 1990. "The Pansophism of John Amos Comenius (1592–1670) as the Foundation of Educational Technology and the Source of Constructive Standards for the Evaluation of Computerized Instruction and Tests." International Conference on Technology and Education, March 1990. ERIC. ED325079, microfiche, 1–11.

Erasmus (1466 – 1536)

Desiderius Erasmus was a truly European figure, having worked in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France and England. He is a pan-European figure, the ‘prince of Humanism’ who marks the end of slavish scholasticism and played a role in the Reformation that got his entire corpus prohibited by the Catholic Church. He also marks a change in attitudes towards learning, where the word ‘humanistic’ is entirely appropriate. Like St Augustine, His unpleasant experiences at various schools ‘torture chambers’ led him to reflect deeply on their failures and he wrote extensively throughout his life, not only on what should be taught but how it should be taught, with particular sensitivity towards the learner.

Humanist teacher

Many of his most famous works have the sensitivity of the humanist teacher. His Adagia (1500), 800 proverbs in Latin, were typical of the moral teaching of the day, taking ancient wisdom and reforming them for modern times. In Praise of Folly (1511), written in England, provocatively, under the cloak of satire, attacked the abuses of the organised religion, the Catholic Church, monasticism and many other secular conceits. 

Works on education

Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style (1512), written while at the University of Cambridge, is a textbook on rhetoric or style, teaching technique for both the spoken and written word. This combination of pedagogy, an emphasis on rhetoric and style is typical of his education writings.

In The Right Method of Instruction (1511) Greek and Latin are seen as an indispensable foundation for education, yet not through hemmering home rules of grammar but by reading and practice. It is Greek literature that he holds as offering the most in terms of content. Note taking is essential, so have a notebook at hand and write, in your own words, in a manner that is concise and easy to learn and recall, so he disapproves of the practice of taking down a lecture just as it is delivered. 

Memory has three aspects: full understanding of the subject, logical ordering of the contents and repetition to ourselves. You must test your memory vigorously (hundreds of years before Ebbinghaus), and minutely. He also recommends learning aids such as charts, tables and diagrams. Finally, try to teach what you know. This puts your own knowledge to the test. On teaching, he refers back to his Adagia for topics to speak or write upon. There is the move up from the basics through argumentative essays to original composition.

On Education for Children (1529) is his testament to the power of education. He goes to great lengths to encourage early education. One must draw out (e-ducare) good traits and behaviours while discouraging the bad. You become what you read so he strenuously recommends ancient texts, as opposed to argumentative scholastic sophistry, chivalric literature or the myths of King Arthur. He implores parents to educate their children. For the parent and teacher he is dismissive of rote-learning, emphasises the importance of play and the avoidance of punishment.

There is even a work on child behaviour, On Civility in Children (1530),  a treatise addressed to a boy on how to deport oneself, avoiding the faults of others. In The Education of a Christian Prince (1532) he puts an emphasis on seeing learners as individuals. A good teacher is gentle and avoids corporal punishment. 

Critique

While a man who challenged the norms of his age he was also very much a man of his age, with an intense zeal for Greek, Latin and ancient writings. To be fair he wanted the Bible to be available in all languages as he saw the message of Christ as universally enlightening. This laying down of Green and especially Latin has also, arguably, had a lasting influence that has lasted past its relevance and usefulness.

Influence

As a towering intellectual his influence on European culture has been huge, marking as he did a profound shift towards humanism. This was the time of the Reformation and he also played a role in this movement, albeit as an observer, as although he agreed with Luther, he disagreed with his methods. He was a scholar not a politician or reformer. His name lives on in the EU Erasmus programme, a scheme for the mobility of students and international study. 

Bibliography

Erasmus, D., Roterodamus, E. and Barker, W.W., 2001. The adages of Erasmus. University of Toronto Press.

Erasmus, D., 2019. Collected works of Erasmus. University of Toronto Press.

Calvin (1509-1564)

Calvin, with Luther, was a hugely influential Protestant reformer who attacked the Catholic Church and worked towards a return to a more basic form of Christianity, based on a personal relationship between God the creator, scripture and his subjects. It is also important to remember that his intellectual lineage is from St Augustine, so predestination (the doctrine that God has eternally chosen those whom he intends to save), original sin (rom Augustine) and eternal damnation figured large in his theological beliefs. We are imperfect sinners, born flawed and personal education is the path to salvation, work and redemption. In education, this reformed approach, with a new emphasis on the individual, and the Bible as a text, gave new impetus to self-improvement and universal schooling, made possible by the massive rise of cheap, printed books.

School as secular salvation

Influenced by humanists like Erasmus, we must know only God and ourselves through scripture. Idolatry and ritual were to be shunned. We are fallen creatures, with the burden of original sin and have to find redemption through Christ. Calvin was very much an internationalist and this fight against sin was to shape schooling and education in Northern Europe and North America for centuries, with its deficit model, matched by righteous schoolmasters who had to drill, beat and moralise learners into improvement. Discipline, attention and punctuality were to become the virtues of the schoolroom. Illich thought that Calvinism had literally shaped schooling as we know it, with school as the new form of secular salvation.

