Comenius - Johann Amos Comenius

An educational thinker born in Moravia, a region of the Czech Republic. His Czech name was Jan Amos Komenský. He studied with the help of the Bohemian Brotherhood and eventually became a pastor there, but that same year (1618), a rebellion against the Habsburgs, led by the Bohemian Brotherhood, escalated into the Thirty Years' War, and the Bohemian Brotherhood came under oppression from the royal party and the Catholic Church. As a result, he fled the country with his fellow brothers and ended up spending the rest of his life in exile. During this time, he devoted himself to writing, dreaming of stability in his homeland, social peace through education, and the salvation of humanity, but he died in Amsterdam, Netherlands, halfway through his planned systematic writing.

As early as the 1620s, he wrote a series of books known as the "Books of Consolation", including the social criticism " Labyrinth of the Earth and Heaven of the Soul", but later he was particularly active in proposing reforms to the methods, content, and organization of language education and education in general, with the aim of realizing peace and happiness for mankind. In the field of language education, he was famous in Europe at the time for his Latin textbooks based on encyclopedic principles, "Introduction to the Language" ( Janua linguarum reserata) (1631) and "Introduction to the Language" (Janua linguarum reseratae vestibulum) (1633). In the field of teaching methods and school organization, he wrote Orbis pictus (1658), known as the first illustrated language textbook in history, and his great work De lectio das lectio (1657), which proposed the principles of a comprehensive reform of schools to teach "everyone," "everything," "joyfully," and "accurately," regardless of status or class. This work is especially highly regarded as a pioneer of modern school thought, which was based on criticism of schools at the time that were for the "rich" and not for the "poor," and that they were equivalent to "places of punishment" and "torture chambers." In the field of educational content, he wrote Panegersia (1645), which was planned as a concept for a new knowledge system under the name Pansophia, and other works (planned as a total of seven volumes but left unfinished). As can be inferred from the name "panscience," this was an attempt at an "encyclopedia" in the true sense of the word, a circular education, to intellectually and consistently grasp nature, humanity, and society from a unique perspective.

[Minoru Murai June 19, 2018]

"The Great Teaching Theory" translated by Hidetake Suzuki (1962, Meiji Tosho Publishing)" ▽ "Comenius Study" by Mamoru Horiuchi (1970, Fukumura Publishing)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

現在のチェコの一地方モラビア生まれの教育思想家。チェコ名はヤン・アモス・コメンスキー。ボヘミア同胞教団の助けによって勉学し、やがて同教団の牧師となったが、たまたまその年（1618）、この教団を主勢力として生じたハプスブルク家への反乱が三十年戦争にまで発展し、教団が王党とカトリック教会との圧迫を被るに至ったため、教団員とともに国外に難を逃がれ、結局、一生を流浪のうちに過ごした。この間、祖国の安定と、教育を介しての社会平和と人類救済への夢を抱いて著作に没頭したが、計画した体系的著述のなかばで、オランダのアムステルダムに没した。

　1620年代に早くも社会批判の書『現世の迷路と魂の天国』Labyrint světa a lusthaoz srdceをはじめとして、「慰めの書」とよばれる一連の書物を著したが、その後はとくに人類の平和と幸福の実現を目ざしての言語教育と教育一般の方法、内容、組織の改革にかかわる提言を精力的に行った。言語教育の領域では、彼を当時のヨーロッパにおいて一躍有名にした百科全書的原理によるラテン語教科書『語学入門』Janua linguarum reserata（1631）、『語学入門手引』Janua linguarum reseratae vestibulum（1633）がある。教授法や学校組織の領域では、史上最初の絵入り語学教科書として知られる『世界図絵』Orbis pictus（1658）、とくに身分や階級の違いを問わず「すべての人に」「すべてのことを」「楽しく」「的確に」教えるための、学校の全面的な改革原理の提案としての大著『大教授学』（1657）がある。この著書は、当時の「金持ち」のためのものであって「貧乏人」のためではない学校、「折檻(せっかん)場」「拷問室」に等しい学校への批判のうえにたつ近代的学校思想の先駆として、とりわけ高く評価されている。教育内容の領域では、新しい知識体系の構想として「汎知(はんち)体系」Pansophiaの名で計画された『汎覚醒(かくせい)』Panegersia（1645）その他の著作（全7巻として構想されたが未完に終わった）がある。これは、「汎知」という名称からすでに推測されうるように、自然と人間と社会とを独自の視点から知的に一貫して把握するという、本来的意味での「百科全書(エンサイクロペディア)―円環的教養―」への試みであった。

［村井　実　2018年6月19日］

『鈴木秀勇訳『大教授学』（1962・明治図書出版）』▽『堀内守著『コメニウス研究』（1970・福村出版）』

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