# Transcript: J. A. Komenský: character matters ## Description School should be a "workshop of humanity," not a "torture chamber of the spirit," said J. A. Komenský 350 years ago, and he tirelessly insisted that true education means "knowing good, wanting good, doing good, even when no one is watching." How do we learn goodness? How is a good personality formed? Humanity? Good character?  Who is Jan Hábl? Jan Hábl is a husband, father, educator, and komeniologist. After studying philosophy of education at the University of Wales, he worked as an English teacher, conducted research at the Komenský Institute in Prague, and lectured at universities in Hradec Králové and Ústí nad Labem in fields at the intersection of pedagogy, anthropology, ethics, and history of education. He is the author of both scholarly and literary titles, such as Labyrint upgrade. Jinotajný román (nejen) pro děti (2015), Na charakteru záleží, problém učitelnosti dobra (2020), I když se nikdo nedívá, fundamentální otázky etického vychovatelství (P. Mervart 2015), Aby člověk neupadal v nečlověka (P. Mervart 2015), Učit (se) příběhem (Host 2013), On being human(e) (Wipf&Stock 2017). ## Transcript **[00:00:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:00:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:01:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:02:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:03:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:04:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:05:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:06:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:07:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:08:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:00]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:06]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:12]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:18]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:24]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:30]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:36]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:42]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:48]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:09:54]** www.hradeckesluzby.cz **[00:10:00]** About the nature of good, try to think through what it means when you say I define good, **[00:10:11]** I am the one, the subject, who defines good, or is there some good that defines me and you, **[00:10:23]** simply us humans. Who in the relationship between I, human, and good actually is, when we talk about a more finite definition, **[00:10:33]** do you hear that word? Finitum means limitation, an end. Who is more final, who is more finite? **[00:10:41]** Who in the relationship between I and good actually defines whom? This is a debate that is ongoing, I don't have more time for it. **[00:10:50]** Good should be taught by a good person, and we know there's a bit of a problem with that. Every sane person **[00:11:04]** must admit that I am simply not a perfect exemplar, none of us are perfect. **[00:11:13]** When Menon came to Socrates and asked if virtue is teachable, if good is teachable, Socrates said, **[00:11:22]** well, who will teach it? They searched for a virtuous person in history and couldn't find anyone, because Socrates was a consistent philosopher **[00:11:35]** and he asked, virtuous, good, not 20% good, or 30% good, or this kind of good, but truly good. **[00:11:49]** That's the kind of person we would want to raise, but our children. And who is such a person? And Menon, a general who wanted **[00:11:58]** brave soldiers, he himself knows he is not. Socrates also knows he is not perfect. So how can we teach it? **[00:12:06]** And yet we do. Intuitively, every educator, every parent knows they should and also tells their children, **[00:12:19]** don't do this, do that, this is good, that is not, don't pull hair, don't stick the screwdriver into the socket, **[00:12:28]** and some things are moral in nature, some are explained as protecting children from harm, **[00:12:36]** but throughout raising both our own and other people's children, we keep saying that magic phrase, **[00:12:46]** you should, you shouldn't. And yet I myself often don't do what I expect from others, **[00:12:59]** I'm simply not morally perfect. And yet I raise children. So it's a big question how an imperfect, **[00:13:07]** not entirely good, somewhat doubtful, fragile person like me, or anyone, can actually raise children. **[00:13:15]** And yet I have the audacity, I had children and I raise them. This is a question we need to face. **[00:13:29]** I will skip the question of whether good can be taught, and tell you yes, I believe it can be. **[00:13:41]** I think it will be clear from what I say next why this is obvious. **[00:13:46]** So I will jump straight to the two questions I announced, why and how. **[00:13:53]** First, why character matters. If I had more time, I would start a conversation now, **[00:14:00]** because I would be very interested in what you say, how you see it, how you perceive our reality. **[00:14:10]** We all probably know very well that reality is a certain way and should be a certain way. **[00:14:19]** Or rather, sometimes it shouldn't be. There are two ways to respond to reality. **[00:14:31]** I will probably show you both ways with examples. **[00:14:38]** In a moment, I'll illuminate how my hero, the lifelong Komenský, answers this question. **[00:14:45]** It's an archaic, beautiful, old, good answer. **[00:14:54]** But there is also a modern, contemporary one that concerns each of us directly. **[00:15:07]** First, Komenský, the old-fashioned way. Komenský, I say, it was somewhere in the title, **[00:15:12]** I think, somewhere on a poster. Komenský says this. **[00:15:20]** "A golden ring on a sow's snout is skill in a wicked man." **[00:15:26]** I apologize for his language, but that's how he says it, I'm just quoting. **[00:15:32]** Do you hear that? Something so inappropriate, inadequate, undesirable, and bad, **[00:15:40]** like a pig wearing an earring, is what he calls skill, **[00:15:46]** meaning learned. When a person is learned, educated, smart, knowledgeable, **[00:15:53]** but not virtuous. Immoral or without character. **[00:16:01]** And elsewhere Komenský says this sentence: a learned but immoral person, **[00:16:06]** is a burden to me. You see the visualized pig, **[00:16:14]** this is for children, because as part of Komenský's anniversary year, **[00:16:18]** which is this year, the 430th anniversary of his birth, we illustrated some quotes **[00:16:25]** like this for children. Again, you hear the sentence, learned but immoral, **[00:16:33]** is a burden to me. And elsewhere Komenský says, **[00:16:37]** the more learned a person is, but without character, **[00:16:43]** the more dangerous they are, the greater burden they are to others, to the country. **[00:16:52]** Don't say it out loud, but does anyone specific come to mind? **[00:16:57]** We don't want to argue, but it's actually a problem, right? **[00:17:04]** When I talk with students, at this exact moment we discuss **[00:17:09]** various learned people we know, but without character. **[00:17:15]** And what kind of burden is that? It doesn't matter what social group or class, **[00:17:22]** whether it's a driver you meet, a dog owner, a politician, **[00:17:30]** or a president, or any other doctor, or teacher, **[00:17:37]** speaking of education. It's really a problem when this happens. **[00:17:45]** And elsewhere Komenský says this sentence, which should be carved in stone, **[00:17:51]** and I admit this sentence struck me years ago and made me **[00:17:58]** fall in love with Komenský. He