Object Teaching
An appreciation of the laboratory method can be gained by reviewing briefly the history of this method in American schools. As far back as 1809 a follower of Pestalozzi, one Joseph Neef, conducted a school in Philadelphia, where he exhibited Pestalozzi’s object method. Pupils learned by direct contact with things. Such teaching was in sharp contrast with the ordinary methods then in vogue, for at that time instruction consisted exclusively of statements, either oral or written, which the pupils were supposed to learn by heart.
The object-teaching movement made little progress until it was taken up in 1860 by Dr. Sheldon, the head of the normal school at Oswego, New York. From Oswego the movement spread, especially to the new Western schools, and had so wide an influence that the study of nature in the lower schools was vigorously advocated and extensively undertaken. The inductive method of direct contact with the facts was advocated in fields other than nature study. Dr. Sheldon’s daughter took a vigorous part in the development of instruction in history based on direct contact with source material. The laboratory method in history, as it was sometimes called, spread and inspired enthusiasm for methods in all the literary subjects analogous to the laboratory work of the sciences.