of teaching children to read by means of exercises known as 'syllabaries.' These joined the five vowels in succession to the different consonants,-'ab, eb, ib, ob, ub,' and so on through all the consonants. From the phonetic nature of German spelling, he was able to make the exercises very simple, and thus to furnish a necessary practice in basal syllables. In a similar way he hoped to simplify all education to such an extent that schools would eventually become unnecessary, and that each mother would be able to teach her children and continue her own education at the same time.

combination of

intellectual

Continuation of His Methods at Burgdorf, and How Gertrude Teaches Her Children. From these experiments and concrete methods that Pestalozzi started at Stanz gradually developed all his educational contributions. But before the close of a year he was forced by circumstances to remove to Burgdorf. Here, on account of the social position of many of his pupils, he Suspension of had to suspend his experiment of combining indus- industrial with trial with intellectual training, although, as will later elements. be seen, his special efforts in this direction were greatly enlarged and perpetuated by Fellenberg. He now devoted himself to his 'A B C of observation,' and further worked out and graduated his 'syllabaries.' Language 'Syllabaries' exercises were also given his pupils by means of examin- guage exercises, ing the number, form, position, and color of the designs, holes, and rents in the wall paper of the school, and expressing their observations in longer and longer sentences, which they repeated after him. For arithmetic arithmetic, he devised charts upon which were placed dots or lines concretely representing each unit up to one hundred. By means of this 'table of units' (Fig. 34), the pupil

and other lan

other studies.

school.

obtained a clear idea of the meaning of the digits and the fundamental processes in arithmetic. The geometry, and children were also taught the elements of geometry by drawing angles, lines, and curves, and the development of teaching history, geography, and natural history by this method of observation was likewise continued. Despite a want of system and errors in carrying out Success of the his method, Pestalozzi seems to have produced remarkable results from the start. Pupils poured in; a number of progressive teachers came to assist him; many persons of prominence visited the school and made most favorable reports upon its methods; and during the following three years and a half the Pestalozzian views on education were systematically developed and applied. While at Burgdorf also, he undertook a detailed statement of his method by the publication of his How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (1801). This work does not mention Gertrude, but consists of fifteen letters to his friend, Gessner. Like all of Pestalozzi's works, it is quite lacking in both plan and proportion, and is filled with repetitions and digressions, but the following portion of the summary of its principles, made by a biographer of Pestalozzi, may serve to give an idea of his educational creed:

Principles in his How Gertrude.

"1. Observation is the foundation of instruction.

66 2. Language must be connected with observation.

"3. The time for learning is not the time for judgment and criticism.

"4. In each branch, instruction must begin with the simplest elements, and proceed gradually by following the child's development; that is, by a series of steps which are psychologically connected.

Ursuline convent).

Fig. 34. The 'table of units' of Pestalozzi, copied by Warren Colburn

in the first edition (1821) of his Mental Arithmetic.

"5. A pause must be made at each stage of the instruction sufficiently long for the child to get the new matter thoroughly into his grasp and under his control.

"6. Teaching must follow the path of development, and not that of dogmatic exposition."

perity.

and tables of

tions, and frac

tions of frac

The Institute' at Yverdon and the Culmination of the Pestalozzian Methods.-As a result of political changes, Pestalozzi was obliged in 1805 to transfer his school to Yverdon. The 'institute' here sprang into fame almost immediately, and increased in numbers and prosperity for several years. Children were sent Great prosfrom great distances, and teachers and visitors thronged there to learn and apply the new principles at home. The work of the institute formed a continuation and culmination of the observational methods started at Stanz and Burgdorf. The simplification introduced through the 'syllabaries' and 'table of units' was further Syllabaries, elaborated. A 'table of fractions' was also devised units, fracfor teaching that subject concretely. It consisted of a series of squares, which could be divided indefinitely and in different ways. Some of the squares were whole, while others were divided horizontally into two, three, or even ten equal parts. There was further developed a 'table of fractions of fractions,' or compound fractions, in which the squares were divided, not only horizontally, but vertically, so that the method of reducing two fractions to the same denominator might be self-evident. Further, in order to draw and write, the pupil was drawing, first taught the simple elements of form. Objects, such as sticks or pencils, were placed in different directions, and lines representing them were drawn on the board or slate until all elementary forms, straight or curved, were

tions;