says, **[00:18:05]** that when we educate a person, when we send our children to school, **[00:18:11]** we need to educate the whole person, the whole little human being, **[00:18:17]** and by whole he means to know good, want good, do good, **[00:18:24]** with the very important addition, even when no one is watching. **[00:18:29]** Do you hear that? That is integrity of character. **[00:18:33]** Knowing is the cognitive part, wanting is the volitional, moral part, **[00:18:40]** and doing—just knowing is not enough. Very often I know exactly what is good, **[00:18:47]** but that doesn't mean I want it. And even if I manage to stir my will, **[00:18:53]** telling myself, starting tomorrow, I want something, whatever it is, **[00:18:59]** that's still not enough, I need to gather myself, go and do it. **[00:19:06]** And a good Komenský-style education does all this for children, arranges it for them, **[00:19:16]** so they know, understand, so that there is will involved, it gives them the chance to fall in love with it, **[00:19:24]** so the child wants it and also creates an opportunity to touch that good, **[00:19:31]** to actually reach out and touch it through action. **[00:19:35]** And even when no one is watching, do you hear that? This sentence got me, **[00:19:41]** because I thought, well, if anyone knows the answer to this question, **[00:19:46]** how to do it, how to raise a character with such integrity, **[00:19:54]** that it doesn't matter whether they are seen or not, **[00:19:58]** because they don't do it for show. **[00:20:00]** They do it for people, but this is really who they are, or this is me, I act like this under all circumstances, **[00:20:08]** so I thought, if our schools produced such individuals, it would solve a lot of problems in our society. **[00:20:19]** So I researched further and wanted to get to the bottom of it. **[00:20:25]** Before we dive into the question of how, allow me a brief reflection, **[00:20:34]** which has motivated me my whole life on this topic, why deal with it, why pay attention to it. **[00:20:45]** May I ask, you probably can't see or hear, but just wave your hand, **[00:20:52]** if any of you have completed a course, like you decided to invest in yourself, **[00:21:00]** and said, I'll take an 8-hour, 16-hour, or 250-hour course, **[00:21:07]** some kind of self-development educational course. **[00:21:13]** It's true that this audience might not be completely normal, that was to be expected. **[00:21:21]** Thank you. **[00:21:24]** When a person invests in themselves like this, it usually costs money too, **[00:21:29]** so naturally we have some expectations. **[00:21:38]** For our children, we decided to invest in them during grades 1 to 9, **[00:21:50]** if you multiply on average 5 hours a day, that's 8,000 hours. **[00:21:58]** Our children take an educational, developmental course of 8,000 hours. **[00:22:08]** They spend that many hours at school. **[00:22:11]** And my question is whether what they get there is what the children need first of all, **[00:22:23]** and what we as the surrounding world, as society, need, **[00:22:29]** and also whether it is what we expect from school, when it was first created long ago **[00:22:36]** in ancient cultures, our Czech word škola comes from the Greek scholé, **[00:22:43]** so let's say somewhere around that time when it was created, is it what we expect from it. **[00:22:50]** When the child, and now I'm not talking about secondary or higher education, **[00:22:54]** but just the first nine years, when the child leaves school, **[00:23:00]** and at the end of that process we have the, forgive me the word, the product, **[00:23:09]** was it worth those 8,000 hours, what do we actually expect from it? **[00:23:15]** We expect that child, what is essential about that school, what is really important? **[00:23:23]** To be able to name African rivers? **[00:23:27]** Neenatý or ičitý? **[00:23:30]** Or the endoplasmic reticulum? **[00:23:34]** I studied that with my daughter Barunka during the lockdown, **[00:23:39]** So in sixth grade, in science, or whatever it's called, **[00:23:44]** they learned about the cell, everything that's inside a cell. **[00:23:49]** And now I hear her explaining it, memorizing and saying, **[00:23:55]** among other things, endoplasmic reticulum. **[00:23:59]** Do you know what that is? I don't. **[00:24:02]** But my child in sixth grade also doesn't know what it is. **[00:24:07]** But she knows it's there. **[00:24:10]** And when I ask her what it is, she says, don't bother me, don't delay me, **[00:24:15]** I have to learn it for a test tomorrow. **[00:24:18]** And woe to you if you say anything to the teacher, because as she knows, **[00:24:22]** that I'm from the faculty of education, I sometimes have the tendency, **[00:24:26]** like to write, and if I go to the class exam, **[00:24:32]** then above all, don't say anything. **[00:24:35]** I guess you understand me, today's mainstream, our school system, **[00:24:42]** is set up so that the ultimate goal, the essential thing, **[00:24:47]** what actually happens there, and now regardless of proclamations **[00:24:52]** in some nice documents we've formulated, **[00:24:56]** but in reality, it's competitiveness. **[00:25:01]** Employment in the labor market. **[00:25:06]** And I say with Comenius, well yes, sure, **[00:25:11]** we need some knowledge, and not just knowledge, **[00:25:15]** we know we need competences, skills, attitudes, **[00:25:19]** many other things, but with Comenius, **[00:25:25]** do you still hear that bastard with the golden clip, **[00:25:31]** isn't it more like we want our schools **[00:25:37]** to produce, I'll say it, good people, kind people, **[00:25:45]** honest people, diligent, brave, just, **[00:25:52]** who understand basic moral values, **[00:25:57]** and by the way, of course, they also learn **[00:26:02]** that there is a cell and this and that, thousands of other facts, **[00:26:06]** but what is essential and what is just the accompaniment? **[00:26:11]** I would turn it back to our mainstream. **[00:26:15]** I would say it's not so much about competitiveness, **[00:26:20]** it's about character. And I even have a heretical belief **[00:26:27]** that if the character is good, then maybe the **[00:26:32]** employment will be better too. But that's another discussion. **[00:26:37]** My answer then is it depends on character. **[00:26:45]** I am convinced that it depends on it and that it depends on it first and foremost. **[00:26:50]** And if the character is good, then the knowledge, **[00:26:54]** that comes with it, will be used well and not abused **[00:26:59]** and this place will be a better place to live. **[00:27:05]** So let's look with Komenský at his answer to the question, **[00:27:12]** how human character is cultivated and formed. **[00:27:17]** You have eight images in front of you, I try to visualize ideas, **[00:27:24]** so these are eight principles I extracted and fused together. **[00:27:33]** Komenský wrote about 250 books, a real graphomaniac, **[00:27:38]** who can read all that, thousands of pages, but it was worth it. **[00:27:43]** So now I'll try to give a brief overview of his principles, **[00:27:52]** on how good character is actually formed. **[00:27:55]** And friends, dear listeners, one more note before we start. **[00:28:01]** I realized it can be listened to or perceived in two ways. **[00:28:13]** One is teaching someone, the other is learning. **[00:28:19]** I only realized this halfway through, but now I'll speak as if, **[00:28:27]** you have children, you want to raise good children, **[00:28:32]** whether you are teachers, parents, or in some leadership position, **[00:28:37]** and you simply influence your