Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi
( 1746 – 1827 )

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746 –1827) was a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer who exemplified Romanticism in his approach. He founded several educational institutions both in German and French speaking regions of Switzerland and wrote novels explaining his revolutionary modern principles of education. 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 was a Romantic who felt that education must be radically personal, appealing to each learner's intuition. He emphasized that every aspect of the child's life contributed to the formation of personality, character, and reason. He learned by operating schools at Neuhof and Yverdon. The success of the Yverdon school attracted the interest of European and American educators. Pestalozzi's educational methods were child-centered and based on individual differences, sense perception, and the student's self-activity. Pestalozzi worked in Yverdon to 'elementarize' the teaching of ancient languages, principally Latin, but also Hebrew and Greek. In 1819, Stephan Ludwig Roth came to study with Pestalozzi, and his new humanism contributed to the development of the method of language teaching, including considerations such as the function of the mother tongue in the teaching of ancient languages. Pestalozzi was an important influence on the theory of physical education; he developed a regimen of physical exercise and outdoor activity linked to general, moral, and intellectual education that reflected his ideal of harmony and human autonomy.
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.