Customer Reviews

Orbis Pictus (1887)

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This book, in bilingual English and Latin, translated from the Dutch, is the first book specifically written for children. The lineal ancestor of such works as Richard Scarry's Big Word Book, Diderot's Encyclopedia, and Duden, it comprises chapters on everything from Christian cosmology to household management (16th century style) each illustrated by a woodcut with numbered vignettes which each correspond to a word or phrase in the accompanying essay. Granted, it comprises moral lessons, but isn't quite as preachy as most of the books that followed it. Raw data is the main focus: what things are called, how things are done. It therefore has a broadbased appeal: plenty of pictures (it deserves to be redrawn, however), great historical interest (both in itself or for someone curious about "old-timey" things), students of literature, and of course, its original purpose, to teach Latin and English vocabulary.

One example of how clear it is: I used some of the ideas (by taping large sheets of paper on the walls and covering them with wall hangings) in the chapter "The Stove" (which refers to a specially insulated and heated room for use in the winter) to decorate a sitting room in a Depression-era Colonial house prone to drafts. They still work.

Comenius is the father of modern education. As a judge I see the end result of the ruinous ideas of Rousseau that man can be made good simply through education. DeToqueville in Democracy in America points out that this is not so as does Washington in his farewell address. Comenius points out that man must be taught good character while he is learning to read and that school should be fun. He was centuries ahead of Montessori.