Universal education

His second influence is on his emphasis on universal education from an early age. Education was part of the Protestant mission and compulsory, disciplined schooling was to be encouraged for all and so he encouraged the building of schools and free schooling for all, especially the poor. In countries like Scotland, where his acolyte John Knox pushed for a school in every Parish, literacy levels became the highest in Europe and some argue this led to the flourishing Enlightenment period in that country.

Calvin and print

Literacy was a virtue as it enabled the personal study of scripture directly from the printed word. Luther was another great influence on this policy. As an active promoter of the new publishing industry, he saw our personal relationship with God being truly mediated, not by the church and priests, but through personal reflection. Calvin’s support for the printed word, mostly scripture, came at a time in Europe when the print revolution was exploding and as books were no longer scarce, reading became a major pedagogic force.

This print explosion was to encourage other Calvinist evangelists, such as John Knox, to call in his 1560 Book of Discipline for a national system of education. This was in the spirit of the individualism of the Reformation but his primary reason was to allow all children to read scripture. This was to have an unintended consequence. 

In time, 1696 to be precise, the Scottish parliament passed the ‘Act for setting schools’, to legislate for a school in every parish. By the end of the eighteenth Century Scotland would have the highest literacy levels of any other country. The Reformation by then has turned into the Enlightenment, not only in Scotland but across Europe. A more secular revolution has been set in motion by religious zeal.

Teaching as preaching

Calvin was never ordained and saw himself as a teacher rather than clergyman. Perhaps his most enduring influence is on preaching, exposition and repetition as pedagogic techniques. In other words, the traits of the preacher were to become that of the teacher. His ‘teaching as preaching’ method was to read, deliver a sermon then sing (scripture through Psallams). The regular singing of Psalms, repetition of the Lord’s Prayer, moral assemblies each morning all made their way into schooling, reinforced in the Victorian era when schooling became compulsory and large numbers of children had to be looked after and schooled, as their parents were working in factories. We are still mired in this Protestant pedagogy, if not its theological predilections.

Criticism

It has been argued that the Reformation, Calvinism in particular, sees education as the rectification of weakness and not the building of strengths. What is produced and exposed is not success but failure, leading to fixed curricula, obsessive testing and a deficit model that interprets education in pathological terms. It can also be argued that many of the institutional behaviours and practices in schools regiment children in a way that ias unnatural and unnecessarily restrictive. Morning assemblies, the teacher as transmitter of knowledge, rows of desks, bells on the hour, drill and practice, can be seen as strict Calvinist practices, where students are regarded as sinful beings that have to be saved from ignorance.

Influence

Through reformers like John Knox, schools were formed in every parish and they were to shape the Prussian model under Friedrich Wilhelm I, then the Napoleonic model and much of modern institutional learning, even into North America. The Puritan influence on the founding fathers in the US was also substantial. We see this teaching and learning, and religion for the people, get rooted in local parishes, communities and schools.

Calvinism also led, indirectly, to the Enlightenment, where the focus on the text of the Bible raised problems with that text and reflection on religion and philosophy. We see this directly in Scotland, where an educated population, produced some of the geniuses of the Enlightenment Smith, Black, Hutton and Hume. Its influence on capitalism through Adam Smith is also powerful, with its ethos of discipline, hard work and earthy success.

Calvin’s influence on education through universal schooling has been immense, as is his influence on attitudes towards education as a deficit model, where the students are seen from the start as  flawed creatures. The religious view is that we are fallen creatures, born incompetent and the conceit of education is that the answer is always more schooling. The glass is always half empty and we always seem to have deep 'deficits' and 'divides'; digital divide, digital skills, maths, 21st C skills, qualifications, even happiness!

In a sense Calvin has been a curse and a blessing, with his emphasis on the virtues of education combined with the vices of, for example, learners as being deficient and teachers as preachers.

Bibliography

Calvin, J. Institutes for the Christian Religion

Tillich, Paul, (1968) History of Christian Thought, New York: Harper and Row

Reid, W. S. (1972) John Calvin: His Influence on the Western World, Michigan: Zondervan

Graham, W. Fred (1971), The Constructive Revolutionary: John Calvin and His Socio-Economic Impact, Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press

Helm, Paul (2004),John Calvin's Ideas, Oxford

Luther (1483-1546)

In Martin Luther’s call for universal education, literacy was part of his programme for ‘reformation’. It was education, schools and literacy that would put young people in touch with the realities of scripture and knowledge, without the mediating power of a priestly elite. Education would produce individuals who had direct access to the good book and therefore God. JUST YOU, the GOOD BOOK and GOD This was still education in the service of religion but a much more disintermediated and democratised approach to learning. It led, in the end, to a more secular form of education rooted in schools and Universities, free from the church.

Luther and learning

Luther expressed a keen interest in education, schools and teaching. Reflections on all appear across his writings but two texts stand out; the letter to The Mayors and Aldermen of the Cities of Germany on Behalf of Christian Schools and the sermon The Duty of Sending Children to School. This interest in learning and education had deeper roots in the Renaissance but the Reformation gave it new impetus.

