Concepts of Education in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

THE MOST DEFINITE INFLUENCE permeating Czechoslovak education during its first two decades were the ideas of President Thomas Garigue Masaryk, who wrote no special studies in pedagogy but paid attention to it in his various writings as a former university professor and as a practical statesman (558). He considered pedagogy a practical science, having its theoretical foundation in psychology and especially in educational and abnormal psychology. He criticized the school for its excessive intellectualism and demanded the training of emotions and esthetic and moral education by work. He believed that religious education is not a subject for public schools and should be left to the family. He favored a free and democratic school for all, with individualized training but socializing aims. The teacher must be independent in his thinking and a real authority in his community. The nationalistic aspects of education must be integrated with humanitarian and democratic ideals. The teaching of economics and politics should be a regular part of school curriculums. But education ought not be left to the school alone, since pre-school and postschool education are quite indispensable in a democracy. Women ought to receive more education and training as future mothers and as the first educators of their children. Morality and ethical self-control are the ultimate goals of all educational endeavors (553). The emphasis on moral training was propounded also by Frantisek Drtina, who founded, together with Kadner, the Comenius Pedagogical Institute for School Reforms in Prague in 1919. According to him, the aim of education is morality which leads to goodness; since the highest principle of goodness is God, morality is also a religious goal, and not vice versa (544). Attracted by the humanitarian ideals and Comenius' religious and moral philosophy, Drtina elaborated on Comenius' dictum that the school ought to be a workshop of humanity, free for all, with compulsory attendance, but without obligatory religious training. Drtina's ideas were, however, conditioned by the pre-war conditions in Bohemia and were overshadowed by Masaryk's influence on the educational reforms of the newly formed Czechoslovak state. The first systematic study of psychology in its educational aspects in Czech is credited to Frantisek Krejci (550), on whose positivism were based his pedagogical studies. The child cannot be taught morality; he can only be led to it. Moral education can be realized by proper habits and activities. In this respect Krejci slighted the importance of sociopsychological elements in moral training. Frantisek Cada (539), the