Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach.
He founded several educational institutions both in German- and French-speaking regions of Switzerland and wrote many works explaining his revolutionary modern principles of education. His motto was "Learning by head, hand and heart". Thanks to Pestalozzi, illiteracy in 18th-century Switzerland was overcome almost completely by 1830.
LIFE.
1. EARLY YOUTH. Pestalozzi was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1746. His father died when he was five, and he was raised in a loving home consisting of his mother, older sister and woman servant. He did not enter school until he was nine. His elementary school record was not impressive because of his tendency to daydream. However, he did enter and complete his studies at the University of Zurich. He began as a student for the vicarage, but his shyness led him away from theology and into law.
2. FARM AT NEUHOF. Desirous of alleviating the hardship of poverty among the masses, Pestalozzi began a social experiment in which he hoped to make his newly purchased farm a center of humanistic activity. He married his childhood friend. She helped him to temper many of his more impractical ideas. Pestalozzi learned his teaching methods from his experiences in teaching his son, Jacobi. These methods were inspired by reading Emile. Later they were changed with additional experience. Pestalozzi took in a group of orphans and vagrant or abandoned children. The instruction he gave those children was very successful. He went bankrupt in 1780 after five years of this social experiment.
3. WRITER AND TEACHER. Pestalozzi wrote the novel Leonard and Gertrude. This book, incorporating many of Pestalozzi's ideas about educational and social reform, became an educational classic. Its publication brought Pestalozzi fame but no alleviation from hard work and near poverty on the farm.
4. ORPHANAGE AT STANZ. His offer to assist the orphaned children of Stanz, following the widespread destruction caused by the Swiss revolution, was accepted. For five months he labored continually and successfully in spite of religious and educational criticism. The orphanage was closed after another war.
5. SCHOOL AT BURGDORF. Pestalozzi volunteered his services without pay to the village of Burgdorf. The villagers were suspicious of his methods, and it became evident that it would be necessary for him to establish his own private school. He was assisted in this by another schoolmaster, named Krusi. With two additional teachers, they began together the school which attracted international attention and fame. Pestalozzi won government support as his fame increased. He published in 1801 a systematic treatise on education, "How Gertrude Teaches Her Children." Soon, he moved his school to a castle at Yverdon.
6. LAST YEARS. The school at Yverdon lasted for twenty years. It attracted students and teachers from many nations in its early days. Representatives from Prussia returned home to change and improve their educational system. As the institution grew in size, some of the teachers changed the methods of Pestalozzi and quarrels resulted, creating dissension and wholesale resignations. Pestalozzi remained with the school until the very end. When the school closed in 1826, Pestalozzi, then a man of eighty, retired to his farm. His remaining time involved him in invective disputes with some of his former teachers. He died in 1827. At the height of the institution's fame Pestalozzi was highly regarded for his work as an educator and at educational reform.
The part of the Inscription on Pestalozzi's grave sounds:
He did everything for others, nothing for himself!
PESTALOZZIAN PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION. Some of the very many principles of Pestalozzi's education can be summed up as follows:
1. EDUCATION. Education is the unfolding of the natural powers and faculties latent in every human being.
2. PURPOSE OF EDUCATION. The purpose of education is both social and individual.
3. THE CURRICULUM. The curriculum of the elementary school was enlarged to include geography, science (through the study of nature), drawing and music.
4. METHODOLOGY. The following are the chief points of Pestalozzi's method:
b. Direct Experience.
c. Activity.
d. Induction.
f. Simplify All Subjects to their simple elements.
5. DISCIPLINE. Pestalozzi asserted that the teacher must earn the trust of the children. The schoolroom must possess the atmosphere of a loving Christian family. The members of this family are cooperative, loving and kind to one another.
INFLUENCE OF PESTALOZZI. In addition to being a great influence upon the elementary school system of Prussia, he influenced American education. Even now, the teachings of Pestalozzi became active in countless school systems.
Moreover, Pestalozzi made an impression on me, so I repeatedly cited his thoughts about direct experience, for example. I think it's obviously why I believe that he is the most extraordinary teacher 18th century, although its pedagogy is considered one of the 19th century pedagogy. That's why I chose him.