Spiritual and civic education

In The Mayors and Aldermen of the Cities of Germany on Behalf of Christian Schools (1524), which he directs at town councillors, the duty to provide education is evidenced in Scripture, where in Psalms, it is God’s command that we teach the word of God and in Deuteronomy that we nurture and immerse youth in scripture, and inculcate respect for parents and authority. 

The state, he thought, should provide schools for all, rich and poor, that serve both spiritual and civil or secular needs. An educated citizenry would be more structured, conscientious and produce better leaders. As to what was taught, he resorts to the renaissance model of the Classical curriculum, based on the works of Greece and Rome. The German Bible and other translations were important but he still revered the Greek and Latin versions.

Schools

Six years later, after the failure to see his recommendations realised and witnessing an anti-intellectual leaning in the Reformation, he wrote a more practical work, The Duty of Sending Children to School (1530). Here, he admonished parents for not seeing the value of spiritual education and knowledge of the Kingdom of God. Yet he is still loyal to his vision of seeing education as both a spiritual and civic matter, as the earthly realm, a gift from God, needs professionals and leaders to produce a prosperous society in which the spiritual can flourish.

Influence

The Reformation saw universal education as a ‘form’ of reformation. They saw it as a means of ridding the Catholic grip on beliefs and institutions, reconnecting all people to God through more direct means, their ability to read, study and understand scripture. But Luther was not as radical as some other reformers, who wanted to eradicate the reading and teaching in ancient languages. He was still a Renaissance preacher and teacher. Unlike Erasmus, for Luther, education was not an end in itself; it was a route to scripture and the gospels, all leading back to spiritual development. Nevertheless, the Reformation pushed an agenda that gave the individual learner the power to read, write and reflect. Whatever the means and ends, universal schooling and literacy was on the march. Lutheran influence in schools still exists in its original heartlands, northern Europe, and through emigration, in the US and Australia.

Bibliography

English translation by A. Steinhaeuser in Luther's Works. Vol. 45 (Philadelphia: 1962), 347-378.

An English translation is offered by C.M. Jacobs in Luther's Works. Vol. 46 (Philadelphia: 1967), 209-258.

Ignatius (1491-1556)

Ignatius Loyola was a Basque soldier turned priest who formed the Jesuits, or Society of Jesus, a missionary order driven by a military-type zeal to spread the Catholic faith. He famously said ‘Give me a boy until he is ten, and I’ll give you the man’. Education was to be their primary and most successful weapon. Jesuit education is apostolic and the order demanded missionary and educational service in whatever part of the world they were sent. It was a reaction to the Reformation and Protestantism and drove Jesuit priests into many remote lands, and ever remoter locations, to defend the faith and, above all, make converts. The Jesuits are still active with tens of thousands in the order and educational activities in many countries.

Ratio Studiorum

Ignatius famously used the Latin phrase "Ite, inflammate omnia",EETAE inflammate omnia meaning, "Go, set the world on fire", a phrase used in the Jesuit order to this day. He wrote the Jesuit Constitutions, which were adopted in 1553.

The Ratio, written later, was a collection of regulations for school officials and teachers. It relied on the classical subjects (theology, philosophy, Latin and Greek) and did not contain any provisions for elementary education. The document was revised in 1832, still built upon the classical subjects but giving more attention to the study of native languages of the students, history, geography, mathematics, and the natural sciences.

Writing in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus (1540), St Ignatius states that the aim of Jesuit schools is ‘improvement in living and learning for the greater glory of God and the common good’.  Just as the Ratio Studiorum put flesh on the bones of this sparse statement for generations of Jesuit educators from its publication in 1599 to the restoration of the Society and its schools in the 19th century, so The Characteristics of Jesuit Education 1986 offers a vision of Jesuit education for our own times. 

Jesuit education was founded across Europe as part of the Counter-Reformation, to prevent what the Catholic Church saw as heretical teaching in the Universities of the day. After the publication of the Jesuit educational manual, the Ratio Studiorum, by Acquaviva, known as the second founder of the Jesuits, in 1586, the Jesuits had added a practical method to their zeal. Acquaviva formalised Jesuit education making it easy to replicate and scale. The book is a detailed account of how to set up a school, classes, curriculum, schedules, and methods of teaching. It attempted to do then what is common now, standardize teaching methods and the curriculum

The primary function of education for the Jesuits was religion, specifically the teachings of the Catholic Church, so that moral character and religious devotion became habitual. This was not done through direct religious instruction but through a religious approach to all learning. Boarding was encouraged as it was in line with the indoctrination of the whole student. Strong and well-trained teachers were essential, with constant evaluation and feedback throughout the year. Good teachers who were talented, prepared and inspiring were sought, poor teachers rejected.

In the days when educational theory was a matter of life and death, the Ratio Studiorum was condemned by the Dominicans to the inquisition, as it contained some unpalatable theological doctrines. The Jesuits compromised by removing the implicated chapters.

Curriculum

It is a highly academic education with a focus on the humanities and the classics in literature, history and language, with the emphasis on reason, leading to philosophy and theology. Mathematics, for example, was seen as a secondary, worldly subject. The curriculum, however, aimed to ‘form’ and not just ‘inform’ character’ through analysis. Critical thinking was encouraged. This is not to say that the curriculum was wholly academic, as the arts, especially drama and physical education, were also encouraged. They were keen on plays where students would debate and show moral dilemmas and issues on the stage.

