Ensinar todo, a tod@s, de todas as maneiras e sempre.

“Omnia, omnes, omnibus, semper”

Teaching everything, everybody, everyway, everytime.

Disagreeing of the contemporary educational politics, Jan Amos Komensky — latinized into Comenius by himself— (a Czech educationalist from XVIIth) was always on pupils’ side. He was the first to use pictures in textbooks (Orbis Pictus, The Visible World In Pictures, 1658), and believed in what might be called a holistic concept of education. He taught that education began in the earliest days of childhood, and continued throughout all life. He advocated the formal education of women, an unheard idea at his day.

A contemporary of Galileo, Descartes, Rembrandt, and Milton, Comenius contributed greatly to the Enlightenment. His educational thought was profoundly respected in Northern Europe. He was called upon to completely restructure the Swedish school system.

Comenius published 154 books, mostly dealing with educational philosophy and theology. He died in Amsterdam in 1670, after having gone into exile when Bohemia and his own Moravian were ceded to Rome in the Peace of Westphalia at the close of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), to not to become a Catholic.

His main work, writen originally in Czech and afterwards traslated into Latin, was Didactica Magna(1649), which explains how all people learn and how they should be taught from childhood till adult ages even after university (right to a formal education throughout life). It was a radical book.

Comenius believed in the universal right to education and in goodness and human will to learn as natural qualities which were rejected at the schools in that time. His ideas would have meant revolution –and some of them still remain that way:

* Education for everyone, without distinction of sex, social or economical status, intelligence, urban nor rural environment

* All the people have got a natural tendency to learning, knowledge and experiment, so much with intelligence as with senses

* Learning happens during all one’s life

* Either in a natural or artificial way (extracurricular activities), life offers us lots of oportunities for learning, with no hard demanding, through playing as well physical and intellectual exercise

* Learning grows by steps: learning is a stair along which to go up to the highest towers

* School must provide the fundamental knowledge and the basic intellectual tools to prepare us for facing life

* Financial support: no investment in education of children and youth must be saved

* Didactics must supply the pupils with summaries and overall views of the authors to be studied, for learning is something which advances from general into detail.

Asunción G. Cabaleiro, Santiago Rodríguez
(IES V. Paz-Andrade)
& José João M. Teixeira
(EB 2,3 de Rio Tinto)

Discordando da política educativa do seu tempo, Jan Amos Komensky — latinizado por el en Comenius— (pedagogo ilustrado checo do século XVII) posicionouse sempre do lado do alumnado. Foi o primeiro en utilizar ilustracións nos libros de texto (Orbis Pictus, O Mundo Sensíbel en Imaxes, 1658), e acreditaba nun concepto holístico da educación (o producto non é a simples suma das partes). Segundo a súa ensinanza, a educación comeza na primeira infancia e continúa durante toda a vida. Defendeu a educación formal tamén para as mulleres, idea inusitada na súa época.

Contemporáneo de Galileo, Descartes, Rembrandt e Milton, a aportación de Comenius ao movemento Ilustrado foi enorme. As súas ideas pedagóxicas foron moi respeitadas no Norte de Europa, sendo chamado para reestructurar por completo o sistema educativo sueco.

Publicou 154 libros, a maioría sobre filosofía pedagóxica e teoloxía. Exilado da súa Moravia natal para non converterse ao Catolicismo cando, tras a Guerra dos Trinta Anos (1618-1648) Moldavia e Bohemia pasaron baixo dominio de Roma (Paz de Westfalia), finou en Amsterdam en 1670.

A súa obra principal, escrita orixinalmente en checo e despois traducida ao latín, foi a Didactica Magna (1649), na que explica como todas as persoas aprenden e como deberían ser ensinadas desde a infancia ata máis alá da universidade (dereito a recibir educación formal en calquera momento durante toda a vida). Foi unha obra radical.

Comenius acreditaba no dereito universal á educación e nas naturais bondade e desexo de aprender e coñecer das persoas, cualidades que ao seu ver eran, certamente, afuxentadas nas escolas do seu tempo. As súas ideas educativas resultaban revolucionarias (e algunhas ainda o son):

* Educación para todos e todas, sen discriminación por sexo, clase económica ou social, intelixencia, ámbito rural ou urbano

* Todas as persoas temos unha tendencia natural para aprender, coñecer e experimentar, tanto coa intelixencia como cos sentidos

* De modo natural ou artificial (actividades extraescolares), a vida ofrécenos, sen esixencias, infinidade de ocasións de aprendizaxe a través do xogo e o exercicio físico e mental

* Apréndese por etapas: a aprendizaxe é como unha escada pola que ascender ata as torres máis altas

* A escola debe darnos o coñecemento fundamental e as ferramentas intelectuais básicas para enfrontar a vida

* Soporte financeiro: non debe aforrarse ningún investimento na educación da infancia e mocidade

* A Didáctica debe proporcionar ao alumnado resumos e visións globais da obra dos autores que se deben estudiar, pois a aprendizaxe avanza desde o xeral ata o detalle.

Santiago Rodríguez
(IES V. Paz-Andrade)
& José João M. Teixeira
(EB 2,3 de Rio Tinto)