subordinates, okay, here are eight principles, **[00:28:42]** how to do it well, according to Komenský. **[00:28:47]** But you can also add the word 'learn' there. **[00:28:56]** Because character depends not only on the child, **[00:29:01]** but also on the educator, me, the teacher. **[00:29:06]** There are even beautiful studies proving **[00:29:10]** that children form a relationship to the subject taught **[00:29:16]** through their relationship with the teacher. **[00:29:19]** It's not surprising at all, quite intuitive, **[00:29:22]** if I as a teacher am kind and predictable, **[00:29:29]** not ironic, this actually comes from research, **[00:29:34]** children hate it, it even hurts them, they don't quite understand **[00:29:38]** what the nasty joke the teacher is making at their expense is about, **[00:29:45]** but they sense it, and that ranks very high in unpopularity. **[00:29:53]** So if the teacher is kind, fair, predictable, **[00:29:59]** and fair, **[00:30:00]** doesn't yell at us, then even if they teach a subject like chemistry, **[00:30:08]** or math, or physics, sorry, is there a chemist here? **[00:30:13]** even such a subject can become loved by the child. **[00:30:17]** In other words, your character matters if you want to influence anyone else's character. **[00:30:25]** It's nothing surprising, but I wanted to say it out loud. **[00:30:30]** So, let's get started. **[00:30:34]** The first principle is authority. **[00:30:39]** I usually turn on the image and let students guess what it is, **[00:30:47]** but we don't have time for that now. **[00:30:50]** The Latin word auktoritas means power. **[00:30:54]** If you want to teach a child any good thing, **[00:31:03]** if you want any character, **[00:31:08]** it is not possible without the child learning to respect authority. **[00:31:16]** And actually, from birth, this is completely natural for the baby, **[00:31:21]** because the baby, I remind you that the word authority means power, **[00:31:27]** is born powerless. **[00:31:31]** It is born into the hands of someone who is empowered by authority. **[00:31:37]** Father, mother, later the teacher in kindergarten, and so on. **[00:31:43]** And this authority, the educator, has certain demands, **[00:31:51]** has certain expectations of the child, requires discipline over time, **[00:31:58]** literally sets the rules of how things are, **[00:32:04]** how they should be, and how they should not be. **[00:32:09]** Of course, Comenius speaks a lot about love in this context. **[00:32:15]** Authority should be functional, so it is loving, **[00:32:21]** which probably wouldn't even need to be said if the world were normal, **[00:32:27]** because every mother, when she takes her baby in her arms, loves it, **[00:32:32]** even fathers do, and they caress it, that is the power. **[00:32:39]** To caress it, kiss it, change its diaper, care for it, that is enormous power. **[00:32:46]** Somewhere there the child's identity is established, because authority tells it, **[00:32:50]** hey, you are worth my attention, you are worth my care. **[00:32:55]** And gradually, as it grows, that powerless baby gradually gains and strengthens, **[00:33:03]** acquires power, so authority suddenly sets boundaries and says, **[00:33:11]** not here, this is dangerous, don't whine, that burns, **[00:33:16]** or don't stick your finger in that hole, I have many demands. **[00:33:22]** And these are not bad demands, authority is simply in place. **[00:33:28]** Maybe I am defending it unnecessarily because I am already thinking about **[00:33:33]** all the ways authority can be destroyed, spoiled, distorted. **[00:33:39]** And that is true, but before we deal with the distorted version of authority, **[00:33:45]** it is necessary to say that authority itself is actually beautiful, **[00:33:52]** an irreplaceable important thing in a person's life from the very first moment **[00:33:58]** they are born. Comenius beautifully expressed authority in this picture, **[00:34:06]** this is the first picture from his book Orbis Pictus, The World in Pictures. **[00:34:13]** You see the teacher as authority, you see the pupil, **[00:34:18]** but you also see Comenius's literally moral philosophy, **[00:34:24]** he treats it explicitly, so I can now interpret it briefly. **[00:34:34]** The ultimate authority is not the teacher. **[00:34:39]** You see that sun above the teacher and the rays passing through the teacher. **[00:34:46]** Under this picture is the inscription: Come here, child, I will teach you to be wise, **[00:34:52]** or good, which for Comenius are very close concepts. **[00:34:56]** With this image, Comenius says, dear child, the good I want to pass on to you, **[00:35:05]** is not my good, or your good, or the good of some logistics group, **[00:35:11]** or any other interest group; it is like the sun, which is common to all of us. **[00:35:18]** And my authority lies in the fact that I myself am subject to this authority, **[00:35:27]** to the good itself. I don't want to sound too mysterious or philosophical now, **[00:35:33]** but I am quoting Zdeněk Matěječek, an excellent Czech psychologist and educator. **[00:35:41]** He said a sentence: in the eyes of a child, you are worth what you stand for. **[00:35:48]** Is that clear? I stand for what I stand for. **[00:35:54]** In pedagogy, the question of authority is a great science—where it actually comes from, **[00:36:01]** what formal, informal, institutional, or other types of authority are, **[00:36:05]** but one fundamental principle applies, and Comenius already named it. **[00:36:11]** If, as an educator, a boss in a company, or a father, **[00:36:19]** or a mother in a family, it is clear that I myself respect an authority **[00:36:26]** that transcends me, some good that defines me, **[00:36:34]** which is recognized in the classroom by being punctual, **[00:36:39]** by not making unfair, hasty judgments, by respecting some good about myself. **[00:36:48]** When this is evident to the child, I myself also have authority. **[00:36:54]** If it is clear that I respect no one and nothing, **[00:36:59]** I will not have authority either. **[00:37:03]** As I said, it can be ruined. **[00:37:07]** I will actually say this at the end of each principle. **[00:37:13]** I will state the principle and then say, watch out, it can really be ruined. **[00:37:21]** You can ruin it in two ways. **[00:37:25]** First, by intensity, and second, by age inappropriateness. **[00:37:32]** For example, there can be too much or too little authority—that's intensity. **[00:37:40]** When there is too much, we call it authoritarianism, **[00:37:44]** when there is too little, it is called blurred, unclear, or no upbringing, **[00:37:52]** where the child doesn't really know what to do with themselves, doesn't understand any demands, **[00:37:58]** in fact, maybe no demands are placed on them at all, **[00:38:04]** but if the child has no challenge to overcome, no obstacle to conquer, **[00:38:10]** if demands don't grow, even morally. **[00:38:14]** So first, intensity: either too much or too little, **[00:38:18]** and second, age inappropriateness. **[00:38:22]** If you tell your two- or three-year-old child, **[00:38:28]** this is how it will be: you will not throw sand in that girl's eyes at the sandbox, period, **[00:38:36]** there is no negotiation, you are setting a moral framework, **[00:38:41]** a moral law, literally setting a moral universe, as some philosophers say, for your child. **[00:38:51]** But if the child is 14 or 15, you have to speak differently, **[00:38:58]** you apply authority differently. **[00:39:01]** You can't just say, this is how it will be, period, **[00:39:05]** because at this age the child will ask you why. **[00:39:10]** And