Development of Basedow’s Educational Reforms.—Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790) was by nature Naturally captivated by Rousseau’s doctrines. the very person to be captivated by Rousseau’s doctrines. He was talented, but erratic, unorthodox, tactless, and irregular in life. He had been prepared at the University of Leipzig for the Lutheran ministry, but proved too heretical, and, giving up this vocation, became a tutor in Holstein to a Herr von Quaalen’s children. With these aristocratic pupils he first developed methods of teaching through conversation and play connected with surrounding objects. A few years after this, in 1763, Basedow fell under the spell of Rousseau’s Emile, which was most congenial to his methods of thinking and teaching, and turned all his energy toward educational reform. As in the case of Rousseau with education in France, he realized that German education of the Education of the day needed naturalism. day was sadly in need of just such an antidote as ‘naturalism’ was calculated to furnish. The schoolrooms were dismal and the work was unpleasant, physical training was neglected, and the discipline was severe. Children were regarded as adults in miniature ([Fig. 25]), and were so treated both in their dress and their education. The current schooling consisted largely of instruction in artificial deportment. The study of classics composed the entire intellectual curriculum, and the methods were purely grammatical. As a result, suggestions made by Basedow for educational improvement attained as great popularity as his advanced theological propositions had received abuse.

In 1768 by his Address on Schools and Studies, and their Influence on the Public Weal, he called generally upon princes, governments, ecclesiastics, and others in power, to assist him financially in certain definite educational reforms. In addition to suggesting that the schools be made nonsectarian and that public instruction be placed under a National Council of Education, he proposed that, in contrast to the formal and unattractive training of the day, education should be rendered practical in content Success of his Address and production of his text-books. and playful in method. To assist this reform, he planned to bring out a work on elementary education, which he described in outline. Great interest in his proposals was shown throughout Europe by sovereigns, nobles, prominent men, and others desiring a nonsectarian and more effective education, and a subsidy of some ten thousand dollars was speedily raised, to enable him to perfect his plans. Six years later, Basedow completed his promised text-book, Elementarwerk, and the companion work for teachers and parents known as Methodenbuch. The Elementarwerk was accompanied by a volume containing ninety-six plates, which illustrated the subject-matter of the text, but were too large to be bound in with it. While in these manuals Basedow included many naturalistic ideas from Rousseau, he also embodied features from other reformers and even additions of his own.

Elementarwerk

Text-books and Other Works.—The Elementarwerk clearly combines many of the principles of Comenius as well as of Rousseau. It has, in fact, been often called ‘the Orbis Pictus (see p. 170) of the eighteenth century,’ and Methodenbuch. and gives a knowledge of things and words in the form of a dialogue. The Methodenbuch, while not following Rousseau completely, contains many ideas concerning natural training that are suggestive of him. In this study of the nature of children, the book makes some advance upon the Rousselian doctrine by finding that they are especially interested in motion and noise, although Basedow would have shocked Rousseau by being so much under the control of tradition as to suggest using these interests in the teaching of Latin. Later, Basedow, together with Campe, Salzmann, and others of his followers, also produced a series of popular story books especially adapted to the character, interests, and needs Popular story books for children. of children. These works are all largely filled with didactics, moralizing, religiosity, and scraps of scientific information. The best known of them is Robinson der Jüngere (Robinson Crusoe Junior), which was published by Campe in 1779. It seems to have been suggested by Rousseau’s recommendation of Robinson Crusoe as a text-book, and in turn a generation later it became the model for Der Schweizerische Robinson (The Swiss Family Robinson) of Wyss, which has been so popular with children in America and elsewhere.

