We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood. To hate people because they were born in another country, because they speak a different language, or because they take a different view on this subject or that, is a great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human. Let us have but one end in view: the welfare of humanity.
The proper education of the young does not consist in stuffing their heads with a mass of words, sentences, and ideas dragged together out of various authors, but in opening up their understanding to the outer world, so that a living stream may flow from their own minds, just as leaves, flowers, and fruit spring from the bud on a tree.
Let the main object of education be to seek and to establish a method of instruction, by which teachers may teach less, but learners learn more.
Three things give the student the possibility of surpassing his teacher:
- ask a lot of questions,
- remember the answers, and then
- teach
“The school is the manufactory of humanity,” said John Amos Comenius, often cited as the father of modern education.
Not the children of the rich or of the powerful only, but of all alike, boys and girls, both noble and ignoble, rich and poor, in all cities and towns, villages and hamlets, should be sent to school. Education is indeed necessary for all, and this is evident if we consider the different degrees of ability. No one doubts that those who are stupid need instruction that they may shake off their natural dullness. But in reality those who are clever need it far more, since an active mind, if not occupied with useful things, will busy itself with what is useless, curious, and pernicious.
Preserve in Prague a hidden seed to glorify Thy name.