Biography

Do you remember the first children's picture book you picked up and"read"? You can thank John Amos Comenius for that experience. John Amos Comenius produced the world's first children's picture book. Comenius was born in Moravia in 1592. Teaching the learner was his passion. He wrote the manual on teaching, The Great Didactic, and the"preschool book," The School of Infancy. Comenius also wrote a curriculum for teaching Latin more efficiently and proficiently. His writing, a Brief Proposal, proposed that children be formally taught each day and that they learn not only about their history but the history of the cultures around them. He was seeking an educational revolution, but geopolitics and wars dominated the landscape. Comenius had to eventually escape to Amsterdam, where he spent his remaining years. He worked on his epic project, Consultation, during his last years. Only parts were published before the remaining manuscript ended up being"lost to the ages" until 1935, when it was discovered in Germany. Comenius died in 1670.

Wailand Groenendyk
CCEL Staff Writer