if you keep wanting to be authoritative, like you were at two or three years old, **[00:39:15]** you will probably answer in the most statistically common way, **[00:39:21]** because I said so, and it doesn't work. **[00:39:27]** So these are two ways it can go wrong. **[00:39:31]** Let's continue. **[00:39:33]** The second principle is autonomy. **[00:39:37]** Authority and autonomy do not exclude each other. **[00:39:42]** A child is born helpless and dependent, **[00:39:49]** completely dependent, **[00:39:52]** but a good parent, a good educator does everything for their child. **[00:39:58]** From the moment they are born... **[00:40:00]** Everything they do is so that one day the child won't need them. **[00:40:06]** So that the child becomes, as Komenský said, king to themselves, independent, **[00:40:12]** of course relatively, but one day you have to let the child go. **[00:40:20]** Sometimes it's hard, but if your child is thirty-five and you still hold and care for them, **[00:40:30]** or don't want to let go, then you have a problem, and so does your child. **[00:40:34]** I naturally, step by step, let the child go. **[00:40:42]** It works simply, not only morally but also in general socialization. **[00:40:50]** One day the child will turn onto their belly and start exploring the surroundings. **[00:40:59]** And what a good parent does is put a gate by the stairs so the child won't fall and hurt themselves. **[00:41:09]** But otherwise, they are happy, they explore, they crawl, let them grow. **[00:41:14]** No parent will smother the child and say, you can't go anywhere, the world is dangerous, stay here. **[00:41:20]** If a parent did that, it wouldn't help the child at all. **[00:41:25]** So from dependence, gradually, step by step, the child grows toward independence. **[00:41:35]** It can be messed up in two ways again. **[00:41:40]** The intensity: either too much or too little. **[00:41:46]** Here I have an illustration, you can see in the children's faces that they need much more freedom than they are currently given. **[00:41:57]** Supposedly this is an authentic photo, children waiting for the harvest to end. **[00:42:04]** No one is watching them, so they were given this cozy little cage. **[00:42:12]** But you can see they want more freedom. **[00:42:18]** But it can also happen, I have an illustration here, that you give too much freedom or autonomy. **[00:42:26]** Before it was too little, and this, I don't know if everyone understands me. **[00:42:32]** If you haven't seen this series, maybe you're lucky, don't watch it. **[00:42:38]** From the expression on this young man's face, you can see he was given much more autonomy than he should have had. **[00:42:47]** He wasn't ready for it, he wasn't mature. **[00:42:52]** You can encounter this on a sandbox or at the dentist's office. **[00:43:02]** A dentist friend of mine tells me that increasingly, **[00:43:08]** a mother with a preschool child comes to the office. **[00:43:15]** And the child has a small cavity, because today they eat a lot of sweets, and the doctor explains. **[00:43:22]** We have two options, mom. **[00:43:25]** Either we treat it, which means digging around and treating it, **[00:43:31]** or secondly, we pull it out. **[00:43:35]** Since it's a baby tooth, it’s quick and easy. **[00:43:38]** The child barely even notices, but it would be better to treat it, **[00:43:42]** because baby teeth should fall out naturally at the right time. **[00:43:47]** If you pull it out, the teeth can grow crooked. **[00:43:51]** So, what do we do? Are we going for it? **[00:43:54]** And you know what more and more moms of Pry do? **[00:44:01]** Exactly. **[00:44:03]** They turn to Anička and say, so Anička, what do we do? **[00:44:08]** And how can Anička decide intelligently, responsibly, and autonomously? **[00:44:15]** If either the doctor or the mom managed to explain to the child **[00:44:20]** that one option is quick and painless, **[00:44:28]** and the other is slow and painful, tell me, which five- or six-year-old child would say, **[00:44:35]** "Bring it on, I want the pain"? **[00:44:40]** No one, not even adults want that sometimes, and especially not children, **[00:44:47]** they always take the path of least resistance. **[00:44:51]** So it can be messed up by giving too little freedom when it’s ripe and more is needed, **[00:44:58]** or too much freedom when it’s not yet ripe, **[00:45:04]** which doesn’t benefit their character at all. **[00:45:11]** Third, the third principle is habits. Habit, habits. **[00:45:17]** Komenský is an excellent observer here, actually contemporary psychologists **[00:45:23]** are amazed by Komenský and say he was basically a developmental psychologist. **[00:45:28]** Long before developmental psychology emerged as a scientific discipline, **[00:45:34]** Komenský observed **[00:45:39]** that a child learns to do before it learns to understand. **[00:45:46]** And that is very true. When a baby is born, **[00:45:50]** you can’t explain something with a lecture or explanation, **[00:45:57]** you just start doing it with them. **[00:46:02]** You do it repeatedly, and one day the child has **[00:46:07]** a good habit firmly established without even knowing how, **[00:46:11]** because it was still in the pre-cognitive stage, it literally absorbed it like a sponge, **[00:46:17]** and suddenly it’s there. And Komenský, because he was a good observer **[00:46:24]** of human nature, named it perfectly. **[00:46:28]** He noticed that just as some things are learned by doing, **[00:46:35]** like walking by walking, speaking by speaking, writing by writing, **[00:46:39]** virtues are learned through virtuous actions, especially in early childhood. **[00:46:47]** It can be learned later too, but if a good habit is anchored early on, **[00:46:53]** it stays like an iron shirt. If it’s not anchored, **[00:46:59]** so there won't be an empty space waiting to be fixed later, **[00:47:05]** but you know what gets anchored there. If a good habit doesn't get anchored, **[00:47:10]** a bad habit, a bad routine, gets anchored instead. And Comenius says, **[00:47:15]** then it can't be removed from the body. And the older a person is, the harder it is. **[00:47:22]** In the informatory of the kindergarten, he writes to mothers, mothers, you know how it smells, **[00:47:29]** when a pot burns. You just can't get that out. **[00:47:34]** Especially when we're in the 17th century and it's a clay pot. **[00:47:39]** You can't get it out. And just like that, you can't get a habit out of a person's character, **[00:47:45]** out of their nature, if it is fixed from a young age. **[00:47:54]** So it's important that it is a good habit, not a bad one. **[00:47:58]** Allow me one more sentence about habit. The original word for habit is habitus. **[00:48:06]** Habitus, do you hear it? Habitat. It means habit, custom, **[00:48:14]** but it also means dwelling. And that's a very interesting etymology of the word. **[00:48:22]** Every time you touch some good, it happens through an act. **[00:48:34]** You can hear about good, you can see someone doing it, that's all fine. **[00:48:40]** But when you touch it yourself, when you do it, the good normally settles in a person. **[00:48:50]** A dwelling. Habitus, habit is a dwelling. Through a good act, good settles in a person's character. **[00:49:00]** Some things simply can't settle in any other way than by doing them. **[00:49:07]** But beware, again beware at the end, Comenius says, the same applies to evil. **[00:49:13]** Every time you touch some evil, it also tends to settle in. **[00:49:21]** The fourth principle is information, simply information. **[00:49:27]** Sure, I learn something, so an authority teaches me, I learn through my