Great Didactic

Johann Amos Comenius' Didactica Magna is considered the first major work on pedagogy and was groundbreaking for the schooling of children. The philosopher, pedagogue, and theologian followed the philosophy that everyone can and should learn everything and was the first to think about pedagogy from the child's perspective rather than from that of the adult. In his Great Didactic he also explicitly advocates compulsory education for all girls and boys across all social classes, regardless of their intellectual abilities. According to him, teaching should take place in all schools without coercion or violence. His goals were equal opportunity and humanity. Comenius wrote the autograph of this remarkable treatise, which is now preserved in the National Library of the Czech Republic, around 1629. However, it took another 28 years before the work was finally published in print, thus establishing the discipline of “pedagogy” as such.