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PESTALOZZI, JOHANN HEINRICH

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 285 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PESTALOZZI, JOHANN HEINRICH • (1746-1827), Swiss educational reformer, was See also:born at See also:Zurich on the 12th of See also:January 1746. His See also:father died when he was See also:young, and he was brought up by his See also:mother. At the university of Zurich he was associated with See also:Lavater and the party of reform. His earliest years were spent in schemes for improving the See also:condition of the See also:people. The See also:death of his friend See also:Bluntschli turned him however from politics, and induced him to devote himself to See also:education. He married at twenty-three and bought a piece of See also:waste See also:land at See also:Neuhof in See also:Aargau., where he attempted the cultivation of See also:madder. Pestalozzi knew nothing of business, and the See also:plan failed. Before this he had opened his See also:farm-See also:house as a school; but in 178o he had to give this up also. His first See also:book published at this See also:time was The Evening See also:Hours of a See also:Hermit (178o), a See also:series of aphorisms and reflections. This was followed by his See also:master-piece, Leonard and Gertrude (1781), an See also:account of the See also:gradual See also:reformation, first of a See also:household, and then of a whole See also:village, by the efforts of a See also:good and devoted woman. It was read with avidity in See also:Germany, and the name of Pestalozzi was rescued from obscurity. The See also:French invasion of See also:Switzerland in 1798 brought into See also:relief his truly heroic See also:character.

A number of See also:

children were See also:left in See also:Canton See also:Unterwalden on the shores of the See also:Lake of See also:Lucerne, without parents, See also:home, See also:food or shelter. Pestalozzi collected a number of them into a deserted See also:convent, and spent his energies in reclaiming them. During the See also:winter he personally tended them with the utmost devotion, but in See also:June 1799 the See also:building was required by the French for a See also:hospital, and his charges were dispersed. In 18oI Pestalozzi gave an exposition of his ideas on education in the book How Gertrude teaches her Children. His method is to proceed from the easier to the more difficult. To begin with observation, to pass from observation to consciousness, from consciousness to speech. Then come measuring, See also:drawing, See also:writing, See also:numbers, and so reckoning. In 1799 he had been enabled to establish a school at See also:Burgdorf, where he remained till 1804.. In 1802, he went as See also:deputy to See also:Paris, and did his best to See also:interest See also:Napoleon in a See also:scheme of See also:national education; but the See also:great conqueror said that he could not trouble himself about the See also:alphabet. In 1805 he removed to Yverdun on the Lake of See also:Neuchatel, and for twenty years worked steadily at his task. He was visited by all who took interest in education—Talleyrand, See also:Capo d'See also:Istria, and Mme de See also:Stael. He was praised by Wilhelm von See also:Humboldt and by See also:Fichte.

His . pupils included Ramsauer, See also:

Delbruck, Blochmann, Carl See also:Ritter, Frobel and See also:Zeller. About 1815 dissensions See also:broke out among the teachers of the school, and Pestalozzi's last ten years were chequered by weariness and sorrow. In 1825 he retired to Neuhof, the home of his youth; and after writing the adventures of his See also:life, and his last See also:work, the See also:Swan's See also:Song, he died at Brugg on the 17th of See also:February 1827. As he said himself, the real work of his life did not See also:lie in Burgdorf or in Yverdun' It See also:lay in the principles of education which he practised, the development of his observation, the training of the whole See also:man, the sympathetic application of the teacher to the taught, of which he left an example in his six months' labours at Stanz. He had the deepest effect on all branches of education, and his See also:influence is far from being exhausted. Pestalozzi's See also:complete See also:works were published at See also:Stuttgart in 1819-1826, and an edition by Seyffarth appeared at See also:Berlin in 1881. Volumes on his life and teaching have been written by De Guimps (1889), See also:Barnard (1862), hrusi (1875) and Pinloche (1901).

End of Article: PESTALOZZI, JOHANN HEINRICH

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