own discovery, **[00:49:38]** through autonomous development and exploring the world. I learn through habits, **[00:49:45]** but actually, it is hugely valuable, extremely precious when someone tells me. **[00:49:56]** Verbum, logos, words. **[00:50:00]** Good, true words, instructions, someone grants me knowledge so I don't have to crash and verify thousands of times what is already known, **[00:50:13]** such good information is simply worth gold. Imagine, if a child is not informed, they are misinformed. **[00:50:29]** Or completely ignorant. Information is an extremely rare thing. **[00:50:38]** By the way, as Comenius says, start with this, he knows exactly when to start in education. **[00:50:47]** He says, when the little mind awakens. Which can vary among individuals, but once the mind awakens, **[00:50:57]** the child suddenly starts asking why. Why is this good good? Why is this good claim made on me? **[00:51:06]** Why this imperative? Why can I only use the phone two hours a day? Why must I be home by 11? Just why? **[00:51:15]** And at the moment the mind awakens, the child wants to understand, and a good parent or educator meets this, **[00:51:27]** and gives a reasonable answer so the person understands why they do what they do and why it should be done that way. **[00:51:35]** And please, don't miss this instruction: these things are not forced on a person by harsh words. **[00:51:48]** These things are told with gentle words, when there is calm in a peaceful atmosphere, **[00:51:55]** which sometimes needs to be waited for or created, and above all, not said in anger, **[00:52:03]** because in anger we shout things like 'because I said so' or even worse. **[00:52:11]** Timing is very important here. Allow me to give, I have only 11 minutes left, **[00:52:18]** but hopefully we'll manage, one illustration that hopefully explains everything. **[00:52:25]** I have a son too, in fact, I even have him here in a picture. **[00:52:34]** Today he's actually bigger than me, this is just an example of how not to do instructions, **[00:52:43]** but when he was about a year and a half old, one day we went to the sandbox together. **[00:52:52]** I was tasked with looking after him in the afternoon, so I sat down on a bench, **[00:52:57]** leaving my son in the sandbox so I could rest for a moment. **[00:53:01]** A little girl was making a sandcastle with all the rituals, and when she finished and revealed it, **[00:53:08]** for me as a young, beginning parent, educator, and communicator, **[00:53:16]** it was almost a sacred moment, a sacred pedagogical instant. **[00:53:21]** My son looks at the sandcastle, then looks at me, and lifts his little foot like this, **[00:53:27]** still looking at me to see what I will do. **[00:53:32]** You see, I had maybe two to three seconds to decide what to do. **[00:53:41]** He was asking me, is it allowed, is it morally acceptable? **[00:53:49]** I found myself in this universe, asking you as a moral authority, **[00:53:56]** I don't know how the child sensed it, but intuitively, you see, it works, **[00:54:00]** he's asking if it's written somewhere that you simply can't stomp on someone else's sandcastle, **[00:54:07]** or something like that, he's asking about boundaries, limits, **[00:54:11]** about how this world morally works, what is allowed and what is not, **[00:54:17]** what you do and don't do, so can I? Usually, I have a beautiful discussion with students, **[00:54:23]** they help me, but now is not the time, I'll tell you how it ended. **[00:54:33]** I can't start explaining or lecturing to him when he's a year and a half old, **[00:54:40]** or show him the soul of it, I have maybe two seconds and he doesn't understand yet. **[00:54:48]** Of course, I told him no, you can't, you know what he did, **[00:54:58]** he had to test what that meant, so he stomped on it, and then with sincere, **[00:55:03]** there was a unique moment of about three seconds of silence, tension, the little girl in shock, **[00:55:12]** my son with truly authentic, sincere expectation of what will happen now and what I will do. **[00:55:22]** So I told him no, you can't, he stomped it. If I had said at that moment, go ahead, **[00:55:31]** do you know what that would have meant for his character? Yes, so I can. **[00:55:36]** And what else can I do, can I do this too, and that? Where would he end up? **[00:55:42]** So he tested it, stomped it, and now he's asking what will happen. He stands there and watches, what now? **[00:55:53]** You see, at that moment, if I say no, he doesn't react. **[00:56:03]** Prove it, explain it to me, give me an argument for why this is allowed or not. **[00:56:12]** We are at a cognitive stage where I don't lecture or preach, I act with him. **[00:56:21]** So I gave him a clear, firm, authoritative instruction. **[00:56:27]** I'll tell you how it ended. Considering the mother on the nearby bench, **[00:56:34]** I praised him for leaving the sandbox, made a new sandcastle, and we ran away. **[00:56:40]** What I want to demonstrate is that there is a time to authoritatively say, this is how it will be. **[00:56:55]** Other times are for talking with the child, giving them words and information, **[00:57:03]** when they grow older and can ask the question why. **[00:57:09]** And then there is even a time when the child identifies with it independently and no one has to tell them anymore. **[00:57:17]** And that is a sign of adulthood. But before they get there, look. **[00:57:22]** We say things to our children like don't tell everything you know, **[00:57:29]** don't believe everything you hear, don't ask for everything you see, and many other important things. **[00:57:36]** Always tell the truth, be brave, and so on. But it has to be, as I said, age-appropriate. **[00:57:44]** The fifth principle is playfulness. Children are naturally playful; they like to play. **[00:57:55]** And Komenský noticed that. He was one of the few at the time who did and said, **[00:58:03]** hey, that's not bad, we should build on that. He says children like jokes and amusement, **[00:58:13]** spontaneity, they like to laugh, they are cheerful; laughter, humor, joy—all that belongs. **[00:58:22]** And jokes certainly also relate to things that can one day benefit serious matters. **[00:58:27]** I won't elaborate further; I trust you understand. In practice, I take for myself, **[00:58:38]** that when my child is immersed in play, I don't have to say, stop, come here, **[00:58:45]** I'll teach you some good. In fact, I should enter that play, **[00:58:53]** I should create everything I do, of course age-appropriately, so that it is playful, **[00:59:01]** in one sentence. Learning good things doesn't have to be a deadly serious matter. **[00:59:10]** It can be joyful, fun, playful, joking, entertaining. **[00:59:16]** Komenský noticed this and incorporated it into his system. **[00:59:25]** Sixth, if I'm not mistaken, is the principle of naturalness. This is a great, important principle. **[00:59:34]** If I had more time, I would expand on it. Komenský, when he says naturalness, means two things. **[00:59:44]** First, what I have mentioned several times, he really had excellent intuition, **[00:59:53]** I think psychological intuition. **[01:00:00]** Everything has its time; a child needs something at one year, something at three, something at seven, something at fifteen, and it is necessary **[01:00:12]** to guide what I do with the child accordingly. What would be indoctrination and inappropriate totalitarian upbringing at fifteen, **[01:00:26]** if I said, this is how it will be and no discussion, period, is completely natural and normal at two or three years, **[01:00:36]** that's how it should be, that the parent, the authority, sets it. So