Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) was born in Zurich and influenced by Rousseau's ideas and explored how they might be implemented in the field of education. He felt that children should engage in activity which then created learning. He felt that children should follow their interests and should have freedom in their own study. He valued spontaneity and self-activity. His goal was the development of the whole child into a well balanced individual. He wanted children to develop personal dignity, a natural development of interests, a loving and caring educational environment, a direct approach with less verbosity, to increase perceptiveness, and a demand for action.

His philosophy leads us toward social justice, commitment, the concerns of society, balance (head, hands and heart), reflective, and sensitive. His philosophy strove toward a freeness in the process of education. He wanted to free the educational process from strict methods. Although his demand for action had a tendency toward repetition, this was repetition with purpose.

In our schools today his philosophy is in part put into action as community education and in the concept of the whole individual and even more in the trend toward the integration of the curriculum. The goal of the integrated curriculum now being aimed at the development of concepts that bridge one subject content area to another subject content area.

He was very concerned with the social implications of education. He wanted education to produce good citizens and productive citizens that would have dignity. He wanted to develop children into adults that would aid the entire society. Because kindness was a fundamental principle in his philosophy he had no corporal punishment. This alone was unique for the time.

Dewey, was certainly influenced by such philosophical approaches to education and had the idea that if allowed to follow their own interests students would eventually go full circle and not simply be forced to learn subject matter that they originally did not want to learn, but would then want to learn those subject matter areas they had once not wanted to learn. As an example if a student only wanted to repair engines, but hated math, eventually in the study of engines, they would return to need and want to learn mathematics.

Many pre-teachers are asked to write about their philosophy of education and they may want to review the educational philosophy of Pestalozzi and Dewy before writing their own. They may find that some of the great educators of the past have written educational concepts that are similar to their own and this will give them ideas about how to develop their own philosophy in a more appropriate way. Pre-teachers are also asked to write about their personal improvement plans and again the ideas of Pestalozzi may apply. Some of these great educators may also help us develop the "Mission Statements" for our school or organization.