The Great Didactic (1657) sets forth Comenius’s methodology—one for the arts, another for the sciences. Comenius believed that everything should be presented to the child’s senses—and to as many senses as possible, using pictures, models, workshops, music, and other “objective” means. With proper presentation, the mind of the child could become a “psychological” counterpart of the world of nature. The mind can take in what is in nature if the method of teaching most akin to nature is used. For the upper age levels, he recommended that language study and other studies be integrated. Indeed, he employed this scheme in his Gate of Tongues Unlocked (1631), a book of Latin and sciences arranged by subjects, which revolutionized Latin teaching and was translated into 16 languages. The Visible World in Pictures (1658), which remained popular in Europe for two centuries, attempted to dramatize Latin through pictures illustrating Latin sentences, accompanied by one or two vernacular translations. The schools of Gotha
The zeal for reform on the part of such educators as Ratke and Comenius, on the one hand, and the interests of the ruling classes, on the other, led in the years after about 1650 to the publication of school regulations that were free of church regulations. The circumstances in the central German principality of Gotha were typical. The duke, Ernst the Pious, commissioned the rector Andreas Reyher to compile a system of school regulations, which appeared in 1642 and is known historically as the Gothaer Schulmethodus. This was the first independent civil system of school regulations in Germany and was strongly influenced by Ratke. The five most important points of these regulations were (1) compulsory schooling from the age of five, (2) division of the school into lower, middle, and higher classes, (3) extension of the usual subjects (reading, writing, basic arithmetic, singing, and religion) to various other fields (natural history, local history, civics, and domestic economy), (4) the introduction of textbooks (for reading and basic arithmetic), including notably the first textbook of exact sciences for elementary schools, Reyher’s own Kurzer Unterricht von natürlichen Dingen (1657; “Short Course on Natural Things”), and (5) methodical instruction that, above all, emphasized the clarity of the lesson and the activity of the pupils. French theories and practices
In the second half of the 17th century, Germany suffered from the aftereffects of the Thirty Years’ War, whereas France, under Louis XIV, reached the zenith of political and military power. France’s leadership was also demonstrated in the cultural field, including education. Some of the most important developments in France included the promotion of courtly education and the involvement of religious orders and congregations in the education of the poor. Courtly education
The rationalistic ideal of French courtly education was foreshadowed in Michel de Montaigne’s Essays (1580) in which the ideal man was described as having a natural, sensible way of life not deeply affected by the perplexities of the time but admitting of pleasure. He had a “correct” attitude toward the world and people, a certain spiritual freedom, and an independent judgment—all of which, in Montaigne’s view, were more important than being steeped in knowledge. “As lamps are extinguished from too much oil, so is the mind from too much studying.” Montaigne came from a merchant family that aspired to nobility, and thus there is a certain fashionable elitism in his views; he held, among other things, that courtly education succeeds best when the pupil studies under a private tutor.
This ideal, rather unlike the ideal of the learned and humanistic Renaissance man, became important in 17th-century France, especially after mid-century and the rise of the court of Louis XIV. The education of the would-be versatile and worldly-wise gentleman was furthered not only by the continuation of the institution of private tutoring but also by the establishment of schools and academies for chevaliers and nobles, in which the emphasis was on such subjects as deportment, modern languages, fencing, and riding. It was most emphatically an example of class education, designed for the nobility and higher military and not for any commoners. The teaching congregations
In the countries that remained Catholic, such as France, the Roman church retained control of education. Indeed, as monarchy became more absolute, so largely did the authority of the church in matters of education. In France, practically all schools and universities were controlled by so-called teaching congregations or societies, the most famous and powerful of which during the first half of the 17th century was the Society of Jesus. By mid-century the Jesuits had 14,000 pupils under instruction in Paris alone; their colleges (not including universities) all over the land numbered 612.
It was their successful teaching and comparatively mild discipline that caused the Jesuit schools to attract thousands of pupils. “They are so good,” said Bacon of the Jesuit teachers in his Advancement of Learning, “that I wish they were on our side.” The curriculum was purely Classical, but importance was attached to spacious, well-adapted buildings and amenities designed to make school life interesting. In general, however, the religious and international conflicts did great harm to education, which suffered much because those kings and religious factions that gained power in France (as elsewhere) used the schools to propagate their cause, discarding teachers not of the approved persuasion. Moreover, the schools continued largely to ignore the new directions of men’s minds; in the universities staffed by Jesuit fathers, medieval Scholasticism, though purged of the formalistic excesses that had degraded it, was fully restored. Schools and universities declined, for the most part, to contemplate any enlargement of the frontiers of knowledge and were too often deeply involved in the religious conflicts of the time. The University of Paris in particular remained distracted throughout the 17th century by theological dissensions—in at least one instance as a result of the rivalry that ensued after the Jesuits had effected a footing at Clermont College.
Aside from the Jesuits, the most important teaching congregations in France were the Bérullian Oratory, or Oratorians, and the Jansenists of Port-Royal. The former, founded in 1611 and soon to open a number of schools and seminaries for young nobles, was composed of priests—but priests more liberal and rationalist than was common for the times. They offered instruction not only in the humanities but also in history, mathematics, the natural sciences, and such genteel accomplishments as dancing and music. Though continuing to use Latin in instruction, they promoted also the use of the vernacular French in the initial years of their curriculum. They tended indeed to be drawn to the ideas of Descartes, to a faith based on reason. When in 1764 the Jesuits were banned from France, their teaching positions were largely assumed by Oratorians.