first, he means this aspect, naturally developmental, **[01:00:51]** but secondly, when he says natural, he means non-violent, and this non-violence is a major theme throughout his work. **[01:01:02]** He was an irenic, a principled opponent of violence in resolving interpersonal relationships and conflicts, **[01:01:12]** even writing letters to kings and scholars on the international stage. **[01:01:17]** You might not understand this, he is a person from the 17th century, not the 20th or 21st. **[01:01:28]** It's not about emancipation or children's or human rights as we argue today, he approaches it differently, and if I have the time, **[01:01:36]** I won't skip it and will tell you because it has its beauty. **[01:01:45]** And it even seems to me that in today's turbulent world, this is very important. **[01:01:52]** Komenský approaches it philosophically, anthropologically. **[01:02:01]** He says all things in this world have their naturalness or purpose or telos from Greek. **[01:02:05]** The thing you look at is made, created exactly for a specific purpose. **[01:02:13]** So you see, this is obviously a catapult for reproduction, this is obviously a tool for tearing, **[01:02:21]** and the purpose of that tool is tearing, this is a pencil, so it's clear what the opener, glasses, and so on are for. **[01:02:29]** Now, this is important: if you handle these things in accordance with their naturalness, **[01:02:42]** what they were made for, it's harmony, it's how it should be. **[01:02:49]** But if you handle these things against their naturalness, you are doing violence to them. **[01:02:57]** For example, if you try to open a bottle with glasses. **[01:03:10]** Would it be possible? **[01:03:12]** Probably yes, once or twice, but if I did it to those glasses often and regularly, **[01:03:21]** I would be doing violence to them, because they were not made for that purpose. **[01:03:27]** A completely different tool was made for that. **[01:03:30]** And now the important part. **[01:03:32]** And the same goes, according to Komenský, for human nature. **[01:03:37]** It also has a specific purpose and must be treated in a way that is not violent. **[01:03:45]** And now the very important question is, what exactly is human nature? **[01:03:51]** I dedicate one of the questions we skipped to that. **[01:03:55]** So now, when I light up the picture there, it’s something we already have thought through. **[01:04:03]** I’ll say it now in one sentence. **[01:04:06]** Komenský sees human nature as incredibly good, beautiful, noble, dignified, valuable, **[01:04:18]** with enormous potential, even from infancy, which, when well developed and well used, **[01:04:26]** makes us almost like angels, he says. **[01:04:32]** And we can create almost a paradise on earth. **[01:04:34]** Look how intelligent and clever we are, what we have invented, made, what beauty we can create, **[01:04:40]** how creative we are, we’ve been to the moon, and we know how to cook great things. **[01:04:46]** Yes, wonderful. **[01:04:48]** But Komenský continues and says, however, we can spoil that excellent potential, **[01:04:55]** for Komenský, an almost divine image, a human as a being with a mission to reflect by character **[01:05:02]** the greatest possible good, that is God, **[01:05:06]** we can ruin and misuse this potential and then we resemble demons. **[01:05:15]** In one word, according to Komenský, human nature is in need of salvation. **[01:05:25]** It needs saving, the humanity is there, but it can be corrupted, **[01:05:32]** and to prevent that, the educator, the teacher can and must do something, **[01:05:38]** to save it. Do you hear that? The educator is like a rescuer of humanity. **[01:05:44]** The teacher is like a little savior of humanity. **[01:05:49]** And if you want to save someone, rescue them, then surely you understand, **[01:05:54]** you can’t do it by force. It kind of applies, **[01:05:59]** like in all subjects taught at school. **[01:06:02]** A mathematician can’t just come and say, come here, **[01:06:07]** I’ll teach you math, you’ll be amazed. **[01:06:11]** You will love it, whether you like it or not. **[01:06:15]** I’ll drag you into the Mathematical Kingdom of Heaven. **[01:06:19]** I’ll save you for math. It doesn’t work. **[01:06:24]** It especially doesn’t work with goodness. You can’t force anyone to be good. **[01:06:30]** Force them to be good. Save them by force. **[01:06:34]** Someone should tell that to Vladimir Putin. **[01:06:38]** You can’t save anyone by force. Just saying. **[01:06:42]** And we know that well. **[01:06:45]** These fairy tale princesses usually represent an archetype **[01:06:50]** of humanity that isn't quite right, but not completely lost, **[01:06:56]** as Komenský says, it needs to be saved. **[01:06:59]** That's the princess, you know all those fairy tales, **[01:07:02]** she always has some kind of problem. **[01:07:05]** Either the problem is external, a dragon behind the hill wanting to eat her, **[01:07:09]** terribly proud, terribly sad, sleeping for a hundred years, or with a golden mark on her forehead, **[01:07:14]** she always simply has some problem. **[01:07:17]** And a savior comes, appears on the scene, loves her for unknown reasons, **[01:07:23]** but that's how saviors usually are. **[01:07:26]** And if he is to save her, he will save her somehow, **[01:07:30]** as you see in this illustration. **[01:07:33]** He kind of overcomes her with love, wins her heart. **[01:07:37]** If he tried to use force, like this savior, it wouldn't work. **[01:07:44]** And this is something like, please forgive my childish fairy tale illustration, **[01:07:52]** but fairy tales are actually didactic. **[01:07:56]** We write them for children as moral lessons. **[01:08:01]** This is what Komenský says. **[01:08:06]** If you want good, it cannot be caused by violence. **[01:08:15]** And we come to the conclusion: if there were a person in the world **[01:08:25]** who could tune all these principles we have before our eyes, **[01:08:31]** a teacher, educator, manager in a company, who would have just the right amount of authority, **[01:08:43]** grant autonomy, proper habits, all that we have there. **[01:08:50]** Komenský says, the child will still sin, still do something bad to you. **[01:08:58]** You try, you give your all, you do your best, **[01:09:02]** and they still come up with mischief, because children can be little devils. **[01:09:06]** Komenský calls them sinners. So what now? What next? **[01:09:13]** How to deal with the decline of human character. **[01:09:19]** Komenský introduces a principle that has fallen out of the modern pedagogical vocabulary, **[01:09:24]** and that principle is repentance. **[01:09:29]** That is, to face guilt honestly, to face it bravely, **[01:09:39]** to admit, I was wrong, and to ask for forgiveness from the one affected, the one you have wronged. **[01:09:47]** Not to make excuses, not to blame someone else, **[01:09:55]** not to lie, not to relativize, but simply admit it. **[01:10:00]** I admit the word repentance is a bit archaic. **[01:10:08]** I've been searching for a modern equivalent for years and can't quite find one. **[01:10:13]** Self-reflection isn't quite the same. The original word means metanoia, **[01:10:21]** a change of heart, change of mind, change of attitude, a change of character. **[01:10:26]** And I don't know what to replace repentance with, but I illustrate it here through Ivan. **[01:10:34]** Ivan is a guy with excellent potential. He is even aware of that potential, **[01:10:42]** he is satisfied with it, walks around the world with that selfie mirror, admiring himself, **[01:10:49]** in Comenius' words, he suffers from so-called self-willfulness, which is an