5/07/2013

Jan Amos Komensky (John Amos Comenius)


Once upon a time, long ago, in the seventeenth century, an inspired teacher and education reformer from Czech Republic, Jan Amos Komensky, known as John Amos Comenius, dreamed of Global Education. Comenius was born in fifteen ninety-two in Moravia and in his early years became a bishop of the Moravian church. Nominated teacher of nations, Comenius is considered the father of modern education. He lived and worked in many different countries in Europe, including Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Transylvania, the Holy Roman Empire, England, the Netherlands and Royal Hungary. He believed in the holistic concept of education that is, learning, spiritual and emotional growths are all woven together. His educational reform is based on the idea of education according to nature and learning foreign languages through the vernacular using teaching techniques that make the acquisition of knowledge a pleasure rather than a task. He was the first to use pictures in textbooks. He taught that education began in the earliest years of childhood and continued throughout life. He published 154 books, most of them about educational philosophy and religion. He died in Amsterdam in 1670.