writing,

mastered. The pupils combined these elements, instead of copying models, and were encouraged to design symmetrical and graceful figures. This also paved the way for writing. The children wrote on their slates, beginning with the easiest letters and gradually forming words from them, but soon learned to write on paper with a pen. Writing was, however, taught in connection with reading, although begun somewhat later than that and construc- study. Constructive geometry was also learned through drawing. The pupils were taught to distinguish, first vertical, horizontal, oblique, and parallel lines; then they learned right, acute, and obtuse angles, different kinds of triangles, quadrilaterals, and other figures; and finally discovered at how many points a certain number of straight lines may be made to cut one another, and how many angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals can be formed. To make the matter concrete, the figures were often cut out of cardboard or made into models.

tive geometry;

nature study and geog

raphy;

In nature study, geography, and history the concrete observational work was likewise continued. Trees, flowers, and birds were viewed, drawn, and discussed. The pupils began in geography by acquiring the points of the compass and relative positions, and from this knowledge observed and described some familiar place. The valley of the Buron near at hand was observed in detail and modeled upon long tables in clay brought from its sides. Then the pupils were shown the map for the first time and easily grasped the meaning of its symbols. His ideas on geography, however, were more fully worked out by the scientist, Karl Ritter, who had already been trained in principles similar to Pestalozzi's in Salzmann's school at Schnepfenthal (see p. 228). Instead of the

"arbitrary and unmethodical collection of all facts ascertained to exist throughout the earth," which constituted the old encyclopædic' type of geography, Ritter presented a work based on principles indicated by the title,The Science of the Earth in Relation to Nature and the History of Man. Similarly, Pestalozzi's method was applied to music by his friend, Nägeli, a noted Swiss com- and music. poser, who began with the simplest tone elements and then combined and developed these progressively into more complex and connected wholes.

the develop

tree.

Pestalozzi's Educational Aim and Organization.From the beginning of his work, Pestalozzi held that "all the beneficent powers of man are due to neither art nor chance, but to nature," and that education should follow "the course laid down by nature." So in all his works he constantly returns to the analogy of the child's Analogy with development with that of the natural growth of the ment of the plant or tree. He even holds that "the whole tree is an uninterrupted chain of organic parts, the plan of which existed in its seed and root," and that "man is similar to the tree." Consequently, he defines education as "the natural, progressive, and harmonious development of all the powers and capacities of the human being." This belief in the observance of development from within is in keeping with the naturalism of Rousseau, but that reformer viewed it chiefly from the negative side, and failed to make his educational doctrine concrete and explicit and to apply it to the school. Pestalozzi further modified and extended the Rousselian doctrine by recommending its application to all children, whatever their circumstances and abilities. Where Rousseau evidently had only the young aristocrat in mind in the

Universal education.

Clear ideas only

perceptions,

reduced to simplest terms,

in words.

education of Emile, Pestalozzi held that poverty could be relieved and society reformed only through ridding each and every one of his degradation by means of mental and moral development. Accordingly, he was the stanch advocate of universal education.

His General Method.-Pestalozzi's general method of giving free play to this natural development of the powers of all and so for reforming social conditions was to train his pupils through 'observation.' He felt that through sense clear ideas could be formed only by means of careful sense perceptions, and he was thoroughly opposed to the mechanical memorizing with little understanding that was current in the schools of the day. His method in general consisted in analyzing each subject into its simplest elements, or 'A B C,' and developing it by graded and expressed exercises based as far as possible upon the study of objects rather than words. Yet Pestalozzi felt that "experiences must be clearly expressed in words, or otherwise there arises the same danger that characterizes the dominant word teaching,-that of attributing entirely erroneous ideas to words." Accordingly, as shown in the summary of How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (see p. 282), in all instruction he would connect language with 'observation.' The special applications of this general method that were worked out by him and his followers in the most common subjects of the curriculum have been described in detail in the account of his work at Stanz, Burgdorf, and Yverdon, and do not require repetition here.

The Permanent Influence of Pestalozzi.-It is easy to exaggerate the achievements of this almost sainted reformer of Switzerland. Pestalozzi's methods were

unpractical,

wanting in

organization;

neither very original nor well carried out. His chief Unoriginal, merit lay in developing and making positive the sugges- inconsistent, tions offered by Rousseau, and in utilizing them in the science and work of the schools. Even in this he failed somewhat in practicality and consistency. Moreover, Pestalozzi was groping and never possessed full vision. He did not grasp definite educational principles in a scientific way, but, like Rousseau, obtained his ideas of teaching from sympathetic insight into the minds of children. His writings for the most part record his empirical efforts at an effective training, and are revelations of methods of teaching in the concrete rather than the abstract. His works are also poorly arranged and inaccurate, and there was little organization or order in his schools.

The

But all these deficiencies are of small import when compared with Pestalozzi's influence upon society and but sought to elevate society education. In the eighteenth century caste ruled through by education, wealth and education, while the masses, who supported the owners of the land in idleness and luxury, were sunk in ignorance, poverty, and vice. The schools for the common people were exceedingly few, the content of education was largely limited by ecclesiastical authority, and the methods were traditional and verbal. teachers generally had received little training, and were selected at random. Ordinarily the pay was wretched, no lodgings were provided for the teacher, and he had often to add domestic service to his duties, in order to secure food and clothing. In the midst of such conditions appeared this most famous of modern educators, who never ceased to work for the reformation of society. As Voltaire, Rousseau, and others had held that the panacea for the corrupt times was rationalism, atheism,

and was the

all modern

pedagogy.

deism, socialism, anarchy, or individualism, Pestalozzi found his remedy in education. Like Rousseau, he keenly felt the injustice, unnaturalness, and degradation of the existing society, but he was not content to stop with mere destruction and negations. He saw what education might do to purify social conditions and to elevate the people by intellectual, moral, and industrial training, and he longed to apply it universally and to develop methods in keeping with nature.

Pestalozzi's achievements contained the germ of progenitor of modern pedagogy, as well as of educational reform. It was he that stimulated educational theorists, instead of accepting formal principles and traditional processes, to work out carefully and patiently the development of the child mind and to embody the results in practice. From him have come the prevailing reforms in the present teaching of language lessons, arithmetic, drawing, writing, reading, geography, elementary science, and music. In harmony with his improved methods, Pestalozzi also started a different type of discipline. His work made clear the new spirit in the school by which it has approached the atmosphere of the home. He found the proper relation of pupil and teacher to exist in sympathy and friendship, or, as he states it, in 'love.' This attitude, which appears so fully in his kindly treatment of the poor children at Neuhof and Stanz (Fig. 33), constituted the greatest contrast to that of the brutal schools of the times, and introduced a new conception into education.

The Spread of Pestalozzian Schools and Methods through Europe.-The 'observational' methods of Pestalozzi and institutions similar to his were soon spread by