Learning is not worth a penny when courage and joy are lost along theway."
——TheEducation of Man: Aphorisms
"This interest in study isthe first thing which a teacher should endeavor to excite and keep alive...Iwould go so far as to lay it down for a rule, that whenever children areinattentive, and apparently take no interest in a lesson, the teacher should always first look tohimself for the reason." ——Letters to Greaves
JohannHeinrich Pestalozzi——Regenerating Society
Pestalozzi was born in Zurich on January 12,1746. His father,a surgeon, died when Pestalozzi was about 5 years old, leaving his family andfaithful servant, Barbara Schmid, affectionately known as Babeli, in difficultfinancial circumstances. The devotion ofhis mother and Babeli had a profound impact on Pestalozzi. Babeli did not allow him to play with otherchildren in the street- in order to preserve his clothes and shoes. Consequently, Pestalozzi did not learn theirgames, their ways, and their secrets. When he met the other children by chance, he was awkward and they madefun of him. The influence of his homewas never forgotten by Pestalozzi, and to him, the mother was the idealeducator. As he was growing up in thesecurity of his home, he became aware of the generosity and dignity displayedby Babeli, the poor maid, who had the power to bring out the same qualities inothers. Perhaps here are the origins ofPestalozzi’s belief in the innate goodness of man and his dedication to thepoor.
He published a number of works on educational practice,including the following essays:
How Father Pestalozzi Instructed His Three and a Half YearOld Son(1774)
Essays on the Education of the Children of thePoor(1775-1778)
The evening Hour of a Hermit(1775-1778) (shows stronginfluence of Rousseau)
On Legislation and Infanticide; Facts and Fancies,Investigations and Portraits,(1780-1783) (in the book, Pestalozzi discusses thedamage done by legislation and its powerlessness to prevent infanticide. In hisopinion the best means to prevent infanticide is education. He suggests someform of marriage guidance.
Leonard and Gertrude(1781) None of thesewritings attracted attention to his ideas. Remembering the impact of Emile as anovel, although Pastalozzi had not intended his book to be popularentertainment, people read it as a romantic story and were exposed to his ideathat social regeneration is possible through education. The book won a goldmedal from the Berne Economic Society.
Christopher andElizabeth(1782) This is a series of dialogues in whichChristopher's family discusses the ideas in Leonard and Gertrude.
IllustrationsFor My ABC (later called FablesFor My ABC)(1787)
Researches intothe Course of Nature in the Development of the Human Race(1797) which was atreatise that was probably the first sociology of education ever written.
How Gertrude Teachers Her Children(1801), a sequel toLeonard and Gertrude,is a series of letters to his editor about natural education.
Swan Song(1826) was his last book, and in it he continued to refineand present his educational ideas.
1. Educational Practice
1.1 Stanz- A Return to Educational Practice(1799-1800)
He was appointed headmaster of an orphanage an school of 80children in Stanz, at the tip of LakeLucerne. All the children were poor anddevastated by war. Funds were limited,and the local people were hostile to Pestalozzi’s work in education thepoor. However, he had the freedom toplan the entire program. Seeing himselfas a ‘father figure’, Pestalozzi wanted to establish an atmosphere of calm andemotional security for the children in his care. He felt that once the children felt secure,he could effectively employ his educational strategies.
Unfortunately the school closed abruptly when the French weredefeated by the Austrians and the school building was secured for militaryhospital uses. The local officials wereuneasy about the kind of education that was emerging. Pestalozzi soon began to realize theimmensity of the task he had proposed in educating children of poverty. Therewas no magic formula.
1.2 Burgdorf(1799-1803)
Later in 1799, the Helvetian government approached Pestalozzito work at a vernacular school at Burgdorf. This was another school for poor children of agricultural and industrialworkers. Pestalozzi was to be theteaching assistant to a headmaster, Samuel Dysli, who was also the towncobbler. The two disagreed on teachingmethods, and Pestalozzi disapproved of the focus on memorization and recitationwithout understanding. He was dismissedafter Dysli turned he parents against him.
