Czech schools didn’t have it easy / Ceske skolstvi to nemelo lehke

The classroom environment in the Czech Republic has been changing. Not only the children hide Intendos (and other electronic games) under the school desk instead of a sling-shot, but also the physical punishment has vanished. Schooling was very important to the Czechs from the start. Until the beginning of the Thirty-year war (1618-1648) the quality of education was very high. Perhaps the biggest reformer of the Czech education system was Jan Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a pastor, teacher and a writer. He came up with the idea of so-called Universal education which means that everyone has the right to get educated. He also disagreed with any form of physical punishment. Comenius’ loyalty to teaching – and not only in the Czech Republic alone – earned him the nickname of the “Teacher of the Nations“. After the Thirty-year war was over, the quality of education in Czech went down the drain. It became so bad that many children didn’t even know how to read and write! One of the reasons why this happened is that teaching wasn’t even a profession yet. It was usually done by organ-players, scribes or retired soldiers as a side-job. The fact that an army soldier was in charge of the classroom was the reason why the children would behave so well back then:) Once Marie Therese took over the Czech throne in the 18th century, the school attendance became obligatory. She also created a law, where every church was to have a school attached to it. Until 1918 the teachings would start and end with a prayer, which was later substituted by singing.

CZ: Skolni casy se v Cechach meni. Nejen ze se pod lavici schovavaji gameboye a mobily misto drevenych praku, ale take telesne tresty uz nejsou v mode. Jiz v od davnych casu bylo skolstvi v Cechach lidem velmi dulezite. Az do zacatku tricetilete valky (1618 – 1648) bylo take na velmi dobre urovni. Jednim z nejdulezitejsich osobnosti vzdelanosti byl Jan Amos Komensky (1592 – 1670), ktery se zastaval nazoru, ze narok na vzdelani by meli mit vsichni; take nesouhlasil s telesnymi testy. Jeho oddanost ke skolstvi – a to nejen v Cechach – mu priradila cestnou prezdivku “ucitele narodu”. Pote, co tricetileta valka zkoncila se uroven skolstvi velmi zhorsila a to tak, ze mnoho zaku neumelo ani psat, ani cist nebo pocitat. Jednim z duvodu mohlo byt take to, ze byti ucitelem v tehdejsi dobe nebyla oficialni profese, byl to takovy “side-job”. Ucitelovani se ujali lide jako pisari, varhanici nebo vyslouzili vojaci. Myslite, ze nejaky ten vojak v penzi bude mit trpelivost se zlobivymi detmi? Ty je srovnali do late, nez bys napocital do tri…Jakmile se Marie Terezie v polovine 18. stoleti ujala trunu, skolni dochazka se stala povinnou a zaroven platil zakon, ze kazda farnost musi mit take svou vlastni skolu. Az do roku 1918 vyucovani zacinalo, a take koncilo, motlitbou. Pote byli modlitby nahrazeny zpivanim.

Sources: http://www.ceske-tradice.cz/cz/k2,36,189-skola/c438-skola-historie/

http://cs.wikipedia.org/