Course and Methods of the Philanthropinum.—Eight years before this, however, Prince Leopold of Dessau had been induced to allow Basedow to found there a model school called the ‘Philanthropinum,’ which should embody that reformer’s ideas. Leopold granted him a Salary, equipment, generous salary, and three years later gave him an equipment of buildings, grounds, and endowment. At first Basedow had but three assistants, but later the number teachers, was considerably increased. The staff then included several very able men, such as Campe, formerly chaplain at Potsdam, and Salzmann, who had been a professor at Erfurt. The underlying principle of the Philanthropinum was ‘everything according to nature.’ The natural instincts and interests of the children were only to be directed and not altogether suppressed. They were to and pupils. be trained as children and not as adults, and the methods of learning were to be adapted to their stage of mentality. That all of the customary fashion and unnaturalness might be eliminated, the boys were plainly dressed and their hair cut short.

Universal education, but social distinctions.

While universal education was believed in, and rich and poor alike were to be trained, the traditional idea still obtained that the natural education of the one class was for social activity and leadership, and of the other for teaching. Consequently, the wealthy boys were to spend six hours in school and two in manual labor, while those from families of small means labored six hours and Industrial training studied two. Every one, however, was taught handicrafts,—carpentry, turning, planing, and threshing, as suggested in the third book of the Emile, and there were also physical exercises and games for all. On the intellectual side, while Latin was not neglected, considerable attention was paid to the vernacular and French. In keeping with the Elementarwerk, Basedow planned a and wide objective course. wide objective and practical course very similar to that suggested by Comenius. It was to give some account of man, including bits of anthropology, anatomy, and physiology; of brute creation, especially the uses of domestic animals and their relation to industry; of trees and plants with their growth, culture, and products; of minerals and chemicals; of mathematical and physical instruments; and of trades, history, and commerce. He afterward admitted that he had overestimated the amount of content that was possible for a child, and greatly abridged the material.

The most striking characteristic of the school, however, was its recognition of child interests and the consequently Languages taught by conversation and games. improved methods. Languages were taught by speaking and then by reading, and grammar was not brought in until late in the course. Facility in Latin was acquired through conversation, games, pictures, drawing, acting plays, and reading on practical and interesting subjects Progressive methods in other subjects. ([Fig. 26]). His instruction in arithmetic, geometry, geography, physics, nature study, and history was fully as progressive as that in languages, and, while continuing Rousseau’s suggestions, seems to anticipate much of the ‘object teaching’ of Pestalozzi. Arithmetic was taught by mental methods, geometry by drawing figures accurately and neatly, and geography by beginning with one’s home and extending out into the neighborhood, the town, the country, and the continent.

Influence of the Philanthropinum.—The attendance at the Philanthropinum was very small in the beginning, since the institution was regarded as an experiment, but eventually the number of pupils rose to more than fifty. Great expectations. Most visitors were greatly pleased with the school, especially on account of the interested and alert appearance of the pupils. Kant declared that it meant “not a slow reform, but a quick revolution,” although afterward he admitted that he had been too optimistic. While it may not have served well for older pupils, it was certainly Stimulus for younger pupils. excellent in its stimulus to children under ten or twelve, who can be reached by appeals to physical activities and the senses better than by books.

Basedow, however, proved temperamentally unfit to Similar institutions of Campe, direct the institution. Joachim Heinrich Campe (1746-1818), who first succeeded him, withdrew within a year to found a similar school at Hamburg. Institutions of the same type sprang up elsewhere, and some of them had a large influence upon education. The most striking and enduring of these schools was that established in 1784 by Salzmann, Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744-1811) at Schnepfenthal under the patronage of the royal family of Saxe-Gotha. The natural surroundings—mountains, valleys, lakes—were most favorable for the purpose of the institution, and much attention was given to nature study, ‘lessons on things,’ organized excursions, gardening, agricultural work, and care of domestic animals. Manual training, gymnastics, sports, informal moral and religious culture, and other features that anticipated later developments in education also formed part of the course. During the decade before the establishment of Salzmann’s school, institutions embodying many of Basedow’s ideas were also opened at Rechahn and his other and Rochow. Brandenburg estates by Baron Eberhard von Rochow (1734-1805). His schools were simply intended to improve the peasantry in their methods of farming and living, but, when this step toward universal education proved extraordinarily successful, Rochow advocated the adoption of a complete national system of schools on a nonsectarian basis.