Fig. 33.—‘Father’ Pestalozzi at Stanz. (The orphan school in the Ursuline convent).
Fig. 34.—The ‘table of units’ of Pestalozzi, copied by Warren Colburn in the first edition (1821) of his Mental Arithmetic.
The ‘Institute’ at Yverdon and the Culmination of the Pestalozzian Methods.—As a result of political changes, Pestalozzi was obliged in 1805 to transfer his school to Yverdon. The ‘institute’ here sprang into fame almost immediately, and increased in numbers Great prosperity. and prosperity for several years. Children were sent from great distances, and teachers and visitors thronged there to learn and apply the new principles at home. The work of the institute formed a continuation and culmination of the observational methods started at Stanz and Burgdorf. The simplification introduced Syllabaries, and tables of units, fractions, and fractions of fractions; through the ‘syllabaries’ and ‘table of units’ was further elaborated. A ‘table of fractions’ was also devised for teaching that subject concretely. It consisted of a series of squares, which could be divided indefinitely and in different ways. Some of the squares were whole, while others were divided horizontally into two, three, or even ten equal parts. There was further developed a ‘table of fractions of fractions,’ or compound fractions, in which the squares were divided, not only horizontally, but vertically, so that the method of reducing two fractions to the same denominator might be self-evident.
drawing,
Further, in order to draw and write, the pupil was first taught the simple elements of form. Objects, such as sticks or pencils, were placed in different directions, and lines representing them were drawn on the board or slate until all elementary forms, straight or curved, were mastered. The pupils combined these elements, instead of copying models, and were encouraged to design symmetrical and graceful figures. This also paved the writing, way for writing. The children wrote on their slates, beginning with the easiest letters and gradually forming words from them, but soon learned to write on paper with a pen. Writing was, however, taught in connection with reading, although begun somewhat later than that and constructive geometry; study. Constructive geometry was also learned through drawing. The pupils were taught to distinguish, first vertical, horizontal, oblique, and parallel lines; then they learned right, acute, and obtuse angles, different kinds of triangles, quadrilaterals, and other figures; and finally discovered at how many points a certain number of straight lines may be made to cut one another, and how many angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals can be formed. To make the matter concrete, the figures were often cut out of cardboard or made into models.
nature study and geography;
In nature study, geography, and history the concrete observational work was likewise continued. Trees, flowers, and birds were viewed, drawn, and discussed. The pupils began in geography by acquiring the points of the compass and relative positions, and from this knowledge observed and described some familiar place. The valley of the Buron near at hand was observed in detail and modeled upon long tables in clay brought from its sides. Then the pupils were shown the map for the first time and easily grasped the meaning of its symbols. His ideas on geography, however, were more fully worked out by the scientist, Karl Ritter, who had already been trained in principles similar to Pestalozzi’s in Salzmann’s school at Schnepfenthal (see p. 228). Instead of the “arbitrary and unmethodical collection of all facts ascertained to exist throughout the earth,” which constituted the old ‘encyclopædic’ type of geography, Ritter presented a work based on principles indicated by the title,—The Science of the Earth in Relation to Nature and the History of Man. Similarly, Pestalozzi’s method was and music. applied to music by his friend, Nägeli, a noted Swiss composer, who began with the simplest tone elements and then combined and developed these progressively into more complex and connected wholes.
Pestalozzi’s Educational Aim and Organization.—From the beginning of his work, Pestalozzi held that “all the beneficent powers of man are due to neither art nor chance, but to nature,” and that education should follow “the course laid down by nature.” So in all his Analogy with the development of the tree. works he constantly returns to the analogy of the child’s development with that of the natural growth of the plant or tree. He even holds that “the whole tree is an uninterrupted chain of organic parts, the plan of which existed in its seed and root,” and that “man is similar to the tree.” Consequently, he defines education as “the natural, progressive, and harmonious development of all the powers and capacities of the human being.” This belief in the observance of development from within is in keeping with the naturalism of Rousseau, but that reformer viewed it chiefly from the negative side, and failed to make his educational doctrine concrete and explicit and to apply it to the school. Pestalozzi further modified and extended the Rousselian doctrine by recommending its application to all children, whatever their circumstances and abilities. Where Rousseau evidently had only the young aristocrat in mind in the Universal education. education of Emile, Pestalozzi held that poverty could be relieved and society reformed only through ridding each and every one of his degradation by means of mental and moral development. Accordingly, he was the stanch advocate of universal education.
His General Method.—Pestalozzi’s general method of giving free play to this natural development of the powers of all and so for reforming social conditions was to train his pupils through ‘observation.’ He felt that Clear ideas only through sense perceptions, clear ideas could be formed only by means of careful sense perceptions, and he was thoroughly opposed to the mechanical memorizing with little understanding that was current in the schools of the day. His method in general consisted in analyzing each subject into its simplest reduced to simplest terms, and expressed in words. elements, or ‘A B C,’ and developing it by graded exercises based as far as possible upon the study of objects rather than words. Yet Pestalozzi felt that “experiences must be clearly expressed in words, or otherwise there arises the same danger that characterizes the dominant word teaching,—that of attributing entirely erroneous ideas to words.” Accordingly, as shown in the summary of How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (see p. 282), in all instruction he would connect language with ‘observation.’ The special applications of this general method that were worked out by him and his followers in the most common subjects of the curriculum have been described in detail in the account of his work at Stanz, Burgdorf, and Yverdon, and do not require repetition here.