'Father+of+Parent+Education'



Johann Heinrick Pestalozzi 1747-1827   "Father of Parent Education"

Reasons as to why Pestalozzi became the "Father of Parent Education:

Pestalozzi is much remembered for his influence on the development of thinkng ith a book he published "How Gertrude Teaches Her Children."He carried these facts that he wrote into pactice with him. He wanted to establish a "psychological method instruction." He believed that children should not be given ready-made answers, but should arrive at their own conclusions. To do this their own powers of seeing, judging and reasoning should be cultivated and self-activity encouraged. (Silber 1965: 140). The aim was to educate the child as a whole.

William H. Kilpatrick summarization of the six principals that run through Petalozzi's efforts around schooling may give us a better picture of this brillant man and what he did for education. 1. Personality is sacred. This constitutes the 'inner dignity of each individual for the young as truly as for the adult. 2. As 'a little seed... contains the design of the tree', so in each child is the promise of his potentiality. 'The educator only takes care that no untoward influence shall disturb nature's march of developments'. 3. Love of those we would educate is 'the sole and everlasting foundation' in which to work. 'Without love, neither the physical not the intellectual powers will develop naturally'. So kindness ruled in Pestalozzi's schools: he abolished flogging - much to the amazement of outsiders. 4. To get rid of the 'verbosity' of meaningless words Pestalozzi developed his doctrine of Anschauung - direct concrete observation, often inadequately called 'sense perception' or 'object lessons'. No word was to be used for any purpose until adequate Anschauung had preceded. The thing or distinction must be felt or observed in the concrete. Pestalozzi's followers developed various sayings from this: from the known to the unknown, from the simple to the complex, from the concrete to the abstract. 5. To perfect the perception got by the Anschauung the thing that must be named, an appropriate action must follow. 'A man learns by action... have done with [mere] words!' 'Life shapes us and the life that shapes us is not a matter of words but action'. 6. Out of this demand for action came an emphasis on repetition - not blind repetition, but repetition of action following the //Anschauung//. William H. Kilpatrick in his introduction to Heinrich Pestalozzi (1951) //The Education of Man - Aphorisms//, New York: Philosophical Library.

Pestalozzi believed in the natrural goodness of children, struggling for many years to teach and care for poor children in his home in Switzerland. Petalozzi used a lot of manipulatives in his teachings. To teach mathematics he used beans and pebbles as counters and divided cakes and apples to demonstrated fractions. The child's day also included recreation, games and nutritious snacks and meals. Parents still used many manipulatives today when teaching their children. (Berger,Riojas-Cortez: 57) His motto "Learning by head, hand and heart" is still a key principle in successful 21st century schools. Thanks to Pestalozzi, illiteracy still prevailing in 18th century Switzerland was overcome almost completely by 1830.

Pestalozzi's philosophy of education was based on a four-sphere concept of life and the premise that human nature was essentially good. The first three 'exterior' spheres - home and family, vocational and individual self-determination, and state and nation - recognized the family, the utility of individuality, and the applicability of the parent-child relationship to society as a whole in the development of a child's character, attitude toward learning, and sense of duty. The last 'exterior' sphere - inner sense - posited that education, having provided a means of satisfying one's basic needs, results in inner peace and a keen belief in God.

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