Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/415



1. is a proverb in Bohemia, “A school without discipline is like a mill without water,” and this is very true. For, if you withdraw the water from a mill, it stops, and, in the same way, if you deprive a school of discipline, you take away from it its motive power. A field also, if it be never ploughed, produces nothing but weeds; and trees, if not continually pruned, revert to their wild state and bear no fruit. It must not be thought, however, that we wish our schools to resound with shrieks and with blows. What we demand is vigilance and attention on the part of the master and of the pupils. For discipline is nothing but an unfailing method by which we may make our scholars, scholars in reality.

2. As regards discipline, therefore, it is advisable that the educator of youth know its object, its subject-matter, and the various forms which it may assume, since he will then know why, when, and how, systematised severity is to be used.

3. We may start with the incontestable proposition that punishment should be employed towards those who err. But it is not because they have erred that they should be punished (for what has been done cannot be undone), but in order that they may not err again in the future. Discipline should therefore be free from personal elements, such as anger or dislike, and should be exercised with such