By John Taylor; 2009 July 25, Kalimat 12, 166 BE
In this series we are looking at the ideas of John Amos Comenius on the principle of promotion of education. Last time I promised to go over his definition of education. I shall do this now, and also analyze the main problem that education faces, imitation. Next time we will look at the solutions he proposes.
Precis: Comenius emphasized that learning is at the heart of human Nature and the universe itself. The opposite of education is imitation, the corruption of our ways of learning. Whenever arguments, division and conflict are evident, it is a sure sign that imitation has become the standard, not reality. Education destroys the labyrinth of error.
John Amos Comenius is best known today as one of the first advocates of lifelong learning. He held that as human beings we are born curious. Teaching is the art of extending this basic need into every phase of life.
"Who is there that does not always desire to see, hear, or handle something new? To whom is it not a pleasure to go to some new place daily, to converse with someone, to narrate something, or have some fresh experience? In a word, the eyes, the ears, the sense of touch, the mind itself, are, in their search for food, ever carried beyond themselves; for to an active nature nothing is so intolerable as sloth." (Comenius, Wikiquotes)
In his masterwork on education, the Great Didactic, Comenius similarly defined education as the art of making the best use of our lives, every moment of our lives.
"If, in each hour, a man could learn a single fragment of some branch of knowledge, a single rule of some mechanical art, a single pleasing story or proverb (the acquisition of which would require no effort), what a vast stock of learning he might lay by. Seneca is therefore right when he says: `Life is long, if we know how to use it.' It is consequently of importance that we understand the art of making the very best use of our lives." (John Amos Comenius, The Great Didactic, 1649, translated by M.W. Keatinge 1896, http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/7905/web7005.html)
It is not because of some quirk or idiosyncrasy of human nature that we have such a strong need to learn. Learning is a natural outcome of the nature of the universe. Every form of life, and even minerals, are constantly growing, progressing and evolving. Religion, for example, is not an end in itself, it is actual another kind of school, only its graduation ceremony is put off until death.
"Just as the whole world is a school for the whole of the human race, from the beginning of time until the very end, so the whole of his life is a school for every man, from the cradle to the grave. It is no longer enough to say with Seneca: 'No age is too late to begin learning'; we must say: 'Every age is destined for learning, nor is man given other goals in learning than in life itself.' Nay, not even death itself, or the world, brings man's life to an end. Everyone who is born a man must pass beyond all these things right into eternity, as if to a celestial university. Therefore all that precedes is the way, the preparation, the workshop, the lower school." ("Universal Schools" in the Pampaedia)
In the Panorthosia, written at the end of his life, Comenius proposes a far more ambitious goal than learning more and learning for a longer time. He investigates how education might be the program for reform of the entire planet. How, he asks, might a united world government use education to end the wars and dislocation that are deranging humanity?
The Opposite of Education is Imitation
In order to answer this question Comenius offers a proposition: the opposite of education is not so much ignorance as it is imitation. While it is true that it is in our nature to learn, that does not mean that all learning is good, no matter what. He cites Paul, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8) We imitate when we lap up "rudiments of the world," un-integrated, random, superficial facts and then repeat them without understanding.
Education is supposed to teach us how to transcend "vain deceit," to integrate all knowledge and learning under a single, universal light. Knowledge is always singular, there is no plural, "knowledges." To grasp knowledge demands struggle, coming to grips with the underlying principles behind the outer reality. This takes a great deal of effort and sacrifice in the beginning, though once the lesson is learned it becomes easier.
This explains why we often substitute imitation for really learning for ourselves. We do it out of simple laziness. However, at a deeper level our reluctance is a sign of a spiritual condition, a certain lack of autonomy in the soul. We collect the opinions of others because we mistrust our own faculties and insights, which are untested and unproven. Far easier to play follow the leader and gather into schools of thought, in spite of the fact that they inevitably contradict one another.
"For so long as some people only wish or know how to follow in the footsteps of others, if they are attached to leaders who have gone wrong, they are bound to go wrong at the same time; if they follow various leaders, it is impossible for them to take their various diversions without uncertainty and perplexity." (Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 8, p. 146)
Whenever an "excessive reliance on the guidance of others" predominates, the result is "an infinite perplexity of opinions, policies, and actions." One reason why imitation is evil, then, is because it propagates and multiplies human error. For the same reason parasites and disease propagate easily in a monoculture. An educated society is a diverse ecosystem that makes it very difficult for the same kind of error to spread. Widespread imitation causes havoc in many minds, and prejudices and human error propagate throughout society. Comenius compares an imitative society to a labyrinth with a thousand wrong turns. Only by destroying it can we approach our goal. Done right, education should start with a clean slate and then concentrate upon bringing about unity in diversity.
Another problem with imitation is that it does not necessarily disappear with the spread of schools. Even highly trained individuals and the most advanced nations are equally susceptible to imitation.
"There is evidence of this in educated nations, where we see that the more schools and books and studies they have, the more they are divided and exhausted by conflicting opinions, so that if there is to be any chance of the reform of our affairs, it is necessary in the first instance that these labyrinths should now be destroyed or closed." (Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 8, p. 146)
Imitative squabbling has come to a head now that global warming is putting a time limit on our impulse to reform. One would expect educators to be at the forefront of change, but they are not. Why this is so was diagnosed and explained perfectly well by Comenius. Next time we will look at his diagnosis, prognosis and prescription for education.
John Taylor
email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
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