archaic term, **[01:10:57]** but please bear with me for a moment. Self-willful means to belong to oneself, **[01:11:04]** to excessively favor oneself, to like oneself, to make oneself a little god. **[01:11:09]** So admit it, Ivan is simply the embodiment of that, but this harmful, bad, **[01:11:17]** character flaw causes, Comenius says, a person to fall into non-humanity. **[01:11:25]** He even marvels at the fact that a human is the only being on earth **[01:11:31]** that can fall into non-humanity. That can't happen to a hamster, **[01:11:36]** or a camel, that they would behave in a way that makes you say, what are you doing, you shouldn't do that. **[01:11:41]** But when a person behaves in a way they shouldn't, they are acting against their own humanity. **[01:11:51]** And the fairy tale says, yes, I am falling into non-humanity. **[01:11:56]** Comenius would say that Ivan is exactly at the stage where his humanity is not quite right, **[01:12:02]** but not completely lost. It should be found again, **[01:12:08]** it should end well with the person and with human character, so what? **[01:12:16]** In the fairy tale, a transcendent moral instance appears, **[01:12:22]** let's say, the Soviet Lord God, Grandpa Říbeček, and he advises, **[01:12:28]** he is really like a transcendent didactic figure who knows how to handle it, **[01:12:33]** and he advises Ivan, and please notice now, he doesn't say Ivan, **[01:12:38]** define good for me, and if you define it well, you will be a good person again, **[01:12:44]** but he says, go and do good. One single good deed is enough **[01:12:49]** and you will be human again. That sounds suspiciously easy. **[01:12:53]** So Ivan hurries to do that good deed. **[01:12:58]** He helps, if you remember, you have seen it many times, **[01:13:02]** he helps an old woman from point A to point B, which is objectively a good deed, **[01:13:06]** but something is missing. And the fairy tale tells you that. **[01:13:10]** It tells you that moment perfectly. **[01:13:14]** What was missing was precisely that authentic character moment. **[01:13:19]** And it happened almost incidentally, by chance. **[01:13:24]** Ivan didn't even really try. **[01:13:28]** He leaves the old woman there, angry that he is still a bear. **[01:13:32]** He leaves her, is upset, threatens Grandpa Říbeček, **[01:13:36]** and asks what good deed he should do, and he stumbles upon her white cane. **[01:13:42]** He takes it in his hand and says, well, but without that she can't be, **[01:13:47]** I have to bring it to her. And that's all it takes. **[01:13:51]** For a second, he forgot about himself, stopped focusing on himself **[01:13:57]** because of some old woman. **[01:14:01]** And Comenius describes this with the phrase, that important moment **[01:14:07]** of transformation of mind or character, he describes it with the phrase, **[01:14:13]** whoever wants to gain himself, loses himself. **[01:14:17]** But whoever can lose himself, only then finds himself. **[01:14:22]** I know this isn't an exact definition of repentance, but the hint is there. **[01:14:28]** If you want your child to grow in character, **[01:14:33]** or to develop, they simply have to learn to face **[01:14:39]** their character flaws or specific wrongdoings **[01:14:45]** properly, admit them, and ask for forgiveness. **[01:14:50]** If these remain unresolved, unaddressed, unforgiven, **[01:14:55]** they simply damage the character. **[01:14:58]** And so Comenius says that every evening a person should engage **[01:15:02]** their conscience, reviewing what went well. **[01:15:05]** And if something went wrong, simply say 'forgive me'. **[01:15:09]** Only then can a happy ending come, only then is the character suitable **[01:15:13]** for marriage. **[01:15:16]** And finally, the last thing: how is this learned? **[01:15:22]** How is such repentance learned? **[01:15:25]** Like, when a child does something, **[01:15:28]** you say, 'repent!' **[01:15:30]** So they understand what it means. **[01:15:33]** And Comenius says, I apologize for a slightly controversial **[01:15:37]** illustration, but no one will be offended, it is learned by example. **[01:15:43]** Honestly, example is a fundamentally important principle in education, **[01:15:47]** which is clear, but now I apply it to the context of repentance, **[01:15:53]** because this, friends, is an incredibly liberating principle **[01:16:02]** in the context of who can actually teach good. **[01:16:08]** You see, the example is not perfect. **[01:16:12]** And that is my point. **[01:16:16]** Sure, every manual says I should be an example, **[01:16:21]** that I should be a role model, but what if I'm not? **[01:16:24]** What if I fail too? **[01:16:26]** And you know I do fail, and when I don't manage something, **[01:16:30]** children have a radar for my failures **[01:16:33]** and they immediately know and tell me. **[01:16:36]** But that is the key moment. **[01:16:40]** At the moment when I am imperfect, **[01:16:43]** when I sin or fail, **[01:16:46]** what I do is absolutely crucial for character education. **[01:16:53]** Because if I show the child excuses, **[01:16:59]** denials, shifting blame, sweeping it under the rug, relativizing, **[01:17:04]** I am telling the child, 'See, do that when you mess up too'. **[01:17:11]** But if I show genuine remorse with humility, **[01:17:18]** which is very hard, probably the hardest principle of all. **[01:17:23]** To be able to admit it, not to cover it up, doesn't necessarily have to be done with words, **[01:17:30]** sometimes it's done with attitude, sacrifice, nonverbally, **[01:17:33]** but it is recognized, and when you do it, you literally show the child by example, **[01:17:40]** how it’s done. This is how it’s done when something doesn’t go well, **[01:17:47]** when they just mess something up, commit a mistake. **[01:17:49]** And because children are like little monkeys, they imitate everything they see, **[01:17:54]** whether good or bad, says Komenský, **[01:17:59]** he again brilliantly notices from a psychological and developmental perspective, **[01:18:03]** that children learn to imitate before they learn to understand. **[01:18:07]** So it’s simply good to be with them and to demonstrate either good character, **[01:18:13]** or bad character to them, you see, **[01:18:17]** they imitate both good and bad, and when it’s bad, **[01:18:20]** just admit it and don’t cover it up. **[01:18:24]** And I will conclude now. **[01:18:30]** Once again, please hear this from these two perspectives. **[01:18:37]** On one hand, yes, teach your child, but on the other hand, learn yourself. **[01:18:44]** What Komenský says is really, **[01:18:49]** I can put it this way, when the slogan **[01:18:53]** “character matters” hangs in the air, **[01:18:57]** yes, of course, my child’s character matters, so I want to raise them well according to good principles. **[01:19:02]** I care about the character of my doctor, **[01:19:06]** or my president, or my neighbor, **[01:19:11]** or my husband, wife, but it’s also possible to take it personally, **[01:19:18]** everything Komenský says. **[01:19:23]** What if I were such a character? **[01:19:26]** Wouldn’t I be a good husband? Wouldn’t it be good if I were such a character? **[01:19:34]** And I admit to you, this is how I approach it. **[01:19:39]** Komenský is not an academic topic for me, but as I live with him long-term, **[01:19:44]** I actually learn from him, and everything I preach to others, **[01:19:52]** I ask myself, well, what about me? **[01:19:55]** How am I doing or not doing? **[01:20:00]** I do what I can, both for the character of my children and my own, and I wish the same for you. **[01:20:08]** Thank you for your attention. **[01:20:20]** I