Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi
1746 - 1827
Instead of
dealing with words, he argued, children should learn through activity and through
things. They should be free to pursue their own interests and draw their
own conclusions (Darling 1994: 18).
“I wish to
wrest education from the outworn order of doddering old teaching hacks
as well as from the new-fangled order of cheap, artificial teaching
tricks, and entrust it to the eternal powers of nature herself, to the
light which God has kindled and kept alive in the hearts of fathers and mothers,
to the interests of parents who desire their children grow up in favour
with God and with men.” (Pestalozzi quoted in Silber 1965: 134)
He placed a
special emphasis on spontaneity and self-activity. Children should not be given
ready-made answers but should arrive at answers themselves. To do this their
own powers of seeing, judging and reasoning should be cultivated, their
self-activity encouraged The aim is to educate the whole child -
intellectual education is only part of a wider plan. He looked to balance,
or keep in equilibrium, three elements - hands, heart and head.
Pestalozzi
believed that thought began with sensation and that teaching should use
the senses. Holding that children should study the objects in their natural
environment, Pestalozzi developed a so-called "object lesson"
that involved exercises in learning form, number, and language. Pupils
determined and traced an object's form, counted objects, and named them.
Students progressed from these lessons to exercises in drawing, writing,
adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, and reading
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