Karl Mager (January 1, 1810 – June 10, 1858) was a German educator.
Mager was born in
Gräfrath.
He studied
philology in
Bonn, Berlin, and Paris,
and stayed in Paris for some years, during which time he wrote ''Versuch einer Geschichte und Charakteristik der französischen Nationallitteratur'' ("Attempt at a history and characterization of the French national literature", 1834–39, 5 vols.).
Upon his return to Germany, he studied the philosophy of
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
and
Johann Friedrich Herbart, and the
pedagogy of
Adolph Diesterweg and
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. He wrote articles on the teaching of foreign languages for a journal edited by Diesterweg in 1835 and 1838, which gained him a job as professor at a cantonal school in
Geneva. However, he quickly moved to
Bad Cannstatt due to poor health.
In 1840, he published ''Die deutsche Bürgerschule'', and founded the journal ''Pädagogische Revue'', both of which would be influential on German and Swiss public education. He edited the ''Pädagogische Revue'' until 1849, taught foreign languages in the cantonal schools of
Aarau
Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...
to test his theories in a practical setting, and published ''Die genetische Methode des Unterrichts in fremden Sprachen'' ("The genetic method of instruction in foreign languages", 1846). From 1848 to 1852 he directed the ''
Realschule'' in
Eisenach according to his theories, but he retired in 1852 due to poor health, and died in 1858 in
Wiesbaden.
An 1844 pamphlet of his coined the term "
social pedagogy", a
broad concept of education, particularly influential in German pedagogy, that focuses on the acquisition of culture by society (rather than the acquisition of knowledge by individuals) as its key element.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mager, Karl
1810 births
1858 deaths
German educational theorists
19th-century educational theorists