John Keitges.
Answer.—Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator, was born at Zurich Jan. 12, 1746. In his youth he was evidently undecided as to what profession to follow. He was first a theological student and then a law student. Having purchased some waste land, he turned from the law to farming, where he became interested in the welfare of the masses and devoted himself, during the intervals of his work, to promoting their elevation. Convinced that a rational system of education would remedy many of the evils of society, he converted his own house into an orphan asylum, and strove, by judicious blending of industrial, intellectual, and moral training, to illustrate his theory of a sound system of national education. The great idea at the basis of his system of instruction was the necessity of teaching by object lessons. Objects themselves, and not lessons about objects, were the means that he used to develop the observing and reasoning powers. He gave special attention to the moral and religious training of children, as something distinct from mere instruction in morals and religion. For two years Froebel, the father of the kindergarten system, was his pupil and assistant teacher. He died at Brugg, Switzerland, in 1827. Friedrich Wilhelm A. Froebel, to whom reference has just been made, was born at Ober-Weissbach, Germany, April 21, 1782. When sent to school he was so dull that his father, growing discouraged, took him from study and sent him to work among the wood-cutters in the forest. Here he became a student of nature and advanced, as Pestalozzi, upon his farm, to the idea of teaching from nature. In 1799 he went to school again, but falling into debt, was imprisoned by his creditors. Soon after his release he became a pupil and assistant of Pestalozzi, remaining with this great master from 1807 to 1809. He then began the study of the natural sciences, but was interrupted by the German and French war of 1813, in which he enlisted for fatherland. On the restoration of peace he became curator of the Museum of Mineralogy, under Professor Weiss, at Berlin. A few years later he began his life as a teacher, which, in 1826, the year previous to the death of Pestalozzi, he varied by publishing a work entitled “The Education of Man.” In this book he declared that man’s life was a succession of stages, each of which should be progressive. He was especially impressed with the importance of the first years of childhood as the period in which to give shape to all their after development. In 1837 he established the first kindergarten school, at Blankenburg. Having noticed the restlessness of children, and tendency to finger everything, he took advantage of these traits to arouse in them a spirit of intelligent inquiry and investigation. Much of his time was given, in schools of Germany and Switzerland, to training primary teachers. In the latter part of his life he gave special attention to the training of young female teachers, believing them to be best calculated by nature for the care and management of young children. During the revolutionary period of 1848, at a time when, through the influence of the great Middendorff, who had become interested in his kindergarten work, he hoped to enlist the support of the German Parliament in his system of teaching, he and his brother Karl were charged with socialistic tendencies, and an edict was issued forbidding the establishment of schools “after Friedrich and Karl Froebel’s principles” in Prussia. This blow utterly disheartened the veteran educator, and he died in June, 1852, at Marienthal.
A sketch of the life of Horace Mann will be found in Our Curiosity Shop for 1882.
GENERALS A. S. AND JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.
Blaine, Iowa.
Please give a brief outline of the lives of General A. S. Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston.
Reader.
Answer.—Albert Sydney Johnston served honorably in the United States army in Mexico and Utah, and at the outbreak of the civil war was appointed General in the Confederate army. He was killed in the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, at the age of 59. His native State was Kentucky. General Joe Johnston was born in Virginia in 1807, and, after completing the course of study at West Point, fought in the Seminole and Mexican wars. Receiving the position of Major General in the Confederate army, he proved himself a dangerous foe in the Peninsular campaign, in Tennessee, and Carolina. He surrendered to General Sherman April 26, 1865.