Latin

As the idiom of religion and the Church, Latin was compulsory even into the 20th Century. Not only was Latin taught but much of the teaching was done in Latin, with some schools not allowing vernacular to be spoken, even outside of the classroom. The Ratio makes it clear that Latin was not about helping learn other languages but about inculcating learners in the culture of the church and the classics. It was taught directly and through immersion, translation being frowned upon. The religious basis of Jesuit education is seen by many as an anachronism in our post-colonial and secular world. The promulgation of Latin can also be partly traced to its religious role in Universities, and not as is commonly assumed, for utilitarian purposes.

Influence

The Jesuits were a global educational enterprise, first India, then South America, Florida, Mexico, China and Japan. They used and wielded power but always saw ‘schooling’ as their modus operandi, raising money for schools, which are fixed, visible and useful entities within communities. Their buildings were often huge and ostentatious. Education means salvation, but also power. They were particularly good at adapting to local, indigenous cultures linguistically and culturally but also good at remaining elite and scholarly, infiltrating government and ruling entities.

Jesuit education has modernised and in its many universities and colleges, especially in the US, has become part of the mainstream educational landscape. They run 168 higher education establishments in 40 countries and 324 secondary schools in 55 countries, with around 20,000 in the order but it is estimated that their numbers are falling. 

Bibliography
McGucken, William, S.J.,The Jesuits and Education (1932)

Ibn Tufayl (1106-1185)

Although a critic of Al-Ghazzali, Ibn Tufayl follows through in this tradition of educational enlightenment in another part of the Muslim world, modern Spain, in Granada. This was a period of intense intellectual activity in this part of the Muslim world. He wrote a work of fiction Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, (Hayn was here), which was widely admired across Europe for centuries, even by Leibniz and Locke, a tale of someone who grew up to understand the universe and God without contact with other humans. It possibly provided the impetus for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. In this neo-Platonic text, a boy is brought up in a natural environment, echoing Rousseau’s novel Emile. 

The point is that we can gain knowledge of this world, and ultimately the divine, through our own efforts and learning. Even religion is seen to be the result of natural human feeling, observation and reflection, separate from scripture and revelations.

He also makes a distinction between logical or reasoned learning, and other learning which can be expressed and shared through language and intuition, that can only be shown obliquely through metaphors, allegories and stories. Although in the Neo-Platonist tradition, his views on education are synthesised with the Aristotelian view of empirical inquiry.

Bibliography

Tufayl, I., 2015. Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzan: A Philosophical Tale. University of Chicago Press.

Ichsan, Y., Salsabila, U.H. and Okfia, S., 2023. Hayy Ibnu Yaqdzhan: The Concept of Knowledge Development from Ibn Tufail's Perspective and His Contribution to Islamic Education. AL-WIJDÃN Journal of Islamic Education Studies, 8(1), pp.41-53.

Al-Ghazzali (1058-1111)

Al-Ghazzalis was a renowned Muslim scholar, in an age where education, knowledge and scientific endeavour were greatly valued, encouraged and practiced in the Muslim world. Born in Iran, he taught theology and philosophy in that great centre of learning, Baghdad. Familiar with Christian scholars and Greek texts from Plato, Aristotle and others, he remains one of the most influential Muslim thinkers and scholars.

Reason and religion

With a deep interest in rationalism and logic, subsumed within a religious context, in The Rescuer from Loss he reveals his own process of reflection and education but it is in The Revival of Religious Sciences that he lays out a systematic account of how to live one’s life, including the role of teaching and learning. Education is to be valued, a religious imperative. But far from being a religious dogmatist, he promotes the role of reason, critical thought and self-examination. This is far from the narrow, dogmatic role of teaching and learning in some areas of extreme Islam. 

Teaching & learning

The teacher must be sensitive to the differences among learners. Dialogue and listening are important skills, as teachers must see learners as humans with real needs in terms of morals and purpose. The pedagogy of punishment is not the point, the teacher must therefore be a model for behaviour and show the virtues of humility and honesty. To learn is not to learn by rote or by copying texts. Religiousons compliance is still the goal but education is about teaching the young to play a moral and purposeful role in society.

Bibliography

Soussi, K., 2016. AL Ghazali Cultivates Education: A Comparison with Modern Theories. International Journal of Education and Research, 4(11), pp.425-436.

Muflihin, A. and Madrah, M.Y., 2019. Implementation of Al-Ghazali’s Islamic Education Philosophy in the Modern Era. Al-Fikri: Jurnal Studi Dan Penelitian Pendidikan Islam, 2(1), pp.13-27.

St Augustine (354 – 430)

Augustine was a towering figure in Christian thought throughout the Dark Ages, as he helped transform the world of absolute forms and the world of representation into earthy and heavenly realms, Platonism into Christian theology. He was born in North Africa, then via Rome and a conversion to Christianity in Milan, went back to North Africa as a Bishop. Writing towards the end of the Roman Empire, on the cusp of the move from paganism to Christianity, he wrote Confessions, a wonderfully reflective and human autobiography where he reveals his own failings, as well as many works of philosophical and theological weight. 

