books. While they did not learn their natural history primarily from nature, they were taught to corroborate what they had learned by their own observation. With regard to this whole method Pestalozzi said: "I believe that the first development of thought in the child is very much disturbed by a wordy system of teaching, which is not adapted either to his faculties or the circumstances of his life. According to my experience, success depends upon whether what is taught to children commends itself to them as true through being closely connected with their own observation. As a general rule, I attached little importance to the study of words, even when explanations of the ideas they represented were given.” 1 In connection with his observational method, Pestalozzi at this time began his attempts to reduce all observation to its lowest terms.2 It was while at Stanz, for example, that he first adopted his well-known plan 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 intended thus to furnish a necessary practice in basal syllables. In a similar way he hoped to simplify all education to such an extent that 1 See footnote on p. 128. 2 The resulting elements he soon came to call the 'A B C of observation' (A B C der Anschauung). See pp. 133 and 135. K He sought to servation to reduce ob its lowest terms, as, for example, in his 'syllaba ries'; and to combine study with manual labor. Being forced to give up at tained with difficulty a position at Burgdorf, 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. Moreover, while not altogether successful in his efforts at a correlation, Pestalozzi, more than at Neuhof, now "sought to combine study with manual labor, the school with the workshop," for, said he : "I am more than ever convinced that as soon as we have educational establishments combined with workshops, and conducted on a truly psychological basis, a generation will necessarily be formed which will show us by experience that our present studies do not require one tenth of the time or trouble we now give to them.” The 'Institute' at Burgdorf and the Psychologizing of From these methods and principles that Pestalozzi Stanz, he ob- started at Stanz eventually developed all his educational contributions. But before the close of a year the convent that had served as such a fruitful experiment station was required by the French soldiers for a hospital. As soon as he recovered from the terrific physical strain under which he had labored, Pestalozzi was forced to seek another place in which to continue his educational work. But, according to the usual standards for securing a position to teach, "he had everything against him; thick, indistinct speech, bad writing, ignorance of drawing, scorn of grammatical learning. He had studied various branches of natural history, but without any particular attention either to classification or terminology. He was conversant with the ordinary numerical operations, but he would have had difficulty to get through a really long sum in multiplication or division, and had probably never tried to work out a problem in geometry."1 And in spite of his understanding of "the mind of man and the laws of its development, human affections, and the art of arousing and ennobling them," he would probably have been unable to obtain a school, had it not been for certain influential friends in the town of Burgdorf. They secured a position for him, first in the school for the tenants and poorer people, and later in the elementary school of the citizens. In Burgdorf, Pestalozzi "followed without any plan the empirical method interrupted at Stanz," and "sought by every means to bring the elements of reading and arithmetic to the greatest simplicity, and by grouping them psychologically, enable the child to pass easily and surely from the first step to the second, and from the second to the third, and so on."2 He further worked out and graduated his 'syllabaries,' and invented the idea of large movable letters for teaching the children to read. Lan guage exercises were given his pupils by means of exam where he condeveloped tinued and his method. He taught through the reading 'syllabaries,' language through objects, arith ining the number, form, position, and color of the designs, meticthrough 1 Charles Monnard, Histoire de la Suisse, continuation de Müller. 2 See footnote on p. 128. the 'table of units,' and geometry through drawing lines and curves; holes, and rents in the wall paper of the school,1 and expressing their observations in longer and longer sentences, which they repeated after him. For arithmetic he devised boards divided into squares upon which were placed dots or lines concretely representing each unit up to one hundred. By means of this 'table of units' 2 the pupil obtained a clear idea of the meaning of the digits and the process of addition, and practiced his knowledge further by counting his fingers, beans, pebbles, and other objects. Pestalozzi further explained that "after the child has come to a full understanding of the combinations of units up to ten, and has learned to express himself with ease, the objects are again presented, but the questions are changed: If we have two objects, how many times one object?' The child looks, counts, and answers correctly." In that way the pupils learned to multiply, and the meaning of division and subtraction was similarly acquired. The children were also taught the elements of geometry by drawing angles, lines, and curves. Likewise, the development of teaching history, geography, and natural history by this method of observation must have been continued at Burgdorf. 1 In the Book for Mothers, the human body, with its parts and relations, is especially suggested as the material for conversation, since this is the closest to human interests and thought. 2 An illustration of this table is given in Krüsi, Pestalozzi, p. 172. This system was probably not completed until Pestalozzi settled at Yverdun, and much of the credit for the scheme should go to Krüsi and Schmid. ་ evolved his 'A B C of observation,' stated wish and his to 'psychologize educa tion.' As a result of these experiments, says Pestalozzi, and thus "there unfolded itself gradually in my mind the idea of the possibility of an A B C of observation,1 to which I now attach great importance, and with the working out of which the whole scheme of a general method of instruction in all its scope appeared, though still obscure, before my eyes." 2 And the underlying principle of his system he shortly formulated most tersely in the statement, "I wish to psychologize education." By this, he showed, is meant the harmonizing of instruction with the laws of intellectual development, together with the simplification of the elements of knowledge and their reduction to a series of exercises so scientifically graded that even the lowest classes can obtain the proper physical, mental, and moral development. And sense perception or observation, he holds, when connected with language for expressing the different impressions, is, therefore, the foundation of education. 'institute' at Despite a want of system and errors in carrying out Pestalozzi's his method, Pestalozzi seems to have produced remark- Burgdorf able results from the start. At the first annual examination the Burgdorf School Commission wrote him that successful, 1 See footnote 2 on p. 129. Cf. also footnote 2 on p. 135. 2 See footnote on p. 128. 3 Ich will den menschlichen Unterricht psychologisieren. This formula was made by him when asked for a written statement of his system by the 'Friends of Education,' a society that was striving to propagate his views. was immensely pupils |