Observations placeholder
Comenius - Didactica Magna - Regularly alternate theory and practise
Identifier
020667
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius - Translated into English by M. W. Keatinge, M.A.1967
Craftsmen do not hold their apprentices down to theories; they put them to work without delay so that they may learn to forge metal by forging, to carve by carving, to paint by painting, to leap by leaping.
Therefore in schools let the pupil learn to write by writing, to speak by speaking, to sing by singing, to reason by reasoning etc so that schools may simply be workshops in which work is done eagerly.
Thus by good practise, all will at last feel the truth of the proverb Fabricando fabricamur.
[He goes so far to say that in some subjects no theory may be required, at which point the teacher becomes a guide and mentor only:]
The pupils shall themselves seek, discover, discuss, do and repeat without slacking, by their own efforts – the teachers being left merely with the task of seeing whether what is to be done is done and done as it should be.