don’t want to go there at all now. **[01:20:31]** Should I sit down? **[01:20:33]** You may. **[01:20:35]** I apologize for not keeping to the time, but well. **[01:20:40]** Let’s forgive the docent for not keeping time. I think it’s no problem. **[01:20:45]** When I said the breakfast would be a little different, **[01:20:50]** this relates exactly to this, that there are breakfasts when there are a lot of questions **[01:20:56]** And then there are breakfasts when there aren't many questions, and we mostly just want to experience them. **[01:21:01]** And I feel that today's was more of an experiential one. **[01:21:05]** Before I ask one question I prepared, **[01:21:09]** I knew there were a few, so if you'd like to learn more, **[01:21:15]** here is a publication by Jan Hábl called 'Character Matters.' **[01:21:22]** Try to say why it's written with a Z2? **[01:21:27]** The book is two-sided. On one side, it's so the academic wolf gets fed, **[01:21:37]** and the readable goat stays whole. More precisely, one side is professional, **[01:21:44]** because at universities we have to write professionally for recognition, **[01:21:49]** and university funding. That's a long story. **[01:21:55]** It has to work, Marisha, but on the other side I tried to make it readable, **[01:22:04]** without difficult footnotes, technical terms, and with humor. **[01:22:13]** So here is the book. While preparing for today's breakfast **[01:22:22]** and studying the topic, one thing caught my attention. **[01:22:28]** That is, that good is different in various parts of the world. **[01:22:33]** There is a different context. At the last breakfast, **[01:22:37]** we had a Nigerian king, and the concept of good there is completely different from ours. **[01:22:42]** And as the world becomes more global, **[01:22:46]** there is actually some universal good. **[01:22:50]** I'd be interested in how good was different in Nigeria. **[01:22:55]** Well, there are things that don't seem bad to those people **[01:23:00]** but do to us. I mean this here. **[01:23:05]** Yeah. **[01:23:09]** And how much time do we have for this? **[01:23:14]** This is a big and beautiful question that ethics has been dealing with **[01:23:19]** across the planet for a long time. **[01:23:24]** Aristotle already said there are different kinds of goods. **[01:23:32]** Some goods can be negotiated and agreed upon. **[01:23:36]** Like, it will be good if one cow is worth three goats. **[01:23:42]** And that's how we do it here in Greece. **[01:23:47]** And we say that's good, that's fair. **[01:23:50]** But in Persia it might be different. They might have ten goats for one cow. **[01:23:55]** And if they agree on that price, then it's fair and good. **[01:24:02]** But then he says there are some things that apply in Persia and Greece alike. **[01:24:10]** He gives the example that fire burns you the same in Persia and Greece, **[01:24:16]** if you put your hand in the fire. **[01:24:18]** And that shows that some things are subject to **[01:24:22]** local, regional, cultural, and temporal conditions. **[01:24:30]** But then there are some things that are universally untouchable. **[01:24:38]** And if you touch them, you touch humanity itself. **[01:24:42]** Like you touch it in the sense that you take it. **[01:24:46]** You take it from a person, and if you take it, you deny them their humanity. **[01:24:56]** Then something inhuman happens. Something inhuman can happen to a human being. **[01:25:02]** It's honestly a philosophical mystery how that's even possible. **[01:25:08]** And we usually don't really realize it until someone **[01:25:13]** touches something so essential or fundamental for you **[01:25:21]** and takes it away, for example. **[01:25:26]** Someone just slightly, just a little bit, restricts your freedom. **[01:25:31]** That's one of those things we say belongs to humanity. **[01:25:36]** To live freely. And someone tells you, no no, you wanted to go to Malta, **[01:25:41]** but you end up at the Baltic. In the words of a classic. **[01:25:46]** I see there are only a few Cimrmanologists here, so we'll let it go. **[01:25:50]** Some things, it seems, are truly universally valid. **[01:25:57]** Some goods are for everyone who calls themselves human. **[01:26:04]** I think we'll have time to talk about this more deeply. **[01:26:09]** Maybe I'll try one more question. We've talked a lot about children, **[01:26:15]** but what about practical tips for teaching adult coworkers in companies? **[01:26:20]** I kind of expected this to come up. **[01:26:26]** Well, honestly, try applying those eight principles in a company. **[01:26:32]** You wouldn't want a boss who is an authority, but not an authority **[01:26:39]** who doesn't respect any authority themselves? **[01:26:43]** You wouldn't want a boss who trusts you and grants you autonomy? **[01:26:49]** I'll jump from one principle to another, **[01:26:54]** a playful, fun, witty, joyful boss? **[01:27:01]** Or a boss who, when they make a mistake or err, can admit it? **[01:27:08]** I think if there's a manager like that somewhere in operations, **[01:27:16]** it will have far-reaching consequences for the whole division. **[01:27:25]** I agree. I think we won't open any more topics. **[01:27:34]** Thank you very much. Thank you for taking the time. **[01:27:39]** Thanks again. It was wonderful. **[01:27:43]** I think we'll all reflect on it. Maybe even with our partners, **[01:27:49]** coworkers. I'd like to ask all of you, **[01:27:53]** if you have mobile phones, to let us know **[01:27:58]** how you liked today's breakfast. **[01:28:02]** Besides giving some stars, **[01:28:06]** we'd be interested in the word you take away **[01:28:10]** from this breakfast. That would be really nice. **[01:28:14]** So please think about it and take a moment. **[01:28:18]** At the same time, I'd like to encourage you, if you have a little more time **[01:28:25]** or plan some in the future, try sitting down like this **[01:28:29]** in some smaller group and chat about what this breakfast told you, **[01:28:33]** if there are any moments you take away from it. **[01:28:37]** I feel that sharing is something that really helps with **[01:28:41]** taking away even something extra. **[01:28:45]** We will do this too, and on November 29th, **[01:28:53]** at 6 PM, we deliberately decided **[01:28:57]** to make it an evening chat over wine, **[01:29:01]** where I invited a few people I really respect **[01:29:07]** and I think we will have a very nice discussion **[01:29:11]** on this very topic. Whether it's Tomáš Mikolov, **[01:29:15]** Honza Školník, Maršama, or Tomáš Ruda. **[01:29:18]** It will revolve around character education, entrepreneurship, **[01:29:21]** artificial intelligence, new technologies, and how it all connects. **[01:29:25]** We set aside two hours for it, which means **[01:29:27]** the discussion will really be, I think, in-depth, **[01:29:31]** because we could talk like this for a very long time, **[01:29:34]** but open a bottle of wine and come join us. **[01:29:38]** It will be very pleasant. **[01:29:41]** And I want you, of course, to keep following **[01:29:47]** Red Button Edu and stay loyal to us, **[01:29:52]** and I invite you to the next Brain & Breakfast, **[01:29:56]** which will take place before Christmas. **[01:30:00]** On December 15th, Tomáš Šebek will come to wish us health, and his topic will be Minister of Health. **[01:30:09]** So I wish you well. On December 15th, we'll see each other at the next Brain & Breakfast, **[01:30:19]** where we'll toast again, as usual, to the New Year. **[01:30:22]** Once again, thank you very much, Docent, for your time and your words. **[01:30:27]** Thank you too, take care, goodbye, and see you.