the earth, sun, moon and stars; habits of neatness and politeness. What has our Kindergarten in the next street to offer more than these? The elementary school included instruction in morals, elements of civics, government and economics; geography, especially of one’s own country; history of noted men of past and present, and a knowledge of art. All these were to be learned in the tongue of the country. The Latin, or high school, continued these subjects, with the addition of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, etc.
The University was meant to give instruction in general, or universal knowledge, languages, literature, science and art. Here we also have the most modern conception of vocational schools, as each individual was supposed to choose the course of instruction at the university for which he or she was peculiarly adapted. At the university pupils of exceptional ability were urged to pursue all branches of knowledge, in order that each country should have a rich reserve of teachers of encyclopaedic knowledge to whom the multitudes might come for mental refreshment and instruction.
The education which we are offering to all men and women to-day without regard to race, creed or colour, is but a 20th century attempt to follow in the footsteps of the wise and modest Czech reformer of the 16th century, whose life was given to teaching his fellow men the way to live in order to make their own lives, and consequently their own country, fuller and richer in that wisdom which is more precious than rubies.
That Comenius was abreast of his own times and far ahead of them is shown again and again throughout his writings. It may well make our American women smile, if not blush, to read that “some women would rather be seen carrying a dog or a squirrel in their arms than their own baby”, and again we have a most up-to-date remonstrance against the use of “maddening drink of wine and brandy to ruin the race.” Can Fashion and Prohibition demand a more enthusiastic priest! Even our most approved methods of neurology can go no further than to quote Comenius in saying that “A joyful mind is half-health.”
The latest Nature books can find rich “copy” in his precepts and it is of interest to remember that his Orbis Pictus was the first child’s picture-book. If all American citizens, whatever their native land, would respond to the appeal of Comenius for the need of an universal education, the much longed for peace among nations might perhaps be reached more quickly, through mutual understanding, and he would be alive in his teachings to-day, although he died in 1670 and cannot “come over here to lecture!”
INGRATITUDE.
Fm. Ackerman, lately The Times correspondent in Siberia, says that the Czechoslovaks want to go home. They were revolutionists fighting for the freedom of their own country, and the events which led to their war against the Bolsheviki were only an episode in the great war of which the Czechoslovak revolution was another episode. They were not sent to Siberia by the Allies, they were there by accident; but by their presence and their hard fighting they undoubtedly kept the Bolsheviki and the German influence within bounds, and destroyed German activity of the Urals.
Now the great war is over and the Czechoslovak revolution has ended in glorious triumph. Nevertheless, these men are still dying every day for their country. Not that the Czechoslovak Republic has any direct interest in the events in Siberia; but the boundaries of that republic are yet to be determined by the Peace Conference. Its Government has asked the Allies to let the army come home to a country where it is badly needed before it wastes away on the Siberian front; but it dares not ask very persistently for fear that the annoyance of the Powers who are letting the Czechoslovaks do their work in Russia may express itself in curtailment of the territories of the new State. Czechs and Slovaks are being killed on the Siberian front because their Government is afraid to offend the Allies.
The five great Powers who could not trust one another sufficiently to send their own troops to Russia in any adequate numbers, but whose work there has been done, so far as it has been done at all, by these Czechoslovaks who were there by chance, might at least manifest their gratitude by letting the Czechs go home. They have done their work and we have already told them we shall send none of our own men to their relief. It is grossly unfair to ask the Czechoslovaks to stay in Siberia after the Allies have abandoned Russia to her fate.
N. Y . Times, Feb. 27.
According to the Washington Star Congressman Sabath was told by President Wilson that the minister to Czechoslovakia would be some American now in the diplomatic service in a nearby country.
