Abstract
When educators talk about important thinkers and sources for education, Jan Amos Comenius isn’t a name that normally rises to the top, and yet, this seventeenth-century education reformer is often credited with being a significant voice in the formation of modern education. In fact, at one point, Comenius turned down the position of president at Harvard University in order to help the Queen of Sweden reform the country’s educational system. While not framed as an introductory text, Jan Hábl’s new book, On Being Human(e), has the potential to help introduce a new audience of educators to Comenius’ ideas. Hábl has done extensive work on Comenius, including a previous book, Lessons in Humanity from the Life & Works of Jan Amos Comenius (Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, 2011). This present text seems to draw on the material from his earlier work and aims to bring the study of Comenius to a wider audience.
Hábl’s overall goal is to examine the ways in which Comenius’ anthropology shapes and connects with his pedagogy (p. xiv). He starts with the claim that Comenius saw humans as both ontologically good and at the same time morally fallen. From this dual reality, Hábl sets out to show that Comenius offers a pedagogy of humanization whereby students can be formed into the fullness of their humanity as they were intended as creatures made in the image of God.
In order to demonstrate this pedagogy of humanization, Hábl approaches Comenius’ ideas by historically tying together the historical circumstances of Comenius’ life with the development of his thought. Nearly every chapter begins with a section on “Biographical contexts” before diving into an examination of a key text from that particular period. The one exception to this pattern is chapter 3, where Hábl examines the only “narrative genre” (p. 26) Comenius wrote, the Labyrinth. Instead of his normal historical examination, Hábl provides a literary analysis of the text and seeks to show how this text may not further Comenius’ theory, but instead how it serves as “a specific example of [the] pedagogical humanization” (p. 28). The pattern of offering historical context and in-depth analysis of a key text works effectively to highlight the reality that thinking, on education or any topic, often comes out of the social circumstances of an individual’s life.
Even with the structure and focus on historical situation, the text itself has an unbalanced feel, as Hábl spends most of his time explaining Comenius’ Labyrinth and Didactics, in chapters 3 and 4, respectively, and only takes a cursory look at texts from other periods. In fact, these two chapters take up over half the overall text. This imbalance causes some confusion as the early chapters read more like a simple historical explanation of Comenius rather than an explanation of his pedagogy of humanization; however, when Hábl finally gets to chapter 4 and his explanation of the Didactics, his argument turns into a clear and thorough articulation of Comenius’ pedagogical ideas. In the explanation of the Didactics, Hábl articulates Comenius’ vision of education connecting with humanity’s need for learning, as well as the need to grow in virtue and godliness (p. 92). Thus, for Comenius, “the ultimate goal of all education is to bring human beings to the fulfillment of their purpose for existence” (p. 88). It is also in the discussion of the Didactics that Hábl begins to offer a vision for contemporary education where, as Comenius reminds us, the goal of education “is the formation of authentic humanity” (p. 105). As a reader, this is what I was waiting for after the “Introduction” announced the goal as the examination of Comenius’ pedagogy of humanization.
There is a lot to commend in this new work on Comenius, and it deserves to gain a wide audience. Those unfamiliar with Jan Comenius will find this to be a helpful introduction to some of the main themes and contours of his thinking. They will also find the several “Appendices” helpful, as Hábl provides a detailed outline of Comenius’ life as well as a history of the reception of his work. Those who are interested in the history and philosophy of education along with those desiring to rethink education in order to focus on the formation of the whole student will find here a vision for education—namely, a vision that is grounded in theological anthropology and moves beyond the simple acquisition of skills and knowledge, and instead moves toward the formation of people in virtue and piety. While it may take a while for Hábl to bring out his main argument, he ultimately provides a thoughtful and important exposition of Comenius’ hope that education can aid in the restoration of our humanity.