Quotations from Philip Melanchthon on Education
Melanchthon believed education was essential for the welfare of God’s people and the spread of the Gospel.
¶ Melanchthon believed that “learning is a blessing to the church ... and ignorance a curse because without learning, one loses the fountain of religion - the Holy Scriptures.” - Melanchthon: The Quiet Reformer, Clyde Leonard Manschreck, Abingdon Press, ©1958, page 146
¶ Melanchthon wrote, “Only through the maintenance of learning can religion and good government endure, and God demands that children be brought up in virtue and piety.” - Melanchthon: The Quiet Reformer, Clyde Leonard Manschreck, Abingdon Press, ©1958, page 134
¶ “Melanchthon regarded learning as a tool needed to recover the Word of God which was in its purest form encased in languages that could be learned only by diligent study of a number of subjects. [He wrote], ‘Without an understanding of language, one cannot read the Old and New Testaments; and to understand languages one needs all sorts of related knowledge in history, geography, chronology, and other liberal arts.’” - Melanchthon: The Quiet Reformer, Clyde Leonard Manschreck, Abingdon Press, ©1958, page 146
Melanchthon became known as “the Preceptor of Germany” because of his work to build and restore schools. Below is a description of the “Saxon School Plan.” It is thoroughly classical in its pedagogy.
“Melanchthon said that Latin rather than a variety of
languages should be taught, that teachers should concentrate on a few books
rather than a great many, and that children should be classified according to
ability.
“The first group - The first group should consist of those
children who are learning to read. With these the following method is to be
adopted: They are first to be taught the child’s manual, containing the
alphabet, the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and other prayers. When they have done
this, Donatus and Cato may both be given them. They should be exercised until
they can read well. ... With this they should be taught to write, and be
required to show their writing to the schoolmaster every day. Another mode of
enlarging their knowledge of Latin is to give them every afternoon some words
to commit to memory, as has been the custom in schools hitherto. These children
must likewise be kept at music, and be made to sing with the others.
“The second group - The second group consists of children
who have learned to read, and are now ready to go into grammar. ... The first
hour after noon every day all the children, large and small, should be
practiced in music. Then the schoolmaster must interpret to the second group
the fables of Aesop. After Vespers, he should explain to them the Paedology
of Mosellanus, and select from the Colloquies of Erasmus some that may
conduce to their improvement and discipline.
“This should be repeated the next evening and the children
given some sort sentences before going home at night. In the morning
Melanchthon would have the children again explain Aesop’s fables and decline
words in accordance with their progress.
“After the children learn the rules of construction, he
would have them drilled in diagramming, etymology, syntax, and prosody, until
they understand grammar to perfection. “For if their is negligence here, there
is neither certainty nor stability in whatever is learned beside. And the
children should learn by heart and repeat all the rules, so that they may be
driven and forced, as it were, to learn the grammar well.”
“If such labor is irksome to the schoolmaster, as we often
see, then we should dismiss him, and get another in his place, - one who will
not shrink from the duty of keeping his pupils constantly in the grammar. For
no greater injury can befall learning and the arts than for youth to grow up in
ignorance of grammar.”
“It is essential that children be taught the rudiments of
the Christian and divine life, and likewise there are many reasons why, with
the Scriptures, other books, too, should be laid before them, out of which they
may learn to read. And in this matter we propose the following method: Let the
schoolmaster hear the whole group, making them, one after the other, repeat the
Lord’s Prayer, the creed, and the ten commandments. But if the group is too
large, it may be divided, so that one week one part may recite, and the
remaining part the next.
“After one recitation, the master should explain in a simple
and correct manner the Lord’s prayer, the creed, and at another time the ten
commandments. And he should impress upon the children the essentials, such as
fear of God, faith, and good works.
“Simple psalms that contain the substance of the Christian
life, such as psalms 34, 112, 125, 127, 128, and 133, should be memorized and
simply expounded.
“The third group - Now, when these children have been well
trained in grammar, those among them who have made the greatest proficiency
should be taken out, and formed into the third group. The hour after mid-day,
they, together with the rest, are to devote to music.
“After this the teacher should explain Virgil, Ovid, and
Cicero. Grammar exercises should be continued until the students can compose
verses, and then the grammar studies should be gradually displaced by logic and
rhetoric. All should be rigidly confined to Latin, even the teachers.
“Certain aspects of this school plan should be noted for
their intrinsic value: Teachers should be well trained and interested in their
work, even in routine grammar drilling. They should explain simply and clearly
the materials at hand without trying to display their own erudition. They
curriculum should be simple, in the Latin gymnasia consisting almost entirely
of Latin grammar and literature. Books required of the students should be few
in number, so that the students will not be discouraged by too much work. To
lighten the activities of the day immediately after lunch music should be
given. And the goal of the schools should be clear - to teach the rudiments of
reading and writing, and to train the abler students to use the basic tools to
further their education for higher service in the church or government. The
three basic groups were to be formed on the ground of ability, progress, and
age, and several years were required to cover all three classes.” - Melanchthon:
The Quiet Reformer, Clyde Leonard Manschreck, Abingdon Press, pages 140-142
