Childhood and Early Youth 51set aside entirely for repetition; every class began with the repetition of
material covered in previous sessions. Three weeks before the exam period
the entire material covered during the preceding half-year period was re¬
peated again. Schiffert believed that if something had been repeated three
times then it "is firmly impressed in memory."^96 He was probably correct,
but this method could hardly have made for exciting classes. Kant ap¬
proved of this approach late in life, claiming that "the culture of the mem¬
ory is very necessary, and that we only know as much as we remember."
Nor was he opposed to rote methods in learning vocabulary and other
matters.^97 He believed, however, that "the understanding must be culti¬
vated as well," and that "knowing that" must gradually be connected to
"knowing how." He believed mathematics was the discipline best suited
for this. Since mathematics was not taught very well at the Collegium Frid-
ericianum, we may assume that he did not think that the school excelled at
educating the understanding.
Pietists were not opposed to corporal punishment, but neither did they
view it as the best means of disciplining children. As Melton observes, dis¬
cipline "in Francke's schools was comparatively mild for its day. Francke's
theory of punishment reflected the Pietist effort to subjectify coercion,
transfer its locus from outside to inside the individual." Indeed, the Pietists
placed a great deal of emphasis on "introspection as a tool for developing
self-discipline."^98 At the Collegium Fridericianum, every student who was
to attend the communion had "to compose a report on the state of his soul"
beforehand. This report had to be handed in to one of the supervisors, who
examined it to determine whether or not the student was ready for com¬
munion. If that was not enough, every student also had to bring to his
supervisor a sealed report from his teachers outlining whether there were
any problems that would make it inappropriate for the student to partake in
communion.^99 If there were significant differences between the student's
and the teacher's report, the child was to be admonished.
The mature Kant had a definite aversion to the kind of introspection
the students were required to engage in. Thus he said that such "observa¬
tion of oneself" or the "methodical account of what we,perceive within
ourselves, which provides the materials for the diary of a self-observer, can
easily lead to enthusiasm and insanity."^100 No doubt, his distaste for such
introspection dated back to this very period of forced reports on "the state
of the soul."
Though the ideal was to teach the students self-discipline, the practice
was probably quite different. One of Kant's early biographers, Mortzfeld,