Jan Amos Komensky, also known as John Amos Comenius, was a Czech philosopher and theologian who is known as the father of modern education. He popularized concepts such as universal education, including for women and impoverished children. He invented pictorial textbooks and also proposed having texts in native languages in addition to Latin to make education more accessible.

Komensky was born in Moravia and grew up impoverished. As a result, he began his formal education late at the age of 16. His learnings in school gave him the inspiration to pursue ministry and educational reform. Later in his adult life, due to the Thirty Years War and his Protestant beliefs, Komensky was forced into exile in various European countries including Poland, Sweden, and England due to the prominence of Catholicism in the Czech lands at the time. While in exile, Komensky wrote some of his most famous scripts including the textbook, The Gates of Languages Unlocked, which became the most widely published book of the time after the Bible and was converted into 11 or 12 European languages. He was invited to many countries to help form schools and promote his modern educational ideals.

Many of Komensky’s educational philosophies are still in use today. For example, he proposed that education is a lifelong journey, students of the same age should learn together, and that students should travel at the end of their official studies. Finally, he was against physical punishment for mistakes while learning.