Confessions

Confessions, Augustine’s psychological autobiography, brings to life his distaste for the education he received. He loathed Greek, the language of teaching, which led to him disliking even the works of Homer and was bored by rote learning, artificial exercises and brutal punishment. It is this self-awareness and the fact that he himself was a classic bad-boy turned good, who redeemed himself later in life, showing that people can change through education, that makes him such a fascinating learning theorist. The book is a lesson in itself, where he teaches by example and, explains his own conversion. It is rather saucy and frank about his relationship with an unmarried woman with whom he has a child, his lust, even stealing. What makes St Augustine so interesting is that this is a man whose theological beliefs were shaped by Platonism, a world of absolute good, and educational beliefs tempered by his negative experiences as a pupil.

De catechizandis rudibus

In The Teacher and De catechizandis rudibus Augustine shows a detailed interest in teaching methods. As one must be guided by a natural love of God, one must as a teacher give of yourself as a guide and mentor, encourage curiosity, motivate and not rely on punishment. Teachers should plan their work, learn as they teach, look for ways to stimulate learners and show patience. There is a real sense of teaching as a process that is enhanced by an understanding of and sensitivity to learners. 

More than this he recognises that teachers themselves may be the problem, obsessed by their own work, too critical of slow learners or sometimes let personal concerns influence their work. As one of the first philosophers of language he warned us that the mind moves faster than the teacher’s words and the teacher may be communicating in the wrong way, so he recommends that learners interrupt to clarify issues. He talks about what would now be called teaching styles; the ‘restrained style’ in teaching, in simple, direct language, then the ‘mixed style’ where one elaborates using more motivational language, then the ‘grand style’ for changing hearts and attitudes. First understand your learners as there are those who have a good grounded education, those who are trained in rhetoric who think they know but do not and then the uneducated. He recommends different approaches for all three.

He brings the Christian ethos of love and humility to the act of teaching, seeing pupils as people who must be treated with respect and encouraged towards finding their own inner truths. Remember that he is writing this in the 5th century, showing a rare humility, in an age of religious absolutism. 

You really have to wait until the Enlightenment 1300 years later before such a figure emerges again, someone so vivid, personal and sensitive to the psychology of teaching and learning.

Influence

Augustine may have been a Platonist but he is not in terms of education. Within the confines of scriptural certainty, he is remarkably sensitive to the needs of the learner and the subtlety of good teaching methods. His two influences, his early bad experience at school and his conversion to Christianity, combine to form a rounded analysis of learning that reflects the humanity of the man. He remained a towering figure in theological thought for centuries, softened by the realism of his early years and as a practising teacher.

Bibliography

Augustine, St. 1952. The First Catechetical Instruction (400), trans. Joseph P. Christopher. Westminster, MD: Newman Press.

Augustine, St. 1968. The Teacher (389), trans. Robert P. Russell. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press.

Augustine, St. 1997a. On Christian Teaching (426), trans. R. P. H. Green. New York: Oxford University Press.

Augustine, St. 1997b. The Confessions (400), trans. Maria Boulding. New York: Vintage Books.

Rorty, A.O. (Ed) (1998)  Philosophers on Education: Historical perspectives. London and New York, Routledge.

Howie, G (ed and trans) 1969. St Augustine: On Education, Chicago: Henry Regnery Company.

Mohammed (570 AD –632 AD)

It is claimed that Mohammed was illiterate and the Koran literally the word of God, transcribed by others from his revelations. Mohammed is therefore a prophet and teacher but in reality a mouthpiece for the absolute message of God.

Koran and education

In Islam, books, especially the Koran, are held in the highest regard and mosques functioned as repositories of books. One even had to wash before touching the Koran. This reverence for the ‘book’, especially the Koran, is paramount. Indeed it was almost immediately made into a ‘codex’ (book form), as they had acquired paper technology from captured Chinese sailors in 751AD.

The dominant role of this one book, of similar length to the Christian Gospels, on education in the Muslim world cannot be underestimated. For five centuries after its emergence in the 7th century, the ‘Golden Age’ of Arabic culture, flourished in centres of learning in Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo. Their libraries collected and distributed Greek and Roman classical texts and made advances in mathematics, science, philosophy and law.

Recite and repeat

Prayer is one of the five pillars of Islam, recommended five times a day, so the repetition of recitation, known to be effective for embedding knowledge in long term memory, becomes an ingrained habit, as does listening attentively, especially at Friday prayers and also through the attentive reading of the Koran. Koran means ‘to recite’ and the text was originally meant to be read aloud. It has been argued that this has led to a dependence on rote learning. Some argue that this focus on recitation and repetition tends to infect studies across all subjects and education in the Islamic world has been criticised for its dependence on simple recitation at the expense of critical analysis.

