Document Type
Article
Abstract
As we wrangle repeatedly over the purposes of schooling and who gets to define them, what might we gain by taking a moment to listen to a thoughtful voice from a place and time not defined by our own mix of prejudices? I invite you to listen to such a voice, one speaking from a different era amid different anxieties and in a different idiom yet addressing questions that remain pressing. It is a voice shaped by a lifetime of educational engagement and reflection in the constant shadow of violence, yet, to the last, invested in the pursuit of delight. The voice belongs to Jan Amos Komenský, a Moravian reformer, educator, and scholar more widely known to posterity as John Amos Comenius and regularly claimed (with varying plausibility) as a founding father of numerous features of modern education.1 I focus here on what he thought schools are for.
Publication Date
12-12-2025
Recommended Citation
Smith, David I., "What We Can Learn from Comenius About Why We Educate" (2025). University Faculty Publications and Creative Works. 1024.
https://digitalcommons.calvin.edu/calvin_facultypubs/1024