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CHAPTER X.

PESTALOZZI THE THINKER (continued).

We now come to the most important and the most difficult part of our study: Pestalozzi's ideas on the intellectual basis of all education, and the education of the intellect. This is most important because it is the most fundamental part of his thought and work; and it is the most difficult because of the characteristics of his own mind and methods. However, we do but attempt to do something like what Niederer tried to do for him, during his lifetime; and what Pestalozzi himself exhorted his disciples to do: systematise (as best we can) the great thoughts which he gave out so profusely and so promiscuously.

With his usual frankness and modesty, Pestalozzi disclaims any pretension to have set forth a complete theory and art of education. He writes: "When I assert positively that a man's powers are all part of an organic whole, I do not in the least wish to suggest that I have thoroughly apprehended either this organism or its laws; and when I state that a rational method must be followed in teaching, I do not for a moment pretend that I have always followed such a method, or that I have worked out all the details of one". In one passage he likens himself to "the Egyptian who first fastened the shovel to the horns of an ox, and so taught it to do the work of the man who

digs; [and thus] led the way to the discovery of the plough, though he did not bring it to perfection " (How Gertrude Teaches).

Since the end and aim desired must determine the ways and means adopted, we propose to give extracts in which Pestalozzi has summarised, more or less, his views on these two aspects of education. These are meant to serve as a summary of the preceding chapter and a preparation for part v. of this chapter.

IV. What Education is.

From the social aspect he says: "the education of men is simply the filing of each ring in the great chain which joins humanity together and makes it a whole. / The mistakes of education are due to working at each ring of the chain separately, as though it were a separate unit, and not an integral part of the whole as though the strength and utility of each ring were due to the fact of its being gilded, silvered, or even set with precious stones, and not due to the fact that it had been made supple and strong enough always to take part in all the movements of the chain in all its windings" (Leonard and Gertrude).

"The ultimate end of education is not a perfection in the accomplishments of the school, but fitness for life; not the acquirement of habits of blind obedience, and of prescribed diligence, but a preparation for independent action. We must bear in mind that whatever class of society a pupil may belong to, whatever calling he may be intended for, there are certain faculties in human nature common to all, which constitute the stock of the fundamental energies of man. We have no right to withhold from any one the opportunities for develop

ing all their faculties. It may be judicious to treat some of them with marked attention, and to give up the idea of bringing others to high perfection. The diversity of talent and inclination, of plans and pursuits, is a sufficient proof of the necessity for such a distinction. But I repeat that we have no right to shut out the child from the development of those faculties also, which we may not for the present conceive to be very essential for his future calling or station in life. . . .

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'Education, instead of merely considering what is to be imparted to children, ought to consider first what they may be said already to possess, if not as a developed, at least as an involved faculty capable of development. Or if, instead of speaking thus in the abstract, we will but recollect, that it is to the great Author of life that man owes the possession, and is responsible for the use, of his innate faculties, education should not only decide what is to be made of a child, but rather inquire, what is a child qualified for; what is his destiny, as a created and responsible being; what are his faculties as a rational and moral being; what are the means pointed out for their perfection, and the end held out as the highest object of their efforts? They embrace the rightful claims of all classes to a general diffusion of useful knowledge, a careful development of the intellect, and judicious attention to all the faculties of man, physical, intellectual and moral" (On Infants' Education).

The moral side of education was regarded by Pestalozzi as directly social in its bearings. "In relation to society, man should be qualified by education to be a useful member of it. In order to be truly useful it is necessary that he should be truly independent. .

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True independence must fall and rise with the dignity of his moral character. . . . A state of bondage, or of self-merited poverty, is not more degrading than a state of dependence on considerations which betray littleness of mind, want of moral energy, or of honourable feeling. .. Education should contribute in giving happiness. The feeling of happiness does not arise from exterior circumstances; it is a state of mind, a consciousness of harmony both with the inward and the outward world: it assigns their due limits to the desires, and it proposes the highest aim to the faculties of man" (On Infants' Education).

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From the personal or individual point of view Pestalozzi says that "education consists in returning to the methods of Nature, and in developing and improving the dispositions and powers of man. . . [It] involves the harmonious balance of all a man's powers, and this involves the natural development of each and all. Each power must be developed according to the laws of its. own nature, and these are not the same for the heart, for the mind, and for the body" (Swan's Song).

"Each of our moral, mental and bodily powers must have its development based upon its own nature, and not based upon artificial and outside influences.

"Faith must be developed by exercises in believing, and cannot be developed from the knowledge and understanding, only, of what is to be believed; thought must grow from thinking, for it cannot come simply from the knowledge and understanding of what is to be thought, or the laws of thought; love must be developed by loving, for it does not arise merely from a knowledge and understanding of what love is, and of what ought to be loved; art, also, can only be cultivated through

doing artistic work and acquiring skill, for unending discussion of art and skill will not develop them. Such a return to the true method of Nature in the method of the development of our powers necessitates the subordination of education to the knowledge of the various laws which govern those powers" (Address, on Seventysecond Birthday).

Pestalozzi thus speaks of his own efforts to follow the method of nature: "The more I pursued the track of nature, the more I strove to connect my endeavours with her working and exerted myself to keep pace with her, the more did I perceive the immense progress of her course; and, to my astonishment, I found the child endowed with sufficient power to follow her. The only weakness I met with was [my own] inability to make the best use of what was already in existence; I found myself guilty of the weakness of presumption, in making myself the moving power, instead of merely collecting materials for an internal power of action; or rather, in attempting to cram that into the child, which is only to be drawn forth from him, as it is primitively deposited in him, and requires nothing but a stimulus of life to give the impulse for its development. I now thought thrice before I presumed to imagine anything too difficult for the children; and ten times before I ventured 'It is beyond them'. I was brought to the firm conviction that all instruction, to have a truly enlightening and cultivating influence, must be drawn out of children and, as it were, begotten within their minds" (How Gertrude Teaches).

Again he says: "The idea of elementary education, to which I have devoted my life, consists in re-establishing the course of nature, and in developing and

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