Memorisation

Islam literally means ‘submission’ and it has been argued that this also affects the way learners and teachers approach education. In Sura 75:15–18 attentive reading is specifically mentioned and, in particular, memorisation of the Koran, an act which has been admired for centuries in the Muslim world. Those who manage to learn the entire Koran are greatly respected. With traditional paternalism, authority of the state and dominance of religion, some argue, comes a lack of questioning, passive learners and didactic teaching. Obedience and compliance, not unusual in other educational systems, arguably can be much more embedded in Islamic countries. The time spent on religious studies also squeezes out time available for other subjects. This may be another reason for the low levels of original research and patents in countries where Islamic education is dominant.

Koran and writing

With a focus on reading came writing. Writing, not only through the Koran, but in other expository texts, is a strong feature of Islamic education. Sura 96 urges believers to ‘recite’ but also explains that God taught man through the ‘pen’, namely writing. Writing, especially calligraphy, is regarded as a high art form, as it is in the Far East, but never was in the West. This reverence for writing meant that the Ottomans banned printing, arguably holding back the Ottoman Empire in terms of progress and modernisation.

The double-edged sword is that the power of the written word is also seen as the power of God’s absolute religious knowledge, not the freedom to write critically. Indeed, writing, even drawing, has led to death threats ‘fatwas’, on novelists and cartoonists. Islam, like Christianity, has supported the extremes of rigorous scholarship and education but also bans on education, especially for women. Such are the advantages and disadvantages of religion in general, in education.

Places of education

The madrasa goes back to the time of Mohammed, who was a teacher and had followers and students. These provided education on a scale at all levels for centuries. Places of higher learning, with teaching, libraries, even observatories, appeared as early as the 9th century and some argue that these were the proto-Universities we saw emerge in Europe. They certainly provided a depth of learning and a reverence for books from the ancient world. Many that survived and helped create the Renaissance (rebirth) owe their existence in the modern world to these Islamic institutions.

Influence

For all its educational qualities, the focus on one book, its absolute truth and primitive recitation, repletion and memorisation, often seem like primitive pedagogies, leaving little room for active and critical thought. Islam, like the extremes of Christianity and Judaism, can be seen as a return to an absolute form of belief, where young minds are locked down before they have had a chance to reflect or choose. This is an anathema to secularists who believe that education should open young minds not close them down. On the other hand, let us not forget that the Islamic world encouraged learning, scholarship and intellectual endeavour, giving the world those texts of the Classical world we now so admire.

Bibliography

Dawood J.  (Transl. 1956, revised 2000) The Koran Penguin Classics

Lyons M (2011) The Book Thames & Hudson

Hitti P.K. (1936) History of the Arabs MacMillan

Whitaker B (2009) What’s Wrong with the Middle East

 

Jesus (7–2 BC to 30–36 AD)

Jesus, as a teacher, was primarily a man of action but in terms of instruction it was his powerful parables and sermons that stand out in the Gospels. Importantly, there is no sense of exclusion as he encourages shunned lepers, hated tax inspectors, prostitutes, criminals and especially the poor, to receive his message. When it came to powerful messages it was through his individual acts of love, kindness and forgiveness that they make their mark. However, there is much to learn from how he taught. He was in many ways a radical and effective teacher.

Parables

Parables were not used by him to impose moral rules but to show, by storytelling, how to act by listening to examples of how others have acted. Jesus was clear about why he used them and why they worked, explaining this in the Gospels. Parables are image rich and allow the listener or reader to picture the scene and recall from memory. They appeal to the illiterate poor and have the power to change behaviour and lives. Indeed, Christian art is full of images that retell these parables, as most people across the ages were illiterate.

Sermons

Jesus also used sermons, notably the Sermon on the Mount, to tell his story which was to become the preachers’ pedagogic weapon for centuries to come. Paul the Apostle was the man who took Christianity out to the world, preaching in major cities and shaped the way Christianity was to be spread and taught for almost two millennia. From Paul we get speeches and authoritative sermons. This is not the Sermon on the Mount but the proselytising sermon that we still hear from pulpits today.

Sermon to lecture

Given the hold religion had on educational institutions until relatively recently, especially Universities, it is hardly surprising that the sermon transmogrified into the ‘lecture’, which to this day, remains the main pedagogic technique in Higher Education. In education, it moved from pulpit to lectern. The language shows the move from a pre-printing age when manuscripts were rare and had to be read to students. ‘Lectern’ means ‘reading desk’ and the word ‘lecture’, from the 14th century meant ‘the act of reading’, from the Latin ‘to read’. It was only in the 16th century that this shifted to mean a talk for teaching a specific topic or subject. The verb ‘to lecture’ is first recorded in 1590. This pre-print pedagogy remains the primary pedagogic method in Higher Education but is, in some ways, a hangover from an age when books were scarce.

Schools and Universities

The religious influence on pedagogy also meant that the sermon became the one hour lecture, which still dominates much of our educational pedagogy today. This, many argue, has held back pedagogic progress rendering much higher education a slow and too often tedious affair. Nevertheless, Christianity played a seminal role in the setting up of those early European Universities that were eventually to become more secular.

Christianity has also played a key role in the provision of universal schooling. 

