Desiderius Erasmus – On a liberal education for children

3 september 2014 door Paul A. Kirschner 1 reactie

Sometimes, the Butterfly Defect (Gavriel Solomon) leads to something relevant and interesting. Here an excerpt from De pueris instituendis [On a liberal education for children], written by Desiderius Erasmus in Italy and published in 1529 which I accidentally came across. It is a clear statement of Erasmus’ enormous faith in the power of education, and in my opinion, and is both surprisingly current with respect to experience (learning by doing / inquiry learning) and instruction and still true.

First a piece of background information. Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1466-1536) was – among other things – a Dutch Renaissance humanist, social critic, and teacher. Amongst humanists, he enjoyed the nickname “Prince of the Humanists”. and is surprisingly current with respect to experience (learning by doing / inquiry learning) and instruction.

 

§12 – The error of those who think that experience gives all the education that men need. 49 A-F

They err, therefore, who affirm that wisdom is won by handling affairs and by contact with life, without aid from the teaching of philosophy. Tell me, can a man run his best in the dark? Or, can a gladiator conquer if he be blindfold? The precepts of philosophy — which is knowledge applied to life — are, as it were, the eyes of the mind, and lighten us to the consciousness of what we may do and may not do. A long and manifold experience is, beyond doubt, of great profit, but only to such as by the wisdom of learning have acquired an intelligent and informed judgment. Besides, philosophy teaches us more in one year than our own individual experience can teach us in thirty, and its teaching carries none of the risks which the method of learning by experience of necessity brings with it. For example, you educate your son to the mystery of medicine. Do you allow him to rely on the method of “experience” in order that he may learn to distinguish between poisons and healing drugs? Or, do you send him to the treatises ? It is an unhappy education which teaches the master mariner the rudiments of navigation by shipwrecks: or the Prince the true way of kingship by revolutions, invasions or slaughter. Is it not the wise part to learn beforehand how to avoid mischiefs rather than with the pains of experience to remedy them? Thus Philip of Macedon put his son Alexander to school with Aristotle that he might learn philosophy of him, to the end that when a king he should be saved from doing things which must be repented of. Thus education shews us in brief what we should follow, what avoid ; she does not wait till we have suffered the evil results of our mistakes, but warns us in advance against courses which will lead to failure and misery. Let us, therefore, firmly knit up this threefold cord : let Nature be by Training guided to wise ends, let Nature and Training, thus united, be made perfect by right Practice.

 

Concerning the Aim and Method of Education – Desiderius Gerhard ErasmusWoodward, W. H. (Ed.) (1904). Desiderius Erasmus, Concerning the aim and method of education (pp. 191-192). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. https://archive.org/details/desideriuserasmu00woodiala

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Over Paul A. Kirschner

Nederlands: Paul A. Kirschner (1951) is Emeritus hoogleraar Onderwijspsychologie aan de Open Universiteit (Nederland), eredoctor (doctor honoris causa) aan Oulu University (Finland), Gastprofessor aan de Thomas More Hogeschool (België) en eigenaar van kirschner-ED. Hij was eerder Universiteitshoogleraar en hoogleraar Onderwijspsychologie aan de Open Universiteit, Visiting Professor Onderwijs met een leerstoel in Leren en Interactie in de Lerarenopleiding aan Oulu University, hoogleraar Onderwijswetenschappen aan de Universiteit Utrecht, hoogleraar Contact- en Afstandsonderwijs aan de Universiteit Maastricht en Visiting Professor aan de Open University of Catalonia (Spain). Hij is een internationaal erkende expert op zijn gebied met meer dan 350 wetenschappelijke publicaties. Hij heeft zitting gehad in de Onderwijsraad in de periode 2000-2004 en de Wetenschappelijk Technische Raad van SURF van 2009-2019. Hij is Fellow van de American Educational Research Association (NB de eerste Europeaan aan wie deze eer werd toegekend), de International Society of the Learning Sciences en de Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Science of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (NIAS-KNAW). Hij was president van de International Society of the Learning Sciences in de periode 2010-2011. Hij is hoofdredacteur van de Journal of Computer Assisted Learning en commissioning editor van Computers in Human Behavior. Hij heeft veel boeken (mede)geschreven, o.a. Ten steps to complex learning (Routledge/Erlbaum), Op de Schouders van Reuzen en Wijze Lessen: Twaalf Bouwstenen voor Effectieve Didactiek (beiden gratis verkrijgbaar op het web), twee boeken over mythes in het onderwijs Jongens zijn Slimmer dan Meisjes XL en Juffen zijn Toffer dan Meesters (beiden ook in het Engels verschenen), Evidence Informed Learning Design, and How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice. Hij schrift ook regelmatig voor Didactief (de kolom KirschnerKiest over wat docenten kunnen met wetenschappelijke resultaten). Hij wordt gezien als expert op veel gebieden en vooral het ontwerpen van effectief, efficiënt en bevredigend onderwijs, computerondersteund samenwerkend leren (CSCL), mediagebruik in het onderwijs en het verwerven van complex cognitieve vaardigheden. English: Paul A. Kirschner, dr.h.c. (1951) is Emeritus Professor Educational Psychology at the Open University of the Netherlands, Guest Professor at the Thomas More University of Applied Science in Mechelen, Belgium, Honorary Doctor (Doctor Honoris Causa) at the University of Oulu, Finland, and owner of kirschner-ED which carries out educational consultancy, masterclasses for teachers, school heads and educational policy makers, and keynotes/presentations at conferences and other educational get-togethers. He is a Research Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the International Society of the Learning Sciences, and the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Science. He is a past President (2010-2011) of the International Society of the Learning Sciences and former member of the Dutch Educational Council and the Scientific Technical Council of the Foundation for University Computing Facilities (SURF WTR). He is chief editor of Journal of Computer Assisted Learning and commissioning editor of Computers in Human Behavior. He has also published more than 350 scientific articles as well as many popular articles for teacher journals. As for books, he is co-author of How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology, Evidence Informed Learning Design, Urban Myths about Learning and Education and More Urban Myths about Learning and Education as well as of the highly successful book Ten Steps to Complex Learning, and editor of two other books (Visualizing Argumentation and What we know about CSCL). He is seen as an expert in many areas and in particular the design of effective, efficient and enjoyable education, computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), media use in education, and the acquisition of complex cognitive skills.
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Eén reactie naar “Desiderius Erasmus – On a liberal education for children”

  1. Onbekend's avatar
    teachingbattleground Beantwoorden 4 september 2014 bij 14:05

    Dit is op The Echo Chamber herblogd.

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