517. Pedagogical Processes.—The pedagogy of Pestalozzi is no less valid in its processes than in its principles. Without presuming to enumerate everything, we will indicate succinctly some of the scholastic practices which he employed and recommended:—
The child should know how to speak before learning to read.
For reading, use should be made of movable letters glued on pasteboard. Before writing, the pupil should draw. The first exercises in writing should be upon slates.
In the study of language, the evolution of nature should be followed, first studying nouns, then qualificatives, and finally propositions.
The elements of computation shall be taught by the aid of material objects taken as units, or at least by means of strokes drawn on a board. Oral computation shall be the most employed.
The pupil ought, in order to form an accurate and exact idea of numbers, to conceive them always as a collection of strokes or of concrete things, and not as abstract figures. A small table divided into squares in which points are represented, serves to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
There was neither book nor copy-book in the schools of Burgdorf.
The children had nothing to learn by heart. They had to repeat all at once and in accord the instructions of the master. Each lesson lasted but an hour, and was followed by a short interval devoted to recreation.
Manual labor, making paper boxes, working in the garden, gymnastics, were associated with mental labor. The last hour of each day was devoted to optional labor. The pupils said, “We are working for ourselves.”