Friends obtained another position for him in a school forchildren from 5-8 years of age. Pestalozzi had the freedom to utilize his teachingideas and found the younger age group much more appropriate for his methods.The School Commission of Burgdorf examined the children and wrote a favourablereport that encouraged Pestalozzi to continue.
During this period, his supporters( The School of Friends ofEducation) raised funds to set up a school based solely on his ideas,and it was set up in the castle Burgdorf. Intended as a centre for educational research, teacher training andmaterials preparation, the school opened in 1801. Pestalozzi focused on education which wouldguide children toward the best realization of themselves and of aspects of theworld. It ran for the next three-and-a-half years until the demise of theHelvetian government.
1.3 Yverdon(瑞士.伊韦尔东)(1804-1825)
Forced to move on, Pestalozzi tried several other schoolsincluding one at Munchenbuchsee and finally opened one in the castle Yverdon onLake Neuchatel(纳沙泰尔湖) in1804. It was here at Yverdon that Pestalozziachieved his greatest successes. Hebecame well-known throughout Europe and North America. People from around the world came to see hisideas in action and to study with him. Froebel came as a visitor in 1805 and a teaching assistant in 1808. The social reformer Robert Owen and AndrewBell, educator with the monitorial system(older children educating youngerones), also came to observe. Teachers trained by Pestalozzi and his followersestablished schools that used his methods throughout Europe.
Eventually there were four schools at Yverdon: the main onefor boys from7-15years, a Girls’ Instituted, the first Swiss school forchildren who were deaf, and a coeducational school for poor children inClindy. Pestalozzi remained at Yverdonfor 20 years. The school eventually closed in 1825 due to Pestalozzi’sdisagreements with teaching assistants philosophical differences even among theassistants, lack of funds and his poor administrative skills.
1.4 Return to Newfarm(Neuhof)
Returning to Neuhof in 1825 at 80 years of age, Pestalozzicontinued to write and remain involved in many activities. One of his formerstudents visited him in 1825 and described him: “I had not seen him for 13years, and found him on the wholevery little changed. He was still active and strong, simple and open; his facestill wore the same kindly, plaintive expression; his zeal for human happiness,and especially for the education of poor and little children, was as keen as13years before.”
Pestalozzi died in February 1827, Swan song, his finalstatement on education, maintained that educationmust conform to the order of nature to cultivate human capacities.
2. Educational Laws
Pestalozzi articulatedthe Laws of Human Unfolding which stated that individuals developed accordingto certain definite laws. These would not be considered theories but moreprinciples guidelines. They arose from a study of both the child and theenvironment.
The teacher must knowthe laws of development to shape the educational system to fit the laws. Wecontinually raise the question of schools reflecting the current state of childdevelopment knowledge or research field of early childhood.
The laws or principlesthat Pestalozzi established guided his educational practice. He believed thefollowing:
①Children were made up of the hand, heart and head. The hand represented the body; the heart wasa combination of feelings, morals and interpersonal relations; the head was themind or intellect. These three had toremain integrated and united, withthe heart as the unifying element. Pestalozzi introduced the concept of the "whole child” long beforecontemporary textbooks or 20th-century theorists:
“Only that whichaffects man as an indissoluble unit is educative...it must reach his hand andhis heart as well as his head.” ——Swan Song
② Vocational skills were important, buteducation of fundamental capacities of children had to have priority.
③ Pestalozzi believed one may knowand not do. Children could not simply befed the truths that others discovered or constructed. They needed to discoverthe ideas and truths themselves through self-activity:
“It is good to make achild read, and write, and learn, and repeat- but it is still better to make achild think, The mode of doing this is not by any means to talk much to achild, but to enter into conversation with a child...to question the childabout it, and to let him find out, and correct the answers.” ——Letters to Greaves
④Pestalozzi maintained that nature strives to grow, to developand to unfold. The innate impulses ofthe child developed best when they were ready to unfold, and thereforeeducation had to wait until the child was ready. How would a teacher know when the child wasready? By understanding the child! This addresses the current issue of whatentails readiness and what readiness programs look like in practice.
