EDUCATION. 



399 



claim as his own inventions. In the Elementar 

 Werk of Basedow, and the Orlis P ictus of 

 Comenius, he had at his hand systems of in- 

 struction which he did little more than to 

 adapt, and not always with success, to the cir- 

 cumstances of the children of his time. He 

 was possessed of a kindly and affectionate na- 

 ture, and in his intercourse with children came 

 down to their capacities with great readiness. 

 His principles of education were developed in 

 his " Leonard and Gertrude." " How Ger- 

 trude teaches her children," and his '' Book for 

 Mothers," though no man ever departed more 

 frequently from his own principles than he. 

 The following statement, prepared by the late 

 "William C. Woodbridge, who had made him- 

 self most^thoroughly master of Pestalozzi's sys- 

 tem, will show what were the characteristics 

 of that system : 



" He laid down these principles : that educa- 

 tion should proceed according to the laws of 

 nature ; that it was the duty of the teacher to 

 assist this by exciting the child to self-activity, 

 and rendering him only a limited degree of as- 

 sistance ; that progress should be slow and 

 gradual, but uninterrupted, never passing to a 

 second topic till the first is understood ; that 

 the memory and the understanding should not 

 be unduly cultivated, but all the faculties de- 

 veloped in harmony ; that the peculiarities of 

 every child and of each sex should be carefully 

 studied, in order to adapt instruction to them ; 

 that the elements of all knowledge were Form, 

 Number, and Language, and that these ele- 

 ments should be taught with simplicity and 

 thoroughness; that the art of observing should 

 be acquired, and the perceptive faculties well 

 developed ; that every topic of instruction 

 should become an exercise for the reflective 

 powers ; that mental arithmetic, geometry, and 

 the arts of drawing and modeling objects of 

 beauty, were all-important exercises for train- 

 ing, strengthening, and disciplining the mind ; 

 that the laws of language should be developed 

 from within, and the exercises in it made not 

 only to cultivate the intellect, but to improve 

 the affections; that vocal music should be 

 taught in schools, not by rote, but by a careful 

 study of the elementary principles of music ; 

 that the Socratic method, as used by Basedow 

 and others, is objectionable, and that in the 

 early stages of instruction, dictation by the 

 teacher and repetition by the scholar is pref- 

 erable, and at a more advanced stage, the giv- 

 ing out of problems by the teacher, to be solved 

 by the pupil without assistance ; that religious 

 instruction should begin with the mother, that 

 the filial feelings of the child should be first 

 cultivated, and directed toward God, and that 

 formal religious instruction should be reserved 

 to a later period, when the child can understand 

 it ; that despotic and cruel government in 

 schools was improper, but that mutual affection 

 between teacher and pupil was a better incite- 

 ment to intellectual activity than prizes or 

 other stimulants to emulation ; and, finally, 



that the exercise of the senses and the thorough 

 cultivation of the physical powers were of very 

 great importance to the complete development 

 of the child." 



Many of these principles were excellent, 

 though not more than two or three of them 

 (that in relation to despotic and cruel govern- 

 ment in school being one) were new. There 

 were, however, some practical defects in their 

 application. The intellect was quickened, but 

 very little positive knowledge was imparted, 

 while the child almost inevitably gained the 

 impression that he had made wonderful attain- 

 ments ; too high a place was given to language ; 

 mathematical and intuitive studies were given 

 more than their proper share of attention, while 

 other equally important studies were neglected ; 

 the process of simplification was carried too 

 far and continued too long ; repetitions were 

 continued till they became wearisome ; historic 

 truth, and testimony as a source of knowledge, 

 received but little attention, especially in re- 

 ligious matters, and religious knowledge was 

 regarded as innate, rather than revealed. 



Some of Pestalozzi's pupils and assistants, 

 especially Neiderer, Schmid, Kriisi, Zeller, and 

 Fellenberg, subsequently established schools in 

 which they improved upon his theories. The 

 Pestalozzian system, as it was called (though but 

 a small portion of it was truly Pestalozzi's), was 

 adopted extensively in the early part of this 

 century in Prussia and the smaller German 

 states, and in a modified form was introduced 

 into France, Great Britain, and the United 

 States. The improved Pestalozzianism intro- 

 duced into this country mainly by the efforts of 

 William C. "Woodbridge, Thomas H. Gallaudet, 

 "William Russell, James G. Carter, Lowell 

 Mason, and others, nearly thirty-five years ago, 

 was divested of some of the absurdities of Pes- 

 talozzi's own theories, and was in many respects 

 superior to any system of education previously 

 attempted. The experience of Messrs. Gallaudet 

 and Woodbridge in the instruction of deaf 

 mutes had led them to see and avoid the falla- 

 cies of Pestalozzi's theory in regard to language, 

 which he had formulated thus : " Observation 

 is the absolute basis of all knowledge ; the first 

 object then in education must be to lead a child 

 to observe with accuracy ; the second, to ex- 

 press with correctness the result of his obser- 

 vations." This second conclusion, every logi- 

 cian must see, does not follow from the prem- 

 ises. Pestalozzi subsequently says, that "out 

 of the observation of an object the first thing 

 that arises is the necessity of naming it." This 

 necessity, a closer observation shows does not 

 exist at all. A correct idea of an object can be, 

 and is acquired, daily, where the object has no 

 name, or its name is unknown to the observer ; 

 we might instance the position and relations of 

 an unnamed planet, or the habits, locality, &c., 

 of an undescribed plant or animal. The con- 

 ception of an object by a deaf mute is none the 

 less clear and perfect from the fact that he 

 may not know the name by which it is called. 