The need to read scripture was a powerful force after the Reformation and in the conversion process as Christianity spread around the world. It also laid the grounds for the scientific revolution that followed. However, this was matched by the holding back of science, witness Galileo and many others. But the study of God’s design and dominion, often by pious minds, eventually led to the elimination of design through Darwinism. This is still a threat today posed by fundamentalist Christianity, in its denial of evolutionary theory, especially in the US. 

Online learning

We can learn from the power of parables that attitudinal change can come if we show exemplary behaviour in a way that is memorable, through story-telling. This has been the power of YouTube and video learning. We should also remember that this is not the way to treat all forms of learning. Video storytelling has its limits and can lead to the illusion of learning. Storytelling may not be appropriate for knowledge and, in the end, it is through action that we learn to change ourselves. The point is not just to look and listen but to act.

Criticism

Nietzsche described Christianity as Plato for the masses, and Marx described religion as the opium for the masses. There is a sense in which Christianity has held back science and the development of knowledge.

Influence

Has there been any more powerful teacher? His only rival is perhaps the Buddha or Mohammed. This one man shaped two millennia of thought and culture through the use of simple parables and sermons. These were to be retold and evangelised by others such as Paul, and armies of preachers, to congregations, largely in churches, that continues to this day. Note that some, like Nietzsche, thought that this led to a two millennia aberration and, in particular, a thousand years of stultifying scholasticism.

Bibliography

Wilson A,N. (1992) Jesus Sinclair-Stevenson

Snodgrass, K., 2008. Stories with intent: A comprehensive guide to the parables of Jesus. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.

 

Buddha (6th and 5th C BC)

 

The Buddha lived across the sixth and fifth centuries BC, although the exact dates are disputed. Buddhism plays a significant role in education directly and indirectly in China, Japan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, India and Malaysia. Seven countries have Buddhist majorities: Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Laos and Mongolia, where Buddhism plays a significant role in education through the monastic tradition and monastery schools.

Buddha as teacher

Teaching is one of the Buddha’s nine epithets as an ‘Awakened One’ but the texts show a man who is detached and hesitates to teach. There is no rush to action in his teaching of the road to enlightenment, as that would stimulate the very desires he wants to still. It should not surprise us, therefore, that the Buddha was disinclined to teach, as throughout his life, his method was largely by example. This also explains why he said so little about education and teaching. Buddhism is a practice, an inward looking practice that attempts to still the brain, not fill the mind with knowledge of the earthly word, the world of illusion, nor stimulate critical thought. However, there are parables and stories the Buddha tells that show his willingness to explain, such as the ‘Fields’ parable and use of the ‘Lotus’ as an analogous device. Bearing this in mind, one can see why Buddhism has not been a major force in educational thought but had been a force in religious, and therefore educational, practice.

What is taught

The Buddha is seen as the route to understanding, living and ultimately enlightenment. The moral guidelines are clear with a focus on honesty, purity, truthfulness, kindness and sobriety.  Generosity and self-sacrifice are also strong traits. Above all, the sublimation of the self away from greed and selfishness characterizes Buddhist education. There is, therefore, a strong belief in cooperation not competition. This is in direct opposition to many western values of individualism and education as a preparation for an active life and for a competitive position in the job market.

In Buddhism, the mind is everything and peace and enlightenment come from within. This is not a filling of the mind with knowledge but a stilling of the mind. There is teaching of sacred texts but the Noble Eightfold Path requires one to live a life based on a right view, right thought, right speech, right conduct, right vocation, right effort, right attention and right concentration. This is far from the liberal arts tradition in the west or more recent pragmatic use of education in the East. Its influence is more through cultural norms than its direct influence on education.

Monastic education

One significant cultural and methodological effect is the monastic tradition. The monastic tradition in Buddhism and submission to religious teachers and practices within monasteries is the mainstay of Buddhist education. To become a monk or nun is an alternative form of schooling in many countries of South-East Asia. It was the mainstay in many countries before the modern era and still plays an important role as a supplement or alternative to state schooling.

Zen Buddhism

Interestingly, the monastic tradition wasn’t taken up with relish in China, as it clashed with the Confucian idea of staying within the family, so Zen Buddhism, a more personalized form of enlightenment, linked to Daoism, emerged. Zen teacher-master exchanges are a pedagogic product of this particular tradition. ‘Koans’ are stories or dialogues that are used to illustrate or a method to practice Zen teaching. The teacher guides the student, through dialogue, to Zen enlightenment.

Criticism

Buddhism has been accused of being a benign influence on education, leading to stilling and acceptance in Buddhist culture. Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Laos and Mongolia have nor progressed economically and some see the benign nature of Buddhism as holding these countries back.

Influence

With approaching half a billion Buddhists one would expect the Buddha and Buddhism to have had a significant effect on education but, apart from the Buddhist monastic tradition, there is little to suggest that it has had a significant effect on educational thought outside of religious teaching. Its effect is primarily cultural, through moral norms.

The one concrete influence has been the recent rise of Mindfulness in education is one example of Buddhist ideas influencing western workplaces and education, as the world becomes globalized, so ideas flow from one culture to another. This mix of Buddhist meditation has taken root in schools and training throughout the West.

Bibliography

Kung, C., 1998. Buddhism as an education. Dallas Buddhist Association.