⑤ Learning had to be stimulated bythe interest and motivation of the child. Punishment, fear, rewards and/or rivalry were external andtherefore dangerous to real learning. Teachers needed to look first at the system if they saw behavioralproblems with children. Positive studentbehavior would be a natural outgrowth when children were involved in engagingactivities that suited their needs.
⑥ Since education was to follow theorder of nature, the teacher would be like a gardener. Education was the art ofhelping a child to unfold. The teacher(gardener)would contribute nothing of thepower of growth, which was inside the child, but the teacher had to know thelaws of development to foster growth:
“But what is the truetype of education? It is like the art of the gardener under whose care athousand trees blossom and grow. Hecontributes nothing to their actual growth; the principle of growth lies in thetrees themselves.” ——Address to My House
⑦Pestalozzi maintained that since true education made no suddenleaps, all instruction had to be suited to the gradual and consistent route tolearning.
⑧Learning at each stage had to be completed before moving on tothe next stage. The next stage dependedon the child accomplishing the developmental tasks of the current stage.Pestalozzi saw tremendous need for children to master skills and knowledgebefore going on to the next stage.
3.Object Lessons
Pestalozzi was one of the first theorists to develop instructionalmethods that could be used directly in the classroom. Pestalozzi believed the basis of knowledgewas Anschauung (meas “firstimpressions of objects” or “intuition”.) He believed that knowledge came through the senses, and he began to studyways sense impressions could be organized to facilitate learning. This thinking led to his work with objectlessons, which became a central part ofhis contribution to education. Hebelieved that the best way to learn many concepts was through manipulativeexperiences, such as counting, measuring, and touching. Children needed to be exposed to objects thathad the essential characteristics of the class to which the objects belonged.
The method had a three-stepprocess for teaching:
Exposethe child to the object.
Thechild will recognize the appearance, form, structure and outline of the object.
Thename of the object will be learned.
"The infant mind should be acted uponby illustrations taken from reality... we ought to teach by things more than bywords." ——Lettersto Greaves
While Comenius added pictures andillustrations to children's learning, Pestalozzi added direct contact with realobjects, manipulatives, as the central focus.
Pestalozzi saw that knowledge inherent inthe natural world would be gained through direct observation with the senses:
"Any child who has learned to lookcarefully at water at rest and in motion, or its various forms--dew, rain,mist, steam, hail, snow, etc--and then again has learned to observe its variouseffects on other bodies, can express himself with clearness concerning them,has already got the foundations of the physicist's way of looking atthings." ------Swan Song
3.1Mathematics Teaching
Pestalozzi believed that the teaching ofmathematics must start with real objects, moving to substitute objects(fingers, pebbles, dots) and finally to abstract numbers.
Pestalozzi insisted that children learnarithmetic by counting concrete objects, such as steps, threads in weaving, orpanes in a window, to understand what number really meant. He devised mathematical boards that hadsquares where dots or lines could be added to represents units up to 100. Using then, children would gain a betterunderstanding of digits and addition.
"The science of numbers must be so taughtthat their real properties shall not be obscured in the mind by arithmeticalabbreviations. If this be neglected, thestudy of number will be degraded into a mere plaything of the child's memoryand imagination and its object, of course, entirely defeated. If, for instance, we learn by rote that threeand four make seven, and we build upon this seven as if we actuallycomprehended it, we deceive ourselves; we have no real apprehension of seven,because we are not conscious of the real fact, the actual sight of which canalong give truth and reality to the hollow sound. The first impressions of numericalproportions should be given to the child by illustrating the variations of moreand less with real objects placed in view." ——How Gertrude Teaches Her Children
3.2Other Educational Elements
Pestalozzi believed strongly that learningdepended on the teacher's role. Thechild's initiative was a starting point but could not be solely reliedupon. He felt that the best teacherswere those who taught children , not subjects.
The values of mixed-aged grouping, childrenwith varying age spans learning together are still being articulated todaywhile Pestalozzi saw the importance in the 1700's.
