{"id":2262,"date":"2021-08-21T06:24:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T11:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/?p=2262"},"modified":"2023-05-01T19:32:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T00:32:49","slug":"expanding-narrations-history-with-comenius-narrations-rebirth-stage-2-the-great-didactic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationalrenaissance.com\/2021\/08\/21\/expanding-narrations-history-with-comenius-narrations-rebirth-stage-2-the-great-didactic\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding Narration’s History with Comenius: Narration’s Rebirth, Stage 2 – The Great Didactic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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If you\u2019ve been following Educational Renaissance for some time, you might remember my history of narration series<\/a> from last year. During the third article of the series<\/a> I had a short section on narration in John Amos Comenius\u2019 work, relying primarily on Karen Glass\u2019s brief quotations in Know and Tell<\/em>. At the time I was only beginning to read Comenius\u2019 The Great Didactic<\/em> in full, and I had not yet procured his Analytical Didactic<\/em>. Now I have read and digested both, coming away with more narration gems to add to the history. Even then I wrote that \u201cmore remains to be said on Comenius and narration,\u201d and now I am excited to expand that section on Comenius into an article or two of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning to this topic is timely for me because the week before last I trained both my own faculty at Coram Deo Academy<\/a>, and the faculty of The Covenant School of Dallas<\/a> (what a privilege!) using this stunning passage on narration from Comenius\u2019 The Great Didactic<\/em>. So the practical application of it in our modern classical schools is fresh on my mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The great Czech educational reformer, philosopher, pastor and theologian, John Amos Comenius, sometimes called the father of modern education, represents the next stage after Erasmus<\/a> in the history of narration\u2019s rebirth during the Renaissance and Reformation era. The opening statement of his stunning work on teaching methods, Didactica Magna<\/em> or The Great Didactic<\/em>, promises much in terms that are familiar to advocates of narration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet the main object of this, our Didactic, be as follows : To seek and to find a method of instruction, by which teachers may teach less, but learners may learn more; by which schools may be the scene of less noise, aversion, and useless labour, but of more leisure, enjoyment, and solid progress; and through which the Christian community may have less darkness, perplexity, and dissension, but on the other hand more light, orderliness, peace, and rest.\u201d<\/em><\/p> John Amos Comenius, preface to <\/span>The Great Didactic<\/em> <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As I have noted before<\/a>, activities like narration that turn students into active learners are more likely to produce flow, thereby attaining for the student both \u201cenjoyment\u201d and \u201csolid progress\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charlotte Mason found in narration an ideal \u201cmethod\u201d for realizing Comenius\u2019 golden key of education: teachers teaching less and learners learning more. Whether consciously or unconsciously, she likely drew some of the details of the practice itself from him (in addition to other sources like John Locke<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well, Comenius\u2019 profoundly irenic Christian vision of how Christian education might contribute to healing the immediate wounds of Christendom\u2019s strife and divisions (like the Thirty Years War) accords well with Mason\u2019s educational leadership and the classical Christian education movement\u2019s high hopes for renewal in the church. Education is not just for the training of individual Christians, but for the benefits experienced in families, churches and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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