Bodhi, B., 2010. The noble eightfold path: The way to the end of suffering. Buddhist Publication Society.

Zürcher, E., 2018. Buddhism and Education in T’ang Times. In Critical Readings on Tang China (pp. 1580-1621). Brill.

Confucius (551-479 BC)

Like Plato and Aristotle, Confucius (551-479 BC) had his own school, which he started in 552BC. Despite a period of exile he became a very influential official and adviser but it was through his four texts, especially The Analects that his fame was secured. China invented paper and printing which meant that the dissemination of his ideas through texts was also possible, in an early echo of Gutenberg in Europe. It may be wrong to categorise Confucius a ‘religious’ leader but he certainly had religious beliefs that shaped his view of the world and prescriptions based firmly in those beliefs. But his influence in China and beyond is immeasurable and still obvious today. His significance is in a deferential respect for hierarchy, authority, ritual and, above all, learning. 

Order and the status quo

Confucius is unusual in learning theory in being a conservative among so many non-conformists. He is not progressive and strongly promotes the status quo. However, there are some lessons to be learnt, in learning, that also define his approach. He did not admire a totally passive form of learning, encouraged students to be active learners but did see respect for teachers as important, along with manners and decorum.

The first two books of The Analects are full of aphorisms about teaching and learning, tempered with conservative advice. However, it was submission to ritual, moderation, respect for parents, elders and teachers, and a strong moral outlook, that characterises his theory. Order is a primary concept, order in one’s own life, behaviour, speech, relations with others and the promotion of order in society. 

Instrumentalist education

Unusually, especially in modern times, he is clear that the purpose of education is not the enlightenment of the individual but the health and stability of society, especially the state. Although it has also to be remembered that neo-Confucianism in the 10th to 12th century loosened Confucius from the state toward a more personal experience. 

Education is the key to good government, by this he meant administrative and military efficiency. Institutions, texts based on the past, a cultural heritage; all are to be respected as worthy traditions. There is also the Platonic idea of an elite, with a common cultural core, that could rule, something that remains an ideal in modern China. Many of these ideas are still prevalent in Chinese education. 

Although China has Confucian continuity, in the 20th century, after 1949, Maoism led to compulsory Marxist-Leninist, ideological schooling, then a period of suppression during the Cultural Revolution, encouraged by Mao, where school teachers and intellectuals were ridiculed, tortured and even murdered by their students. The education system literally imploded, to be replaced by massive ideological teaching through the Little Red Book, with its emphasis on dialectical materialism and sacrifice to the state. Some argue that this was Confucianism in another guise, with respect being displaced from state to party. Although Mao wanted to destroy Confucian beliefs, he was Confucian himself, in his strong belief in hierarchy. In fact Confucianism may have been strengthened, as other rules that held people together had been so methodically eliminated.

China today is a post-Mao society, where education has exploded in just a few decades. Its cities are its economic dynamos and the Chinese salt away up to 40% of their income for their old age and education. This was exacerbated by the one child per family policy, now loosened. Strong Confucian trends have come back, encouraged by the Government, who see it as an antidote to corruption and moral decline. It also has appeal in terms of his vision of a 'harmonious society'. China’s foreign cultural and educational presences are called ‘Confucian Institutes’ and Chinese education and students are often seen by other cultures as being highly deferential.

Academic assessment

Confucian education is based on hard work, compliance to the state, a focus on personal behaviour and competitive examinations. Dismissive of vocational learning, Chinese education was for centuries an abstract, academic affair, with examinations based on a set syllabus of classic texts. This selection process has an ancient pedigree in China. Confucian exams were taken so seriously in the past that papers were kept locked up, examinees body searched, essays transcribed into identical calligraphy and read by at least two independent examiners. The penalty for abuse was death and exile for one’s family, and nepotism was avoided through quotas. It was highly meritocratic. One study showed that 83% of the top students were from lower-class families. Note that, by comparison, it wasn’t until the 18th and 19th centuries that meritocratic examinations were introduced in Europe and the US.

The Imperial Examinations were only abolished in 1905 but still over 10 million Chinese sit the gaokao, the entrance exam for Universities. The cream of the crop is likely to be employed in government, still the aspiration of many students in China. Confucius can therefore be seen as a champion of meritocracy through standardising examinations.

Criticism

Collective Confucian cultural beliefs have been seen as one reason for the country’s historical isolationism, ready acceptance of Communist doctrine and now authoritarian tendencies. It may also eschew subjects that are not aligned with state objectives. This instrumental approach to education had led to examples of academic spying and illegal activities abroad.

Influence

Confucianism has been both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it provides stability, balance and continuity along with respect for teachers, adults, and a meritocratic approach to official jobs through state exams. Education was also promoted as a general good. He also put emphasis on learners and their role in the family, state and society. The downside has been an inflexible, instrumentalist approach, which limits innovation, critical thinking, science and vocational learning. These issues are now being openly debated as China transforms itself into a complex superpower. Confucian values may remain but the Western model of education is now increasingly seen as also having strengths.

Bibliography

Confucius (Transl. Lau 1979) The Analacts, Penguin Classics

Jaques M. (2009) When China Rules the World Allen Lane