Parents were seen as capable and criticalin the education of their own children:
" the time is drawing near when methodsof teaching will be so simplified that each mother will be able not only toteach her children without help, but continue her own education at the sametime." ——How Gertrude Teaches HerChildren
Pestalozzi felt progress in society woulddepend on parents' feeling competent in their educational roles with childrenin the home. Confidence in theirabilities as well as a deep interest in education were essential. Once children reached school age, formaleducation should resemble home education as much as possible. He saw the home as the child's first andforemost teacher.
3.3 Learning
Pestalozzi's own early school experiencestaught him that theory and practice should not be separated. The deeds of the teachers must be consistentwith the tales they told. Developingthis further, he felt that knowledge must be based on real-life actions. Verbal knowledge alone was inadequate andunacceptable. Knowledge without meaningand action was empty knowledge:
"Depend upon it, there is a widedifference between knowing and doing. He who is carrying on his business byknowledge alone, let he forget how to act."
——Leonard and Gertrude
"To arrive at knowledge slowly, byone's own experience, is better than to learn by rote, in a hurry, facts thatother people know." ——The Education of Man: Aphorisms
Children's interests must be the motivation. He had great faith in children's ability tolearn if a teacher was sensitive to their development. Children wanted to learn:
"I would go so far as to lay it down fora rule, that whenever children are inattentive, and apparently take no interestin a lesson, the teacher should always first look to himself for thereason." ——Letters to Greaves
4. Art and Music through Patterning
Pestalozzisaw art and music as integral parts of the curriculum, not extra or subsidiaryareas of study. Pestalozzi saw that bothart and music reflected the sequence from simple to complex based on thesenses. Prior teaching of art focused oncopying drawings and on drawing human figures. Pestalozzi articulated a different drawing method that was based onlines, cuives and angles. Through senseimpressions children were systematically led through a series of exercises. Skills learned from drawing geometric shapeswere the basis needed for drawing simple objects. Later the children invented designs andillustrations. Children learned musicfrom exercises in rhythm, melodic elements, dynamic elements and laternotation.
5. Education and Change in Society
Pestalozzi'soverriding aim of education was to restore human dignity and s sense ofindividual worth to people, particularly children in poverty. He felt that lasting reform must start withthe individual to give him the strength and virtue to change theenvironment. How's Each person wouldgain the power to help himself by developing self-respect and self-confidence.
Pestalozzi condemned the use of
paternalism,
philanthropy,
ready-made socialreforms
He felt all three would weaken the individual and make him or her dependenton others or institutions. Instead,children needed to acquire the power to help themselves, and this power was tobe cultivated in the educational system.
6. Teacher education
Pestalozzialso strongly supported teacher education and a state-supported schoolsystem. He decried the general public'slack of interest in education and in well-educated teachers. He believed education should be raised to thelevel of a science based on sound knowledge of human nature: "Noprofession on earth calls for a deeper understanding of human nature nor forgreater skill in guiding it properly." ——Aphorisms
Pestalozzi's concern for teachers of thepoor led him, in 1818, to establish a special teacher training school in clindy,near Yverdon. In this school he tried toattract people who had come from poverty themselves to more effectively teachchildren. The school lasted only tenmonths before being assimilated into the main program at Yverdon. It did attract widespread attention,especially in England where there was growing concern for the education oflower classes.
Attracted first by Rousseau'sback-to-nature ideas, Pestalozzi went far beyond these to look at senseeducation and the nature of manipulative experiences for children. He focused on what we would call the wholechild. Concerned with poverty and theeffects it had on people, he worked a lifetime to educate children with newmethods. Any education should bedirectly connected to life: "The instruction she gave them in therudiments of arithmetic was intimately connected with the realities oflife. She taught them to count thenumber of steps from one end of the room to the other, and two of the rows offive panes each, in one of the windows, gave her an opportunity to unfold thedecimal relations of numbers. She alsomade them count their threads while spinning, and the number of turns on thereel, when they wound the yarn into skeins. Above all, in every occupation of life she taught them an accurate andintelligent observation of common objects and the forces of nature." ————Leonard and Gertrude
