Otokar Chlup

Born Aug. 31, 1875, in Boskovice, Moravia; died May 14, 1965, in Prague. Czech educator. Academician of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (1952). Member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia from 1921.

Chlup graduated from Charles University with a degree in philosophy; he also studied pedagogy and psychology at the university. His scientific work of the early 20th century was devoted to educational psychology and to the moral and psychological development of children. From 1919 to 1922, Chlup taught pedagogy in the faculty of philosophy of Charles University, and from 1922 to 1939 he was professor of pedagogy at the University of Brno. He became a professor at Charles University in 1953.

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Chlup’s scientific activities were linked with the struggle to democratize the schools and to develop a pedagogy based on Marxist methodology. He criticized the educational system of the bourgeois republic and shed light on the proper role of the “school of the future,” that is, the school of socialist Czechoslovakia. He also worked on the theoretical problems that must be faced in developing a system of teacher training. Chlup exposed the unsoundness of bourgeois-pedagogical reformism, which had become popular in his country. This reformism was based on the ideas of “progressive education,” on the biological concepts of upbringing put forth by E. Thorndike and the American behaviorists, and on the pragmatic pedagogy advocated by J. Dewey, all of which are alien to Marxism, to the interests of the working class, and to national progress. Chlup’s views were enthusiastically received by progressive teachers, especially those affiliated with the Socialist Association of Teachers.

After the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the fascist invaders in 1945, Chlup took part in the development of socialist pedagogy. He helped lay the theoretical foundations of the public school system and of higher pedagogical education. University faculties of pedagogy were opened on his initiative in 1946. He himself served as the first dean of the faculty of pedagogy at Charles University. He also taught a course in the faculty of pedagogy of the University of Brno. In 1953, Chlup helped establish a subdepartment of pedagogy at Charles University and served as the subdepartment’s head. In 1954 he set up a center of pedagogical sciences under the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The center was later transformed into the J. A. Komensky Institute of Pedagogy, which Chlup headed until 1960.